Friday Quilt Fun

Nancy's quilt for her daughter

It's been a little busy around here lately. Not just with the quilting but I have become a grandmother for the first time. Right after Thanksgiving my daughter Jen had a baby girl, Aria Karen. She is the cutest thing ever, but aren't they all. Thankfully she lives just 25 minutes away so I get to visit as much as I can find time to.


Now, back to business, I did end up finishing the quilt that I got the t-shirts for in the previous blog. I finished it in just enough time to ship out to be delivered right before Christmas. T-shirt quilts are so great!  What else are you going to do with those old t-shirts that you are not going to wear anymore and don't want to throw away.


 

Friday Quilt Fun

It must have been t-shirt quilt week this week.  Two customers brought in their own t-shirt quilts to quilt, we quilted two for a customer and we also just got a box full of t-shirts to make one.

They make wonderful presents!

This is a picture of the box of t-shirts we just received.

What great colors in these shirts we just got in.  Can't wait to start on it!

Thought you might like seeing some of the quilts that have been quilted by some of our customers.  This was a perfect, quick, baby quilt!

I just loved this disappearing nine patch done with Christmas fabrics.

What a great present for someone!

It is our hope to try and take more pictures of some of the great quilts that come through our studio on a weekly basis. We thought it might be nice to give everyone a little more insight into some of the things that are going on in our studio from week to week.

Free Time To Quilt

Just finished quilting a small holiday wall hanging. It's a UFO no longer!!!

I knew it was a small piece, and figured the quilting wouldn't take very long, especially on our longarm. And, for once I was right! The only tricky part was carving out a block of time to use the Millenium, and what fun I had!

 Love the swirls and bubbles! Even some holly in the red corners, though it's tough to see in these photos. Free to quilt the way I wanted, and it was done in a jiffy!

Keep Quilting!

Dora

Raffle Quilt Is A Beauty!

We belong to several local quilt guilds and volunteered to head up the committee to make the raffle quilt for the Silver City Quilt Guild's next quilt show which is in September, 2015. It's was a bigger time commitment than we expected, but are happy to donate our time to this wonderful group of quilters.

Closeup showing some of the feather quilting motifs done throughout the quilt

The guild has close to 100 members, so we wanted to design a quilt with lots of blocks, so everyone could participate, and have a color scheme and design that appealed to a large audience, so we'd sell lots of tickets!
Guild member participation was great! How'd we get so many involved? Here's the key: we put together kits which included pre-cut strips and squares for the triangles, as well as instructions on how to make the block.

Closeup of light section showing feather quilting

Everyone did a wonderful job making their block; we had very little trouble putting the top together- it fit very well, no real wonky blocks or rows not lining up! I think it's mostly because of the pre-cut kits; by keeping the cutting consistent, there was much less room for variations in size.

Closeup showing free motion filler  motifs  and some feathering

Next we loaded it on our APQS Millie and spent the summer quilting it! That's me doing all the ditch work around the triangles as well as the small filler motifs.

Dora staying cool on the longarm

Here's the completed quilt-it's a big one-measuring 100" x 100"--Wow!!
Tickets anyone???????? 

Pineapple Log Cabin Quilt-2015 Raffle Quilt for Silver City Quilt Guild-Raynham, MA

Love the finished quilt-hope you do too!!

~~Dora~~

Home From Quilt Market!

Our box arrived from Quilt Market on Friday! We did a little buying of this and that, and 45 pounds later, we were shipping it home. Turned out to be so much easier than lugging it through the airport!

Can't wait to play with the fun fabrics we bought. The plan for this trip was to focus on expanding our pattern design business, and we're very excited to get going! I think our new purchases will help!

Got to visit with our friend Linda Baxter Lasco, at the AQS  booth and got a peak at her new book, "Red, White and Quilted".  Perfect timing for the featured Red & White Quilt exhibit at the show, hanging here-she has 5 of her own red & white quilts hanging-fabulous!

We took tons of classes during the Schoolhouse Series-the day was filled with information in all areas of the business. Here's a a shot of a class with Angela Walters talking about quilts by various designers in a new book:

Had a great business meeting with our new friend Morna McEver Golletz from ICAP. Her VIP Marketing Session was insightful, and inspiring! Our time flew by, but was packed with great information to help us focus and get moving.

Look at this! We even met some quilting celebrities-Mark Lipinski, looking wonderful and funny as ever, and Jenny Doan, from Missouri Star Quilt Co, who was just passing by!

And got a Sneak Peek of the quilts in the show, including my own Mint Chocolate Chip quilt hanging in the "In the American Tradition" exhibit. A thrilling moment for me!

Exhausting trip, but we are energized!

Cool quilting this week

Look what I get to work on! It may be close to 90 degrees outside, but I'm keeping cool at the studio-A/C's cranking and I get to do some custom quilting on this gorgeous, frosty looking quilt. The quilt top was made by one of our Longarm Renters, Sarah, who wanted more of a custom job than she was ready to do herself, so she brought it to us. She made it from the Judy Niemeyer paper piecing pattern called " Mariner's Compass".

What a great job she did on the top-LOVE the cool colors-stunning!

It's gonna take a bit of time to quilt this beauty, mostly because of all the points-so much ditching to do!

All loaded on the Millie and ready to go! Starting on the ditch-work, but definitely a slow process.

This curly filler should do nicely in these light blue background areas. Like it so far! Will post more pictures when I make more progress. Stay cool everyone!

Grand Central Terminal Quilts on display in NYC

Honorable Mention, "Mercury's Concourse", by Fran VanEnron, Fort Collins, CO

I have the pleasure of traveling to New York City several times a year. It's always interesting with so many sites, restaurants, shopping, etc. but this past weekend I had a quite a treat because I was able to see a special quilt exhibit. I know- quits in NYC- who knew?

Well right in Grand Central Terminal, there is a special exhibit of 30 quilts celebrating the centennial of the train station, which was last year, 2013. The City Quilter, a wonderful quilt shop in Manhattan partnered with American Patchwork Quilting to sponsor a national quilt challenge to celebrate this centennial and the quilts on display were the winners and finalists. What fun! 

For more information on the exhibit, as well as details of the contest and challenge, here's a link to their website: http://www.grandcentralterminal.com/event/grand-central-centennial-quilts/2145433659.

If you're planning on going to NYC, the exhibit is there till 7/6. Not to be missed!

Here are some of the quilts on display; congratulations to all the quilters! So glad I got to get a quilt fix even in the city!

Grand Prize, "Time Flies But We Take The Train" by Amy Krasnansky, Baltimore, MD 

First Prize, "Grand Central Terminal Mandala" by Ligaya Siachongco, Woodside, NY

Second Prize, "Chasms 16: Under the Stars" by Beth Carney, Yonkers, NY

Honorable Mention, "Frank's Daily Commute" by Julie Quigley, Brookfield, WI

Finalist, "Happy Birthday" by Sheva Farkas, Silver Spring, MD