Thread Tales From A Scrappy Quilter

I have never been one of those quilters that finishes one project before starting another.  It's even harder for me now that I quilt for others.  I knew this baby quilt was coming up but I had to order fabric.  I could not find the panel locally that the client wanted. Meanwhile I have days free while waiting for the fabric.  I pull out my Bali Wedding Star.  I bring a foam core board upstairs from my storage spot in the garage.  Prop it over my ironing board.   Blocking out my window and making my ironing board unusable.  I'm at a difficult stage in  this quilt.   Each side and corner has different color star points and arcs.  The last rings are partial blocks with background fabric instead of a star point in the outer area.  I'm having to rip apart units.  Make more units.   Correct units that I had sewn wrong.   This is the "design wall" plopped on the ironing board in front of my double windows.   I have the upstairs loft, this is the ONLY wall I have for 3 s

I did not get to work on as many of my UFO's as I had planned nor did I finish by Bali Wedding Star but it is on the long arm table, design board, sewing machine... just all over the place right now.   Maybe by the end of next week it will be a flimsy!  I did take several classes (maybe too many) this year offered through the 3 guilds that I belong to and NONE of them are finished.  I really need to stop juggling so many projects, it makes me nuts!  But when incredibly talented, nationally acclaimed teachers are scheduled for our guild meetings, I just have to participate.   Being in the Houston area, our guilds get some of the best.  Also, some of my most fun work is in custom quilting YOUR finished tops.   But this post reflects on my  finishes , some that had been UFO's for years that I am especially happy to have gotten quilted and bound this year. January I pieced and quilted Fracture, completed my Desert Sky top, pieced blocks into a string quilt and quilted it.

The client has picked up and really liked the little longhorns!  She made 2 of these, one for a son and one for a daughter.   Here's how I quilted the girl version.  Hook feathers, CC and loops.   The border fabric has these cute loops, paisleys and a feather plume. Meander in the background.       And the boy version - love those black borders!       

This one is still on the frame.  I spent way too much time doodling trying to find a continuous thread path and finally gave up and got on with the process.  The quilt is beautiful!   But the layout is difficult to quilt, block components don't line up for a continuous design and this version also needed to be manly so no scrolling featherwork or fill in the background.  The client wanted to showcase those black areas and I knew that those areas really wanted custom work, otherwise a panto is so wonderful for these types of busy fabrics.  And I think it is turning out really cute!  I've got 2 of these to quilt. I had hoped to load this one Thursday, finish Friday  and load the other on Sunday but I forgot about the German Christmas festival nearby.   Lots of vendors, food and music.   Sunday afternoon is our only option.  Now if it will stay dry and not rain! I made a template from a manila folder which I traced with a  fine mechanical chalk pen.   outer border stitche

This quilt was made by a teenager that took a homeschool sewing class from one of my friends.  She wanted traditional quilting designs and wanted stitch in the ditch for her logs.  I suggested a square spiral through the center of the logs, this treatment does not highlight any piecing issues we might have with the log cabin strips and works beautifully.  The backing is muslin, green thread top and bottom.   Love it!  Log cabin blocks are so much fun to play with, you can twist and turn them different ways to create lots of different looks with your quilt.   Makes me want to make some blocks!    

I was on a countdown to try to finish out all client quilts by Friday.   All quilts are special, but these were really special to me because there were to be the last of the year!   To celebrate, I intended to post them all.   Somewhere - this post ended up in cyber space so I am re-doing it. The week kicked off with this large 110" bed quilt that my client made for her fireman son.   Gorgeous color that just doesn't show true in the pics.   She choose the panto "Blaze" for this quilt in the darkest burgundy color thread I could find.    I love this quilt and would enjoy sleeping under it!