Thread Tales From A Scrappy Quilter

Personally,  I love red and green quilts.  One last little quilt for 2015.  This clients' quilt is for a fund raiser and she wanted something  simple.    Hand guided pantograph "Undulate" by Denise Shillinger.   I really like this quilt.   So many ways this could be quilted.   I'm always thinking... what if I did this or that!  I toyed with doing light custom and not billing as a contribution to her charity.  It's hard to leave some designs, but we can't support everyone's charity and it IS just a few days before Christmas.   I knew it would be pretty with an allover.  Often, for busy prints, I like to choose a tight, one motif type design.  This quilt with all the sashings, I felt like something flowing over the surface, feathery  would be better.  A one motif design might really stand out stronger against the blocks.  The client is not fond of feathers so I choose a curling, swirling design  and  used  Glide thread "Shell" whic

I love this quilt!   The brown is from an aged muslin line that I must check out for my projects. This could be a good stash busting project and looks complicated but is not.  It uses four square in a square type blocks in the X block and four 4 patches in the other block.   Pattern found  @ Fons and Porter .   Or a Missouri Star video tutorial called 4 patch + X's and O's  here .  Can you tell I hope to make one of my own in the future?!         I think her fabrics used really create a fresh look at the quilt, so many use white. That's nice too but this colorway speaks to me.   The brown doesn't show that clearly in the pictures but it had some slight variations in the color and almost looked like suede.   Its called Aged Muslin I believe.   All the focus fabrics are from one line and the backing fabric completes the look.  But if you want to clear out some of your fabrics, or create fast gifts or charity quilts,  this looks like a fun pattern to

I had a request to quilt this one just like the one I quilted a few years ago for Karen.  I liked that one  so much,  I had created it's own album on my business Facebook page Valerie's Thread Tales  so I had easy access to lots of pictures.   I looked up the prior invoice and had the exact threads used too.   Such a cute pattern, lots of photos:                       below is #1 quilt.  Notice difference in borders?      sorry, blurry but included for reference.   I had a long detailed post about this quilt.... but my phone was showing it as a draft...after I had published.   I hit the publish from my phone... and the original info with the just the pictures re-published.  Argh!   so... No time... this is it! 

My personal sewing time has been at the lowest point ever this past year due to guild and work commitments as well as Mick's wrestling and being an officer in that booster club.   Add in family activities and all the things that life throws into your plans that leaves me with no time or no energy!  Other than a 3 block table runner, I have not had a finish to a current pieced project since September 2014!   I have plans in place to remedy that,  even if it is away from home.   I've organized 2 "bee" (SEWcializers and WWIT) days plus I have 1 evening each month that a local quilt shop is hosting a Modern group sewing time.  It's not the same quality time of sewing at home but it fills 2 needs, a dedicated  time that I schedule off to sew and much needed social time.   Hubby and son had a fossiling adventure planned and would be gone all weekend before Thanksgiving.  I met my goals and finished the last quilt for November about 4pm on that Friday and switched g

I just love the fall colors in this quilt.   This is my 3rd to quilt and each has been so different.   Sandy  chose to break up her background area creating a petal effect.   I like it!  I should have taken the time to load on my hanging display stand, instead I tossed over the side of my loft wall to get a better view of how the top looks.   I fully intended to take a photo when Sandy picked it up but I forgot!                        

This fun tree skirt belongs to Carol.  It was foundation pieced.  I think this a fun, whimsical skirt so I tried to keep my quilting light and fanciful.   The pattern is available by Ranae Merrill,  "Swirling Branches". As I studied the skirt, I saw the background beige area creates another tree,  so I played up that idea with my quilting.  Feathered tree in beige, curls and feathers in the green.  Quilters Dream wool batting used.  Carol is thinking of embellishing with crystals.  I hope she shares a finished picture!                 Look at how tiny and small the units are near the top! 

This is the perfect quilt for a boys room and also showcases some pretty fabrics and color.   Front and back!  Big 106" quilt for a growing boy.   Hand guided " Hot Nights" panto by August Moon.       The picture above and below are the back of the quilt.      In progress on the frame.   Client chose a King Tut variegated thread that blended over most of the quilt but really did shine on that blue outer border.   Loved that on the blue.