Machine Quilting: Feathered Star

Darlene made this awesome Feathered Star:

 This is a pattern by Quiltworx (Judy Niemeyer) and I just love the colors Darlene picked out. I helped her with choosing some of the fabrics and it was exciting to see it come together.

With this particular pattern you have several "chapters" that you work on. You start in the center with the feather wedges and then work your way out to the edges. Each new chapter made it interesting to see what she had done so far and which fabrics to choose for the next pieces. Darlene had a general color scheme in mind, but I think the end result is outstanding. This picture really does not do the quilt justice - in person it looks like it glows. It is truly breathtaking.

 I was brainstorming on how to quilt this and I had a few ideas in mind that ended up being perfect when Darlene told me she was naming this the "Peacock Feathered Star". So I started marking the purple areas in the border and background. I saw this design Miss Angela Walters did and altered it to radiate out from the center of this quilt. It just screamed peacock feathers when done in this manner.

 And this is how it turned out! Don't you just love it?!

 With the different shades of purple batiks Darlene used I chose a thread called Crushed Grapes that has a very subtle variation to it from almost a magenta to dark purple.

 Then Darlene and I talked about ramping up the peacock influence even more by quilting these plumes in the outer feathers. It was the perfect opportunity since they had a bit more background fabric.

 Here's a shot of when I was about half done with the quilting.

 The center turned out really cool. Also here you can see some of the other details I quilted.

 And then it was finished! All in it's peacock glory!

 If you have the chance, this is Darlene's Lake Farmpark 2013 Entry and will be available for viewing this February through March at the show in Kirtland, OH. I'll keep you posted if (when) it wins awards in the show. I'm sure she's going to win something with this stunner!

Darlene did a great job with her piecing (as she always does), especially with these non-traditional shaped pieces. Here in this shot you can see the details as it will look hanging in the show. I cannot wait for this year's show! It promises to be incredible!

For more about Darlene and her amazing quilts, head on over to her blog I Quilt Scarlet and Gray. Did I mention she's also probably the biggest Ohio State Fan I know? Hence the title of her blog.

Thanks Darlene! You did an amazing job and I can't wait to see what inspires you next!

New Camera Test: Squirrels!!!

I love my squirrels, I love my new camera. It only seemed appropriate that I test out my new camera and the zoom lens on my squirrels...

We have had all sorts of squirrels living in our back yard. They are the best entertainment! So here's some more pictures of the Godzilla Squirrels in our back yard this year:

 We feed them with compressed corn and regular corn. I found if we feed them with these all year long, they hardly touch my garden on the other side of the yard.

 They're so fluffy and chubby! As I mentioned before, in the three years we've lived here the squirrels have never been this big. Last year they had access to the same foods and they were super skinny. And we didn't get hardly any snow. If they are any indication of what this winter has in store, it's gonna be a doosy!

I took these pictures about a month ago and they're waist lines have grown considerably since. But aren't they the cutest things ever! Gotta love them!

I'll switch up the gears again for the blog and post some quilting pictures again soon! Toodles!

Christmas Pickle

Does anyone else have a pickle ornament? We do at my Mother-In-Law's house:

Here's the story to the Christmas pickle if you haven't heard of it before - the pickle ornament is hidden on the Christmas tree somewhere. There's a special prize stashed away just for the person who is the first to find the pickle. We do this every year just for my nephew since he's the only kid. Even at age nine he still enjoys it.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, we're off to celebrate one last Christmas with relatives that just came in from out of town. It should be a fun night!

I finally downloaded all of the pictures off of my new camera and I'll be sharing more of those with you starting tomorrow. There's a whole mix of things I'm sure you'll enjoy. Back tomorrow!

Machine Quilting: Chevrons!!!

When Chris brought me this quilt I totally fell head over heels in love with the fabrics. Red is my favorite color! To be completely honest I didn't quite remember the design of the quilt until I started to load it on the quilting machine and I fell in love with this quilt all over again!

 See what I mean?! I really am thinking about making myself a quilt like this! I LOVE the fabrics. Chris used Mama Said Sew by Moda for this quilt. The pattern she used is a free pattern on the Moda Bake Shop called Patchwork Chevrons. You can go straight to the instructions by clicking here.

Chris is giving this quilt to her 13 year old son as a present. When I found out who it was going to, these pointy swirls seemed like the perfect fit. They're juvenile enough for his age now, but will grow with him through the years.

I had an absolute blast quilting this and I can't thank Chris enough for not only letting me quilt it for her, but giving me yet another quilt on my ever growing to-make list! Thanks a bunch!

Don't forget my book is available for preorder, click here to head over to my shop to reserve your copy!

Back to Basics: Batting

This topic unfortunately is very vague due to the fact that batting is more of a personal preference than anything else. It's kinda like the whole Ford vs. Chevy thing. They're both cars, they both get you from Point 'A' to Point 'B', but people tend to like one more than another without explanation.

I'm going to first list the different types of battings available and what I know and like from personal experience. I then will give you some checkpoints to keep in mind when selecting your next batting and give you links to some major manufacturers of batting and their information about each product they provide.

Cotton - I personally like this batting for quilts that are going to be well used. I keep this in mind with anything that is potentially going to be washed often. Cotton fibers are meant to stay together and wear well over time. However, this batting typically is not good for hand quilting, it's very dense and hard on hands and needles.

Poly - This is my go-to batting at the moment. It's relatively cheaper than cotton but with new style poly battings, it's similar in feel and wear ability. Poly battings now-a-days are much smoother and softer than they used to be. There are still some "brillo pad" poly battings available - my tip with these is to avoid them at all costs. If the batting doesn't feel nice to the touch, why put it in a quilt?

Blends - These tend to combine usually cotton and poly, but other blends are available. The benefit with using a blend is usually getting the best of both worlds, being whatever they used to make the blend. For instance in a cotton/poly blend, you can get the wear ability of cotton with a price closer to that of poly. More blends are available, research the two (or more) products that were blended to see what benefits may be in store for the type of project you are working on.

Exotics - Anymore they are making batting out of just about anything. With exotic battings you will find bamboo, silk, fire resistant materials, recycled pop bottles, and many more types made out of various materials. Some of the benefits with these battings include lighter weight, better "hang" or just greener materials. I'm sure if you haven't already you'll see more and more of these styles on the market.

Wool - The grand-daddy of them all! Wool is a great batting. It's virtually resistant to wrinkling which makes it great for show quilts that may go from being folded for a long time to hanging beautifully in a short amount of time. This benefit also comes with a hefty price. Wool is typically much more costly than other battings.

Specialty - This really isn't a category, but it is... In this section I've included fusible and heat-purposed battings. Many manufacturers now have some type of fusible batting on the market. There are staples like Pellon that have been available for years, but companies like the Warm Company are making your favorite battings into fusible styles now too. The heat-purposed battings include Insulbrite, Warm Tater (Warm Company) and others that are made to be used in either high heat situations or food preparation. These are great for hot pads, iron covers, potato sacks and many other things.

Checklist - What really determines for me what type of batting I need is what do I plan on for the future of my quilt. Is it going to be chewed on, dragged around and washed often? Is it going to hang there and look pretty and that's it? And a few other things like:

Shrinkage - How much will this shrink once washed? Some styles are more prone to shrinking than others. It should say on the manufacturer's website or package label as to the specifics.

Loft - how thick is the batting? Just because a batting is thicker may not mean it's warmer. If possible, try to feel a piece of the batting first. The more air and "squish", the cooler it will be. This also could mean it's not a good quality though too. Denser battings are best (personally)

What Type of Quilting - as I mentioned before, poly is great for hand quilting but cotton isn't so great. Determine what style of quilting you're going to do or have done and choose from there. On the manufacturers websites, some of them give detailed information about what style of quilting works best with certain products.

Density of Quilting - this is very important with T-Shirt quilts or other designs that can't be quilted in certain areas. Some battings need quilting as close as 4" and other may not require batting for 12" or more. If you choose a batting that requires quilting every 6" and only quilt every 10" or so, expect your quilt to act like a comforter over time - all that batting will fall apart and end up in one corner or another.

Color - This is one of those small details people overlook. It's easy to think color doesn't matter, but it does! When your fabrics include anything considered "white" DO NOT use a "natural" color batting. The natural color of the batting is typically tan or creamy and can make your white fabrics look dingy or dirty even when they're not. A white batting is best with any white or near white fabrics. Also on the flip side, for quilt tops that use primarily dark colored fabrics, black colored battings are available. I personally have never had the opportunity to use a dark batting as my projects include many fabrics from light to dark.

That about covers the wide spectrum of topics associated with choosing battings. Just remember that whatever you choose, if it comes out of a package where it's been rolled or folded for long periods of time, it needs to air out for a short period of time. It's usually best to air it out overnight prior to working with it. It'll help get rid of the wrinkles that may have set in. Below you'll find the websites for manufacturers that I've found. If you have time be sure to check into the details they list and see what batting would work best for you and your projects. Either that or bookmark this page and revisit it when you do have time. Thanks for listening and let me know what batting you like and don't like. There's so much more information that couldn't be crammed in here, remember to share any helpful hints you may have in the comments below!

Manufacturer's Websites:

Quilter's Dream Batting

The Warm Company

Pellon

Mountain Mist

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

And in true spirit of how my family gatherings have been going, I have to ask you a question:

"Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"

We love goofy movies and this one surely fits the bill for this season. Now I have my own rendition for how my day today has gone so far:

"It's Christmas and I'm sewing!"

Reading back, I think that super large tray of Christmas cookies is starting to get to my mental state, oh well!

Have a wonderful and safe holiday! Toodles!

Holy Christmas Cookies, Batman!

My mother-in-law was bored this week and made all of these cookies for Ben and I. I think it's a LARGE task at hand, but Ben is more than willing to attempt the challenge.

Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful and safe holiday!

Anniversary & a Confession

First off, Happy Anniversary to my wonderful Husband!

(this is one of my favorite pictures of the two of us...)

Nine years ago today we said "I do" and I can't believe how quickly the time has passed.

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret - Ben and I had our rehearsal dinner at this local winery. Between the horrible weather and relatives with the flu and trying to figure out how to walk on ice in heels when I can't see my own feet because of my huge poofy dress, the only thing the two of us both were complete in awe of and still talk about to this day was the seafood pizza at the rehearsal dinner.

Honestly the rest of the time was a blur. It was setting up, nails, hair, tuxes, a blizzard and ice storm thrown in the mix. It was a wedding which equals controlled chaos, I'll admit that. I know it may seem weird that we are both drawn to this life changing pizza, but IT'S THAT GOOD, trust me.

The winery features a Holiday Blush wine that only comes out this time of year. The wine served at the rehearsal dinner was the Holiday Blush. I don't know what made us do it, but we saved one bottle from the dinner (unopened), wrote the date on it and saved it. Every year since as soon as the Holiday Blush wine is available we get three bottles - one to drink, one for Christmas, and one to save. We have a bottle from every year with the year written on it lined up in our kitchen.

So onto the secret part. Ben started this new job, it's not great and the hours really suck. We were going to go out and celebrate our Anniversary tonight but he's stuck working until 9 or 10 tonight. So I called up to the winery and ordered THE life changing seafood pizza and another really yummy one with prosciutto and some tiramisu to top off the evening. He thinks we're having turkey and mashed potatoes. Little does he know we're having the same food from the same place where we started so many years ago. I hope he'll enjoy the surprise.

And now onto the confession... I have been quilting soooooo much. I have done some amazing work on amazing quilts lately getting ready for Christmas and the Farmpark 2013 Quilt Show. I cannot wait to show you what I've been working on but I bought myself a new camera. It came with a DVD on how to use it... I haven't had time yet to see if I can "learn" how to hook it up to the computer, but as soon as I do, I'll be sharing a ton of quilting pictures, I promise. Technology...

Well, I'm off to finish the last of the Christmas presents and get ready for more quilting. Toodles!

Machine Quilting: Rustic Quilts

Betsi is a brand new quilter and she has taken to it like a fish to water (pun slightly intended, keep reading). Betsi signed up for the beginning quilting classes at Cottonpickers and she immediately had the confidence to create quilts for both of her boys for Christmas within the last month or so... Overachiever, just saying.

 Both quilts were made using the Tile Tango pattern by Atkinson Designs. Betsi tweaked the size of both to fit her boys needs and used panels she found instead of the Nine Patches in the squares like the pattern shows.

 The first quilt featured panels with bears so Betsi asked me to quilt alternating pine trees and pine cones in the tan squares.

 The next quilt had more camping themed fabrics so Betsi asked to have canoes and fish quilted in the tan squares of this one.

On both quilts I filled in the rest of the areas with my All Over Leaves pattern which works well in masculine quilts like these.

So I think Betsi is hooked onto quilting and for some of her first quilts she did a great job, what do you think?

Machine Quilting: Christmas Cardinals

Nancy is a part of the Marti & Me Club at Cottonpicker's Quilt Shop. One of the more recent projects her group was introduced to were the Interlocking Hexagons and she chose these fabrics to make it with:

 The colors and textures she chose work so well with the cardinal fabric within the blocks.

I tried a new design on this quilt and it's becoming one of my new favorites (disclaimer: every week it seems I have a "new favorite"). This design is simple yet elegant which I foresee working well in the future for "non-gender specific" quilts. You know, the one for a couple or maybe even for a guy that you don't exactly want paisleys and flowers quilting...

Nancy did a great job on this quilt and I believe she's going to get the binding done just in time for the Holidays. Thanks, Nancy!

Machine Quilting: Mixture of Quilts

My friend, Nancy, gave me a bunch of little odds and ends to finish up for her. My favorite part about quilting her things is she gives me free reign over the designs and threads. It's small opportunities like this where I can try out new designs and enhance my skills. It also challenges me in a way that my own quilts do not sometimes.

I do not have time or the resources to make every quilt I would like. Therefore I do not always have the right quilt to try out new quilting designs that work well together. When I get to "play" and use "Quilter's Choice", more times than not, the end result is so much more captivating than I could have imagined. It's a win win situation.

 When I first saw this applique table runner, I really wanted to try echo quilting. It took me awhile to figure out what design to do in the sashing, but I love how this one turned out.

 Here's a better view of the applique and quilting.

 She had many projects, one of which was this Christmas table runner...

 This was one of the projects from the Marti & Me Group. Both of the last two quilts just got an overall design quilted into them, nothing too fancy.

 But this last one... As soon as I saw this, I felt it needed a custom treatment. I asked Nancy if it was okay to go crazy on this one and she agreed.

 There's only three designs in the quilt. I did line dancing in the Carpenter's Wheel and the corner squares. Inside the wheel are really small dense swirls while outside the wheel got large less dense swirls. And finally I quilted double feathers in the border.

 You can see a bit more of each design here.

I had a feeling that the quilting would show up well on the back of the quilt, but it's better than I could have imagined! This light cream backing shows all of the designs and I couldn't be happier with the quilting. I hope Nancy is! I'm working on another one for her later this week and I'll be showing that one as soon as I get it done. Thanks Nancy!

Machine Quilting: Vroom Vroom

That's the sound of Pure American Muscle Cars, like the Ford Mustang my Hubbin wants.

Now to set the stage before I continue, Ben had a mustang when we first started dating. It was black and awesome. I loved that car. Then one day he showed up to pick me up in a Chevy Tracker. (Rear wheel drive cars aren't known for moving anywhere you want them to go during the winter which can be most of the year here).

Ever since he traded in his Mustang, I've been hearing about how much he wants another one, but not just any one - it has to be atleast a GT model but a Shelby or Boss Edition would be fine if it had the right color and extras. Not that he's picky or anything...

So everyonce in awhile he'll talk about how he wants one, like for Christmas... Well, that's not going to happen any time soon so one year someone got him a die-cast model. Guess where it sits???

 Okay, first off, don't pay attention to the mess. Yes this is how my sewing room looks right at this very moment and yes I will admit it's a complete mess. Don't judge! But this is the view from my sewing machine. See the shelf directly in my line of sight?

 Yes that would be the Mustang die-cast. It was put there so while I'm sewing I'm reminded of "our dreams" (AKA Ben's dream) of owning a Mustang once again and to quilt my little heart out to get there... He's such a dork when it comes to cars, I swear he can spot one a mile away. This is just proof of one of those jokes gone wild.

But Darlene knew about Ben's love for Mustangs and that's why I was given strict instructions he was not able to see these quilts while they were in my possession:

 Darlene found two of these panels and had me quilt them up for her, one for her Husband and one for a friend.

 I used a fine black thread and outlined certain areas like the signs and cars and filled in the landscape areas.

In this shot you can see a better view of the quilting and how it blended with the textures in the panels. These were a ton of fun, and I'm happy to report that they are now safely back with Darlene. No Hubbin of mine got his grubby paws on them! Boys and their toys, what can I say?

Seamingly Scrappy is Ready for Preorders!!!

So hop on over to my shop to reserve your own AUTOGRAPHED COPY of my book, Seamingly Scrappy, today!

For more views of projects in the book, head on over to ShopMartingale.com to see all of the quilts.

The book is due out in mid February, it's getting closer and closer everyday. I just can't stand it! Atleast I have an excuse for a happy dance every day.

As we get closer I'll discuss the book a bit further and feature some of the quilts, but for now just remember that if you want to reserve a signed copy of the book, the only place you can get them is in my shop.

Have a great weekend and I'm going to try to ditch this cold, again. Toodles!

Machine Quilting: Custom Quilting

So as one of the many quilts I have been doing for this holiday season, this is one that is going to be used as decor for the holidays rather than a gift. Bobette wanted something custom and I had quite a few ideas when I saw it for the first time.

 With a design like this you could do just about anything. With the colors she chose I was thinking primitive, country, girly. When I asked her what she was going for she said vintage... It threw me for a loop for a bit trying to rethink how to make it look vintage, but we came up with a good plan.

 In the areas created between the black chains I quilted this design that's not to different than a traditional oak leaf and reel.

 It worked so well in the space. So much better than I could have hoped for. It was perfect. I didn't get pictures of the quilt completely finished, but in the black chain I quilted melons in each of the squares.

Bobette was planning on using this quilt as the centerpiece to her large dining room table during the holidays. I think it will work out nicely. I know this might be weird to hear, but I'm still amazed from day to day what my hands and this machine have been able to do. It just gets me more excited for the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and you get the point.

I'll be back with more quilts and another custom quilt later on. Until then, have a great day!