Thread Tales From A Scrappy Quilter

Back to school for us this week which let me be at the machine much earlier in the morning.   Some quilts worked on recently: See it really does not look bad with that extra floral sewn direct to the striped border.  It's such a busy pattern, it just sort of looks planned to me.    Plenty big enough now! Quilted with Dusty Miller Grande pantograph - hand guided.     Hopefully binding to go on this one in a few days.  It is MINE - woohoo!     Charity Bee Quilts   customer photo memory quilt   Orange Peel does not photo well, creates a rounded "frame" around each of the photos.   Swag border treatment     Back of quilt shows detail.   My scheduled has been cleared for about 2 weeks so that I can get my long arm serviced and gosh does she need it.   I'll be binding  my red Strippy Rococo and piecing on my Bali Wedding Star for sure.   But I'll  miss my longarm!                      

One of those rare quilt patterns that I just had to make and purchase those exact fabrics.   This pattern does not have a much piecing, relies on gorgeous fabric.   When I made this top, I kept thinking that I wished it was bedsized instead of the 73X91 per the pattern.  This is my top with the magazine and pattern picture:     I also was always a little upset that the picture shows a richer darker "brown and burgundy" look compared to the actual fabrics.   But I thought the fabrics were so pretty and I just had to have them.   Made the quilt top and life interferred for several years!   In between then and now, I did go on a mission to track down more of the large floral thinking maybe I could devise a plan to increase the size of the quilt to our bed size.   Yesterday, I finally pulled this to the top of the list to work on.  What I discovered was:  I did not have enough of any of the pink, light green or red fabrics to make a set of blocks for one more pieced p

Another jelly roll quilt in soft,  grayish blue fabrics that was pieced by members of our Charity Bee.   I quilted this using a pantograph called Feathered Curls and used Warm and Natural batting. Backside

This one is like many of my quilts (or blocks) from our online group, Greenie's Quilting Geese.   It has been a UFO for far too long.   I don't recall which members worked on her rows, the first row with the spinning, flying geese type stars were Lauras' and she set the theme/style/colors for her quilt.    Everyone's work is wonderful and her setting is AWESOME!   The backing fabrics made me Ooooh and Aaaah as I pulled them from the package also.  We went with an edge to edge meandering leafy swirl for this top with a metallic looking gold thread and I think it came out very nice!    I love that light gold panel insert into her backing....   it really shows the quilting design.  This one has a spot reserved on a wall in her home and will be in its place of honor soon.  

This pretty, strip pieced Lone Star belongs to a friend of mine.  Pat called it a "utility" quilt and said I could do what I want with it.  I was torn, do I play with "modern" quilting techniques, should I quilt meandering feathers which I love, or should I go with what I see which was a lovely, very traditional feeling quilt.  I had also seen recently a similar top quilted with an all over treatment of ribbon curls which looked fantastic.  I opted to go with a traditional approach.  The star was quilted with  large, flowing feathers with beads in the spine, large crosshatch for the main background, tight feathered swirl border, piano key outer border and some simple straight lines in that strip pieced border.   Wool batting, soft pre-washed fabrics and oh my does this feel cuddly! And the back which turned out very pretty too!

This is such a cute, bright quilt!  The photos don't do it justice.    I quilted this with an allover leafy, swirl meander and finished the outer border with a swag and piano key treatment.  

I love this quilt!   The colors are so light, airy and refreshing.   Loaded this on the frame yesterday and spent all day trying colors and taking them out.   I have oodles of threads ranging in shades of yellows, goldenrods, golds, melons, oranges and greens...  all get lost in the border.  Dark green was nice but I did not like the green on the backing fabric.  I resorted to orange (backing is orange too)thinking this is it, it will be bold.  Ummm, not so much in that border.   It showed only here and there, just enough to make you think what on earth is that design?!    I'm back to the original thread I started almost 12 hours into the process yesterday plus changed my border plans to something with less detail so the texture shows through well.    The picture is less vibrant than the colors really are and of course on those busy prints, the stitching does not show that well but you can see the texture. Keeping my fingers crossed the the overall design is going to be striking on