Wiggly Whimsy - Moda Bake Shop Day!

My latest recipe for the Moda Bake Shop just posted a little bit ago. To see the recipe, click here.

 This all started with my trip to Spring Market this past May. I met Barb & Mary from Me and My Sister Designs and it was a pleasure. I fell in love instantly with their newest line Good Morning and came up with an idea to use as a new recipe.

 This design is so simple, yet complex looking that it's one of my favorites (at least at this moment, it changes often).

 The fun colors really stand out against the white and pop. On the flip side, just imagine that if you used a nice dark solid like Teak or Chocolate Brown with "manly" prints for the squares what it might look like...

So, which fabrics would you make this out of? I have just a few stray Charm Packs that I'm thinking have wound themselves into projects on my "to do" list.

Machine Quilting: Batiks Galore!

My friend Darlene asked me to quilt some of her quilts for her.

 This first quilt she's giving as a wedding gift. It was all made out of batiks that had leaf designs on them. Love the colors. So I quilted this one with the Falling Leaves Pantograph which I also used on this quilt.

 Both of the above quilts are made out of the popular Day & Night pattern by Eleanor Burns. This one was Christmas themed so Darlene asked me to do something special in the stars and I suggested quilting loops and holly berries/leaves in the rest of the quilt.

 The colors of the fabrics make this quilt so beautiful.

 Here's how the stars looked from the front which is hard to see the quilting with the detail of the fabrics, so...

 This is how it looked from the back. You can really see the detail with the Fireside on the back. Love this stuff! All three quilts had Fireside on the back.

 Including this one! Darlene made Judy Niemeyer's Desert Sky quilt and I think it's magical! The colors look so good together.

 Darlene asked that she wanted something curly but wanted me to avoid the spikes of the New York Beauty sections if possible, which I was able to.

 I found inspiration to blend a few different designs into one. This used swirls, headbands and pebbles. I love how it turned out and I had so much fun quilting this one.

It's really neat on the back how you can see the spikes of the New York Beauty sections since I didn't quilt in them.

Thanks Darlene! I've got a couple more of her quilts to work on in the next couple weeks and I'm sure I'll be showing those on here too!

Checker's Open House

This past weekend Mom and I were able to head up to the Checker's Open House. It was a first for me, and boy, do they have tons of stuff in their warehouse! I've never seen so much fabric in one place at one time! Plus - now Checkers carries Ruby Blue patterns!!! Hooray!

Since Mom went up to Montana this past June to become a Certified Shop in Judy Niemeyer's patterns (Quiltworx), we went up to see Judy and Cindy and see what the latest and greatest items were.

I foresee that this year will continue to have many "firsts" for me. This was my first trip to Kansas City for Spring Market, my first time to the Checker's Open House, in a few weeks it will be my first time attending Mom's Quilting Retreat, and in October I will be going to Fall Market for the first time.

Going back to the Retreat with Mom and lots of our friends from the shop, it's Sunday afternoon to Wednesday morning with nothing but quilting. No classes, no schedule, sleep in, stay up late, whatever. I've never been able to go before, but this year I finally get to go. So, after our little trip to Checker and after meeting Judy... this happened to come home with me and I plan on choosing fabrics later today. I can't wait to get started!

 All I'm saying is they sucked me in and between Mom and I, I think we've picked out fabric for about 8 Quiltworx patterns in the last 2 days. They got me. Hook. Line. And Sinker. I'll keep you posted once I get the fabrics!

 So, hotels can be so boring, and uncomfortable, so we usually try to find Bed & Breakfasts while we're gone. Mom and I stayed at this cute little place just outside of Maumee.

 When you walked out of the room, this patio greeted you.

 She had such a lush little backyear with the coolest art and gadgets.

 There were little (and big) statues tucked in everywhere. Oh, and yes it's purple. Hence why it's called the Little Purple House.

 The thing that got my attention was her squirrel feeder that puts mine to shame. Look at that thing! I think I need to search for one of these too!

It was really relaxing... Until we tried to sleep that is. It's a really nice place, but the train tracks aren't that far away and every train that came through sounded like it was above your head it was so loud. All 7 of them... Other than that it was lovely, but the trains! Oh, the calamity!

So, Mom and I returned with some new goodies including new batiks for the Quiltworx patterns, the new Quiltworx patterns, and Judy's new Creative Grids Templates to use with her wedding ring patterns. It's pure genius and I plan to use one here very very soon! Back with more soon!

Machine Quilting: Snowflakes

Mom just got the shop Certified in Judy Niemeyer's patterns this past June. She is currently working on the new Technique of the Month from Judy and once she gets more done with it I will be sure to show you.

For now Mom made this version of the Winter Wonderland pattern by Judy.

 The picture above was before I quilted it. Below you can see some of the quilting.

 I used the same pattern that I used on this quilt, just smaller. It worked well to fill the small points around the snowflake.

I switched threads and tried a different design in the lighter parts of the snowflakes. I really like how it turned out. I was going for a starry nights inspiration. What do you think? I'll be back with more quilting pictures soon!

Challenge Quilts

So our guild does a Challenge project just about every year. This year is a new concept to me and maybe you all could help me out (or offer suggestions as I go along)

This year's challenge is "Not Playing With A Full Deck", we each chose from a deck of cards. Whatever card we chose, we need to make a quilt no larger than 12" x 14" that depicts the card.

We can use our imagination and do any embellishments, painting, whatever to create it so it has more of an art quilt feel to it.

So which card did I choose?

My gut keeps leading me back to an idea similar to a project I did in school while I was studying Typography. I'm playing with it thinking that I'm going to try some applique with the "new to me" method where you baste along the seam lines and then the basting perforations should make the applique easier... Atleast that's the hope.

So if you were given this challenge, what would you do? I'm going to play on the computer and see if I can come up with a design to replicate. I'll keep you posted!

Machine Quilting: Babies and Flowers

This wonderful lady I've met named Jill gave me these quilts to machine quilt for her. She gave me free reign over the designs and thread colors.

 The first of the baby quilts was so adorable, I knew immediately that it needed the swirl pattern on it.

 I love the way the design blends well with the blocks.

 The next baby quilt was a bit more challenging to come up with the right design to quilt in it, but almost every fabric has some sort of polka dot in it so I chose to quilt my bubble design.

 I think it worked well for this quilt.

 The last quilt was one for her guest bedroom. I love the colors and fabric, but I am such a sucker for Fig Tree fabric it's not funny.

 I've been playing with this design for a bit now, but didn't have any version of it I could share on here until now.

I blended the swirl pattern and my flowers & loops design to come up with this one. It's a bit more whimsical and I love how it softened the quilt even more.

I've been really busy quilting here lately and not so much to show on the new patterns, however I do have all the stitchery blocks done for two more designs. Now I just need to make the pieced blocks and finish the top. I'll show all that and much more here soon!

Non-chatty

Sorry it's been a bit quiet here. I was trying to hurry up and do all sorts of things in the time I had off before I went back to work to help out. I got a ton of stuff done in the meantime and had a nice trip down to Holmes County for a trade show, but it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be.

When I got done running around and made it back to work to help out until my position was filled (which I didn't have to do, but I agreed that I would) I returned to find all of my personal belongings shoved into a box sitting next to the garbage. And it just continued downhill from there.

If it had to end, I surely didn't think it would end that way, but I'm glad it's over and I can concentrate on new patterns and quilting and life in general.

For the first time in months I have been able to sit down and watch TV, clean my house as needed, cook dinners again, workout, read books, and just enjoy life. It's hard realizing that the most important thing I need to focus on is myself after my focus has been elsewhere for far too long, but I'm taking daily strides to make myself and my life better and that makes me happy.

Sorry again for being a bit quiet, but with all the crap this last week had involved in it, I wasn't exactly in a chatty kinda mood. This week seems very promising and I can feel the wind in my sails again. Thanks for understanding and I'll have much more wonderful things coming to the blog shortly, promise!