Embroidered Hearts

I had fun playing with the embroidery on this one. There is a color-coordinated embroidered heart in the center of each block. Then, FMQ around the embroidery. Such a fun crib-sized quilt!

Another UFO completed...

My poor father had to wait until after Father's Day to receive this as the blind stitching along the border took longer than anticipated.
Along the bottom row you will see a pic of his beloved 60-something 'vette that he never fails to remind us he had to get rid of because it did not have the ability to carry the requisite car seats once we were born. I remind my brother that since he was born first it's more his fault than mine. He loves us, but boy he misses that convertible...




This is my brother way back when and below that is him and my grandfather shortly before our grandfather passed.



My dad's fisherman at heart so I had to go with blues and fish prints along with a big, soft, denim-y border. I used verigated thread that ranged from dark navy to light sky blue.

I kind of posted out of order, but this is the 2nd FMQ I've done and I think I'm getting the hang of it. Not perfect, but I quilt by the Amish philospohy that only God is perfect and you will make at least one, even if intentional, mistake on anything you create.

My next planned quicky project is a pillow sham from some of Cheryl's butterflies. I've got it planned out and am using a Donna Dewberry rustic bark background and it should look like the butterflies are just "fluttering around the woods"...we'll see how that works out for me. I'll try to get some progress pics up later.

Hope everyone's having a great week!

Trina

Surfboard Quilt - Completed

One down and many UFO's to go...

Ok, I threatened to do this one next and against the advise of others (you know who you are!) I decided to go with the flannel back even though I was warned that it was more difficult to FMQ. Turns out that I didn't have that much trouble with it.


For some reason I still much prefer the wide, swoopy meanderings to the tight, perfect, tiny stippling. The ones that have the tiny stippling feel so much stiffer and smooshed than the wider, fluffier alternative. But that's just me...

I had to go with the red thread, which was certainly taking a chance...every little stitch shows, but I do kind of like the below block if for no other reason than it started to look like a dog outline as I stared at it...you know, like when you stare at the clouds and shapes appear?

The red thread did also help fill in the many blanks areas, too.

The seams really aren't as noticable as it looks in the pics, but between the new "true daylight" halogen bulbs I just replaced and the camera flash it picked up EVERYTHING in detail. It's a little wild, a little off-kilter, and of course not traditional fabric choices, but it was fun!

Surfboard Quilt

Here is the next one to go under the FMQ needle...

I saved that pic kinda small, so here's closeups of the fabric:

I was thinking of going with a matching red flannel backing, but now I'm not so sure...I'll have to think on that for a bit...

Shipshewana Quilt Pics

I took these pics throughout Shipshewana area buildings. I took several, but will just show some of my favorites here. The work is nearly impeccable and certainly something to aspire to. The pics do not do the hand stitching justice, but the colors and blocks are really nice.






And a closeup...



They kind of hid this one behind the stair railing, but since I like blues and browns, it still jumped out at me...





This one I thought they did a really good job in color selection as it is so 3D...



Given the angle that they hung this one it was more difficult to crop, but it is still nice!



Beautiful quilts all around - ENJOY! Trina

Celtic Series

I've been working on a series of 3 Celtic inspired faux chenille quilts since the summer and am almost finished with the final one. They are all lap sized at 36x48.

This one I call Celtic Ocean and it has a coordinating blue eyelet fabric backing.

This one I call Celtic Walnut and it has a tan microsuede back (super soft and snuggly!).

The one I'm almost finished with is green, so I'm thinking of keeping with the earthy-type names and going Celtic Moss or something similar. They all have the same Celtic design in the center, so I figured I'd capitalize on that aspect for the naming. I started off thinking it would be Celtic (color) Cross, but then when I realized my most obvious choice for the green one would be Moss, I didn't want the Celtic Moss Cross. So, I just dropped the Cross.

I love doing these faux chenille quilts, but if I spend too much time doing them it makes me miss hand stitching. And if I wait too long in between, the callouses on my fingertips begin to go away and then I have to start all over poking myself and building up the callouses again. But there's truth behind the old "blood, sweat, and tears" saying when it comes to quilting! They've each only been washed once so far just to get the fraying and bunching started, but I'll wash them at least twice more before selling them.

Happy quilting! Trina

Shipshewana, here I come...

Finally! I haven’t been home since Thanksgiving and the ‘powers that be’ have finally approved that darn vacation request. I’ve already started my list of Shipshewana and Nappanee stores I’ll be hitting. DH will either have to come grumbling along or it’ll just be my mom and me in search of fabrics and goodies galore. If you’ve never been or never heard of the Shipshewana Flea Market , all I can say is oh my goodness. Busloads of folks from all over the country trek to Shipshewana for their Flea Market, Auction house, antique stores, Amish Acres and their Round Barn Theater (where I saw their version of It's a Wonderful Life when I was there last!), etc. Their season starts around Memorial Day (if I remember correctly…it’s been an awful long time since I worked at the Flea Market during summers home from college). Just thinking about sitting in the auction barn watching folks bid on horses and such brings such fond memories. And don’t get me started on Yoder’s Department Store…that’s where I hit my last goldmine of Moda and Thimbleberries fabrics {sigh}. I know most every community in northern Indiana can use my retail therapy money since the RV industry isn’t doing so well up there and I’ll be more than happy to oblige. Working in the RV industry myself, I've got to help where I can! Well, time to get back to my list of items to search for...quilt stuff...purse stuff...bag stuff...table runner stuff...redwork embroidery stuff...forget the sugar plums, I'll have visions of quilting notions dancing in my head! Every trip to back home is for me like remodeling...plan on twice as much time and 3 times the money in the budget.

Quilts and purses and notions, oh my! Follow the Yellow Brick Road pattern, Dorothy!

Fall Leaves Quilt

Finally finished a 12-month project!


I was looking for something in my studio and came across a quilt that I had started too-near a year ago. I finally put the final stitch in the binding tonight. Whew! I loved this quilt from the moment I started it, but lost my way along the path to completion. I frequently struggle with looking at the same project for days on end so always have several things going. I was thrilled when I came back across this quilt and fell in love with it all over again. I wanted to do something special with the stitching in this project. I didn't want to do a meandering stitch. I didn't want to do a continuous repeating pattern.

So instead, I went against my norm and stitched leaves all over the lighter blocks. Had I realized how many leaves that was going to be, I might have taken the easy road and made a template. But, nooooo, I had to make it more difficult by freehanding every leaf. What was I thinking? It turned out great, having variances in each leaf, but, boy, it was time consuming!

I'm going to miss it when it finds a new home, but it was certainly fun in the meantime!

And here's our newest addition helping me out as much as she can from the other room as she's not allowed in my studio, but she'll wait for me in the chair right outside my door so I have to take frequent breaks to appreciate her...