A Shepherd's Convention???

There's a collection of shepherds crooks and walking sticks left at my front door, I think the shepherds are having a meeting to see who gets Saturday night off?

Of course this is my DH's stick collection but this one is my favourite, carved from burr elm.....it was a Christmas gift a few years ago.

Handy Andy!

My new customer is a really handy lady, all of Margaret's quilts are hand pieced beautifully...because of this we chose simple quilting so as not to overpower the charm of her quilts.

This one really matches the colour scheme of my room......

The next two are '10 minute wonder' quilts

I have to add that some Longarmers may have continued there overall/pantograph pattern and quilted over these 3D medallions, even though it is more time consuming there is no way I could do that, I needed to make a feature of them!

All done and actually already delivered!

A bit of company.....

It's nice to have a bit of company sometimes when you are quilting.....


Meet 'Red' the Red Admiral....

 

I like to see butterflies on quilts but I don't really want to attach a real one....sometimes he gets so close to the needle I'm scared I'm going to stitch him in ....of course he's trying to get under the lights of my longarm.....he should really be finding a nice dark corner here in my studio to sleep in for the winter.

Merry Christmas Everyone.....

A Christmas message for you all!

Friends Across the Ocean!

Remember these? These are my block swap blocks....the deal was pick one black with white fabric, one white with black fabric, and two bright fabrics......

These 2 x 30 sets of blocks flew off to to my friend Shannon in Atlanta, Georgia, Shannon sorted all of the Friendship Star blocks and I received these blocks in return....of course you all know these are 'friendship stars'.....

My blocks are in the four corners pulling it all together, borders added and quilted with a 'star burst' pantograph which blends right on in and is hidden....Hmmmm.....to me the quilting can be the best part of a quilt and it can't even be seen....'Oh Well'

I had a few blocks left over that were perfect for pillow shams.....

I set myself a few tasks to finish up some UFO's before the end of the year and here it is all finished at last from my 'Friends across the ocean!'

Can you see your blocks?




Update:- this quilt now lives in Scotland capital city of Edinburgh with my youngest Son....

We are building a boat?

Two days ago these fields were under six inches of snow and it was difficult to travel into town....90 mile an hour winds along with torrential rain and a fast thaw mean the fields are now flooded along with my utility room...hey ho!

Invisible thread....Wow!

Honestly..... Wow.... I Stiched in the Ditch (SiD), the whole of this quilt with no thread breaks at all, not one! I usually use S's monopoly on my longarm but unfortunately had quite a few thread breaks so I recently purchased this Aurifil invisible thread, it's advertised as 'no break thread'. It's a 15000 metre cone so not exactly cheap, I wasn't pleased when I still had thread breaks but I thought I'd give it another try on this quilt. Once I realise I didn't need any kind of thread net, not even the more open plastic ones, it was a breeze, I just hope that I can find that sweet spot with the tension again next time???

Unfortunately you'll have to wait a little while to see this quilt finished as there is now another quilt on the frame that took precedence....'Thank goodness for Red Snappers!'

A few small finishes!

That's two Christmas wallhangings, two Christmas table mats, two pillow shams, and three cushions with quilted fronts and backs....and a partridge in a pear tree....lol....all of the cushions and the pillow shams are made up from either orphan blocks or pieces left over from quilts you have previously seen too, well except for one quilt which is still being bound.

OK, they are not all finished, I still have the binding to hand sew down on one cushion but it will get done tomorrow!

Clamshells and Scollops!

Sounds like a seafood dish doesn't it, but no it's time to put an extra quilt on our bed to warm my feet.

I've had this quilt a long while, it's hand quilted although you don't get many of these stitches to the inch?

Scalloped/swagged borders with fleur de lis, clamshells, cable border with an interesting corner treatment and sunbursts, I'm not sure about the orientation of the clamshells, I think I would have done those in a portrait orientaion as it really fits a single bed. The edges are finished with a turned knife edge.

So, I would say this is a wholecloth quilt even though both the front and back have three sections of fabric each.....So, those of you who know about these things, what do you think, is it still considered a wholecloth?

How big is your machine?

That's a question that many Longarm Quilter's get asked....I think what's meant is 'what is the biggest quilt you can quilt on your longarm?'
Well, the frame on which my longarm machine glides has 12 ft rails so that means that one side of the quilt could comfortably be up to 130 inches (maybe slightly bigger), but the other measurement can be longer as the quilt is wound on the rails as you advance.....I don't know who would want a quilt bigger than 130" x 130".....but it could be done!


But today's more relevant question is 'how many quilts can you quilt on your longarm....lol...?

Answer for today is 'Eleven!'

Well...that's five on the first row....(the tops of two pillow shams, the tops of two cushions and a cushion back at this end).

And that's another six on the second row.....(two Christmas wallhangings, two Christmas table mats, a cushion top and another white cushion back at the far end). Of course if my piece of backing fabric had been a little bit bigger, I could have also quilted another cushion back to finish off .....maybe next time!

I'm having a bit of a tidy up using up some orphan blocks that you may recognise and finishing up some small projects, some of which belong to my GKids.  These small quilts are all loaded on the same cream backing fabric although I am using some smaller offcuts of batting that have been lying around waiting for just the right project.

It takes a while to load all of those little quilts but it would have taken alot longer if they were all on seperate backings.

Feather Fans!

I've really enjoyed quilting my bought in quilt tops, it's given me the opportunity to experiment on a variety of styles and designs of quilts but also the quality of the piecing has thrown up lots of shall I say 'educational opportunities'.....I've needed to work my way around a few problems and find out how to enhance the piecers work to the best of my abilities.

Before quilting

I have to say that this top didn't really have any issues.....I did re-arrange the borders a little but that's all....I used this top as one of my 'what if' quilts, 'What if I try this and what if I try that'.
I tried a few new to me techniques including Ronda Beyers "S" shaped rulers .....only I would choose to use the largest of her rulers for my first try, those things are huge and a little difficult to manage....imagine it, ruler in one had, longarm in the other?

This is all freemotion, handguided and ruler work!

 

Everyone knows I'm a 'fan of feathers'....so this is 'Feathered Fans'.

It finished at 88"x66", I used white Glide thread on top, Bottomline in the bobbin, Super Poly batting/wadding gave lots of definition. When I spied it I just couldn't resist this fabric for the backing....it's Rosalee from Ikea, the colours were perfect for this top!

I've noticed a few new followers are stopping by, I'd like to say welcome to you all!


Greenfairy Giveaway

The Greenfairy  at http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/  is having an awesome giveaway....well, Clint is really busy while Judy is away learning lots of new quilty stuff....why don't you pop on over to 'The Green Fairy' and take part in the fun...you never know you may be a winner??

Nature all around us?

I took this photo in the middle of town this morning, this little guy stakes his claim to this spot on the stream, he is very patient and for his troubles he is often rewarded with breakfast....indeed as I peered over the river wall he bent down and just picked up a small fish which riggled a little and then slid down the herons throat before I could turn on my camera.....

Did you notice the light switch on the far side of the bridge....this heron lives in 'the lap of luxury', he has an electric light under the bridge....look, that's cool, great for the dark nights, he can fish after hours!

Wonder how he turns it on....lol....????