Thread Tales From A Scrappy Quilter

Lindsay at The Cottage Mama recently blogged again about one of her quilts done in her fabric line "Dainty Darling" that I quilted.   Riley Blake is offering a free pattern for this and she included a link back to me!   These were completed for Market here in Houston this past fall.       Information about her blog can be found HERE .     Check out the link for the free pattern for the Darling Tulip quilt HERE .  These were so much fun to work on!   Pink and feminine, I don't get many requests and pink just happens to be a favorite of mine.   Having 4 boys, not a color that has been used much in my life though!

Kathryn Zimmerman has been busy again creating this feathered star appliqued piece that she had custom quilted by me.  It is back in her hands again getting blinged up a little.  I look forward to seeing the completed project.       Do note that this piece did arrive with rouched trim and flowers, stuffed flower centers and some beading already on the top.   These embellishments to make it difficult to quilt.   Note the placement of the ruler over one stuffed center.  Very difficult to press hard enough on the ruler to get a flat edge anywhere on this top.  Pressing that hard with my shoulder injury creates  problems for me for the next 6 months when it gets aggravated and I have no breaks in my quilting schedule to heal.  Or the potential to hit the ruler with my needle breaking it and messing up my timing.   Shortly after this was quilted, a friend was at an applique class and posted pictures of a beautiful flower arrangement in raised 3D applique.   

Kathryn finished her top at our retreat last summer and has waited patiently for her time slot for some playful light custom quilting.   These bright colors made my job so much fun!  This is another Judy Niemeyer Quiltworx paper pieced pattern.    Kathryn's daughter helped her choose the fabrics.  I love it! I've lost my space to hang these large quilts for photos. I do like the view from the stairwell though of that quilt on the frame!     I was so sad to see that I did not make a blog post from our August retreat but I did search on my facebook account and found a photo of Kathryn with her finished quilt top. Thanks Kathryn!   I hope you enjoy many years of looking at this one your bed.

I was going to include a link for this pattern as I find it so interesting, something I might even like to make someday but I'm not finding it.  Obviously the name I've been calling it is wrong!   I saw the pattern book cover, maybe an Australian designer?  So, name wrong and at time of completion, I did not have time to hang for nice photos.   So, wrong name, no full on photos.  Sorry!   ***La Dolce Vita*** Alice loves paper piecing and needle turn applique, making many quilts each year with detailed designs.   Alice chose a circular edge to edge design for this fun quilt.     ***Edited... Pattern name is La Dolce Vita by Kimberly Rado.      

It finally happened!  A prolific quilter said, let's try this.   We chose an edge to edge design for her beautiful Paradise in Blooms, complete with needle turn applique.  I must say I am completely happy with this and would not hesitate to recommend doing this again.   Surf digital edge to edge design by Anne Bright,  Quilters Dream Wool, Glide thread in Warm Gray #4.         Thank you Alice for such a lovely quilt and being brave enough to try this.   We both think it turned out awesome!