Machine Quilting: Nautical Quilt

Living so close to the lake there are a bunch of people with nautical themes in and around their homes. Karen is one of those with a whole room dedicated to the lake with this wonderful lighthouse quilt to add into the mix:

 She's going to hang this on the wall in her nautical room and when we were discussing which design to do I knew which one immediately.

 I may have gone a bit overboard with the quilting, her stuff is not usually this dense, but it worked so well with this quilt.

I love how it really showed up on the back. This is one of my new favorite designs to quilt. Granted, the "favorite list" changes often, but this day it was this design.

I've got many more quilts that I've been working on. I think between Christmas and New Years I'm taking the week off. I think I've done more quilting this month than ever before. It's been great, but that's the reason I haven't been on here much.

Speaking of which, gotta go quilt some more! Later!

Family Time!

I took off the last few days and spent it with family and I have to say that was one of the best decisions I have made in a LONG time! The first day was Thanksgiving, so that was a given day off but I fretted all day whether to work or not on Friday. Then each day I got more relaxed and finally realized that Monday will be here soon enough.

After a couple family Thanksgiving dinners that were excellent, we spent Saturday with my Grandparents to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary!

We had a great time with the whole family in town and we did some family photos prior to the dinner so as soon as I can I will share some of those when I get a chance.

Hope you all had a nice weekend and holiday. Sorry for the slight delay, having some issues with the blog here (it's not letting me post pictures right now for some reason) and I've been quilting up a storm. I'll post pictures as soon as it starts working again.

The prep begins

So far this morning I have made some brown sugar herb butter for roasted root veggies later this week and a cranberry salad with jello that I'm hoping is setting up as we speak. Jello and I don't exactly have the best track record...

Aside from that I have been quilting up a storm for many Christmas decorations or gifts for others but I do have some other projects I will be able to show you later this week.

On a small side note, my awesome publisher, Martingale, sent me a message and said I could share the good news with you. They're having a sale, 50% off everything!

I know the picture says Friday through Monday, but here's the big secret - it really starts on Thursday! So if you need a little 'me' time and need a break from the kitchen or whatever, hop online and shop.

Other good news is that Seamingly Scrappy is now available to view on ShopMartingale.com too! To see the page with views of all 10 projects of the book, click here! It's not ready for PreOrder yet, but I will be posting it in my shop very soon to PreOrder your own signed copy! Yahoo! Well, I'm really excited...

Alright, gotta run and finish more quilts to stay on track. Back with more soon! Have a great holiday! Stay safe and try not to eat too much! I'm going to try... We'll see how it goes!

Machine Quilting: Christmas Runner

So I have this awesome Nana that loves to quilt just as much as Mom and I do. We got her hooked on the Rapid Fire Hunter Star and she's made a bunch of them (like this one or this one) and now it continues.

She made this adorable version of the Hunter Star tablerunner. With that pop of red in the stars and the inner border all I could see were poinsettias, so I quilted them as such.

 I quilted half poinsettias in the cream areas, full poinsettias in the dark green areas (which are really hard to see) and made petals out of each star point. I also quilted small circles in the small border and double circles in the large border, almost like ornaments or holly berries.

You can see a bit more of the quilting on the back of the tablerunner here. Sorry for the bad lighting, with many gloomy dark days here in Ohio, it's hard to get good pictures most days now.

I'm working on more quilts, many of which I can't show since they're Christmas presents, but I will show more as I can. Are you getting into the holiday spirit yet? I know someone out there probably already has their tree up, right? Not me, I'm waiting until next week, or later, we'll see.

Godzilla Squirrels

I know it sounds weird, but just look for yourself:

 Judging by the size and girth of my squirrels, this winter is going to be a humdinger. Lordy! The saddest part is I took these last week, like the beginning of November...

 I'm in awe, and a little afraid. Well, kinda. I am banking on a few good blizzards to keep me home with no excuses for a few days so I can finally attempt to organize the mess that is my sewing room.

This was a squirrel from teh same time last yeat. I know he doesn't look too much different than the pictures above, but I can assure you he's only about half the size of the squirrels running around outside right now.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure we might be planning for squirrel babies again this year because they're building up their nest in the knot in my tree quite heavily. I'll keep you posted!

New Pattern: Sonesta

So there are designs I have stashed away from my first days of designing quilts that just wait for the perfect opportunity or fabric to showcase them. This is kinda one of those...

 I say kinda because these weren't the fabrics I had in mind when I designed this quilt. I really didn't have any fabrics in mind specifically, but I can tell you these were nowhere in my mind at the time. I'm actually heading to Cottonpickers, my LQS, later today and I'll get a picture of the batik wall that seems to grow every time you look at it. You'll see why I gravitated towards these fabrics, maybe...

When I look at this quilt I see all of the colors from our trip to the Caribbean. I'm hoping that when we have a blizzard this winter I can wrap up in it and feel almost as warm as I did on the beaches we visited... A girl can dream, right?!

 This quilt is so much brighter than most that I've made. It almost scares me a little because of how bright it is. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but this is one of those situations where you didn't know yourself.

The above picture I took at the park by Lake Erie down the street from my house. The lake was the most beautiful color of blue that it is capable of achieving, but the fall leaves weren't having the same feel for me, so these pictures didn't make it on the cover.

 So, my next resort for photos was my backyard fence. Well, really my neighbor's fence, but alas, my fence. It's so hard to make the photos seem appropriate to the fabrics at times when Christmas fabrics come out in Summer and Spring/Summer fabrics come out in Fall/Winter.

This quilt is the medium size with the borders attached. There are three sizes in the pattern ranging from Small to Large. Basically they work from Lap to Full-ish sizes, but is easily made bigger or smaller. The blocks finish at 12" square so with simple piecing and large blocks, this quilt goes together quickly no matter which size you'll make.

I normally use a thread that blends with the quilt top for the quilting, and there really wasn't one color that would work with this blend of gorgeous. Soooo, I used a tie-dye thread that had every color in it. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you can probably see the quilting better.

I also made a flannel version. This is the small size without the borders. Same quilt - completely different feel. Don't ya love it?! If you chose fabrics like this one it'll be great for a guy!

I quilted this one the same way as the other, but the fabrics make it look completely different. These were samples of the Moda Flannel Basics from one of the Moda Salesmen I work with. This quilt will be traveling with him, Mr. Joseph Galza, to the Clare, MI MAAFRA show for quilt shops next week if you're there. The flannels in this quilt felt like butter. It's so soft and I actually curled up in it the one day of the Shipshewana Show I was just at because once the sun went down it got cold, fast! The second morning of the show when we woke up it was only about 22 degrees outside. It's days like that that I appreciate making quilts that much more. If you get cold you have samples to curl up in! It's a win win!

 

So Sonesta is now available to ship and is ready for purchase in my shop. What fabrics would you make this out of? Which version do you like the best? I'm curious to know! I'll be back with more updates later!



Just Popping In

Just dropping by to say hi and no I haven't forgotten you! We just finished up our traveling for the year with the busiest month yet and that paired with Daylight Savings Time ending has kicked my butt.

As I sit here I'm contemplating whether I should make a cup of tea or not because chances are I'll fall asleep before I get to drink it (like last night.) I'll have new patterns and new tutorials to post soon! Goodnight!