Judy, Beckie and Merry Merry Snowmen

Yea it's Friday! 

It feels like an extra busy week because I've been catching up on posting pix of quilts all of this week. I am working on custom quilts that will be posted when finished. Today's post are all quilts that were finished the first week of June...

This very cute wall hanging is made and hand embroidered by Judy P

1930s prints and colors

Custom quilted with a Daisy border and corner design

Daisies added to the centers of the alternate or corner blocks
depending on how you look at the layout

The border/corner design worked really well with Judy's quilt

The stems of the Daisies filling the negative space 

that connected with the off white border fabric.

A heart with scroll design was added in what became the pieced inner border.

SID around the embroidered blocks

Each basket is different, beautiful embroidery work by Judy!

Maybe not to period but Daisies are a nice complement to the 1930s prints, IMHO.

Thank you Judy

Your wall hanging is beautiful! 

This is a quilt made by Beckie, her first with batiks! 

 Love the batik border fabric :0)

Quilted design is Autumn Fancy by One Song Needle Arts

An e2e that I sized and laid out to repeat with the blocks
with the goal of adding texture to this quilt.

 The fabric in this block is also the backing fabric

Quilted with a variegated Fantastico thread 

that had all the colors of the batiks in this quilt top. 

Thank you Beckie

Last, but certainly not least, is the last quilting finished on the 2nd

Merry Merry Snowman quilt

The first one is Karen's and this second one finished is made by Dottye

 Friends, they both did this BOM from Bunny Hill Designs

Close ups of Dottye's blocks

Beads, ribbon embellishments and a little more embroidery will be added

to finish these two in plenty of time for Christmas!

Well done ladies! Thank you

I'm pretty sure that catches us up with quilts 

quilted in April, May and the first week of June

Thank you for your patience, including customers that have quilts waiting to be quilted as well. Due to recent events my schedule and turn around time has fallen even further behind. If anyone is not able to wait and would like to take their name off my list, it's OK! I totally understand and I am fine with it because at this point making up time is pretty much impossible. I do ask that you let me know. Life is too short to stress over getting a quilt finished :0) TIA ~ New quilting work orders will be scheduled for January 2016.

Have a wonderful weekend, take some stitches!

Tot Ziens, Jo

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."
Native American Proverb

Two for Claudia

This 64 x 64 quilt made by Claudia 

is completely made with "Brights" by Marcia Derse prints

Claudia picked the quilting design from the internet

just for this quilt. It's by Apricot Moon called Cool Beans

Wonderful prints and color! Wow

The backing is also from Marcia's line

Perfect for the backing! Claudia has a great eye for design

putting together these fabrics as well as the quilting design. 

Claudia's second quilt is a baby quilt 

made with Sandy Klop's American Jane prints

Quilted with Bubbles Everywhere

without the swirls

A design by Sweet Dream Studio

Love how Claudia often pieces her backings

Thank you Claudia!

Note to my customers, besides picking design ideas that you see here on my website, you are always welcome to pick something new from the internet like Claudia did. There is so much to choose from! Be sure to pick something available in .pat format formatted for my Innova longarm system. Tot ziens, Jo

Quilting for Sandy and Phoebe

Today's catch up post with quilts made by Sandy E and Phoebe,

quilted in May. First is Phoebe's scrappy quilt...

made with her favorite block, pinwheels

 Quilted with Zen Roses

an e2e by One Song Needle Arts

 that complimented all of the floral prints and colors

that Phoebe put into her scrappy quilt

This second quilt is made by Sandy E.

using up pieces of her Australian print fabrics

Quilting design is an e2e from Apricot Moon

lined up and repeated within the blocks

I choose the quilting design

to work with these great aboriginal prints

with lots of color

Beautiful! Thank you Phoebe and Sandy

You are the best Scrap Happy Girls! 

Dresden by Linda

A Dresden Plate quilt made by Linda E

with perfect hand stitched blanket stitches!

A feather motif from One Song Needle Arts 

is centered on the sashing cornerstones

 and quilted between the plates

with a feather butterfly border design

quilted between the half plates and the corners in the inner border.

The remainder of the quilting is outline and SID on the Dresden Plates.

Linda added an outer border pieced from the scraps
of this scrappy quilt :0)

Thank you Linda
See you this afternoon

Your work is absolutely beautiful!

Tot Ziens, Jo

Take the time to make some stitches :0) 

Pam B

This week's posts are all customer quilts
that are quilted while I work on some custom quilts this week.

Starting off with two quilts for a very good friend and customer, Pam B. 

This first quilt is designed by Pam, 

beginning with the bird fabric in the center 

by an Australian artist.

Pam built on the quilt from the center.

I came up with this feather design

with a little swirl to add to the playfulness of the fabrics
keeping the quilting open as Pam requested.

Second, a spring quilt made by Pam

 trimmed and binding added, ready to be stitched down

 Quilted in April with a floral design, Escargot by Anne Bright
A favorite e2e and perfect for a spring quilt
with a nice swirl in the center of the flower

The perfect spring backing!

Thank you Pam
who has the best taste in fabric :0)

Also for the fabric heart on the card and lots of hugs

Sew nice! Love you, Jo

Tot Ziens, enjoy your week
Happy Birthday :0)

Graduation Quilts

The Sunbonnet Sue quilt that I was working on and finished last week...

On my frame where you can see some definition with the back light

Ribbon Candy is the design in the sashing

Daisies are added to Sue's hat and the cornerstones

with a Daisy border design

The backing is pieced by Melissa, the graduate

receiving this quilt. It's a group project, each block and blanket stitching done by different stitchers. The fabrics are all from Melissa's grandmother's 1930s stash of fabrics and Sunbonnet Sue was her favorite quilt. Lesa brought this project into my studio along with Debbie with a goal of having this finished to give to Melissa for graduation. Picked up a week ago, Lesa has the binding planned in the multi color solids used for the block frames. A special label is made by an artist for this project. Wish I could see the finished quilt!

It was the perfect quilt to work on while I was working thru the loss of my Mom. It got me going because of the deadline along with this quilt for Kelly, also a graduation quilt for a member in Kelly's family...

Great fabrics, of course  ;0)

with a Shabby Chic look backing Yes!
This is Jeweled Wanderer

Quilted with the design ~ Rapunzel by Anne Bright

It's a wonderful fun design with good coverage.

Thread is a Fantastico variegated blend of teal, grey and pink. LOVE!

with Omni Light Rose on the back, both threads from Superior.

 Batting is Quilter's Dream Machine Blend

(NQR) Today was a better day for me, largely due to last night's guild meeting. Kelly had allot to do with that as well. I agonized about going, not sure how I would feel or react. We are not a society well equipped to deal with loss. People don't know what to say or say the cliche's that people say like "They are in a better place". I found myself saying that one, mostly because I want it to be true. We really don't know what happens. Is there an afterlife? Is it better? 

First thing Pam B greeting me with a hug and then Joyce came up to me with the biggest hug and said... "There are no words" Perfect! Thank you! That broke the ice. Last night's meeting was our community service meeting. Being the guild's treasurer and Vendor Chair for our quilt show coming up I had business that needed to be attended to. Did that and checked in with Kelly, our VP standing in for our Pres who is out of town to let her know I was not staying and was not up to sewing. Kelly had a table set up for everyone that was not in a small group (that would be me too) and had a project planned. Nice! Thank you Kelly, now I am sorry that I didn't plan to stay! Everyone was gracious and wonderful.

Two customer quilts finished this week for Beckie and Judy P. Again... lots of pix to catch up on. The next 5 quilts are all custom which will give me a chance to catch up with posting pix. Next up is a quilt for Lori, it's up on my design wall right now while I get design ideas rolling around in my head before it's loaded...

This is Lori's Flags of the American Revolution quilt, a design by Jan Patek and a QAL Lori hosted on her blog Humble Quilts in 2014. So looking forward to quilting this beauty!

Have a wonderful weekend, take some stitches!

Tot Ziens, Jo

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."
Native American Proverb

Rose Moon

Strawberry Moon, also know as the Rose Moon

June 1st

Summer will be here soon. Not looking forward to anther summer of drought in California. New water restrictions take effect today. Many of us native Californians have lived thru two droughts and using water wisely has become a way of life. With new restrictions we will be required to reduce consumption by 32%. Michael and I are trying to figure out how we can cut our usage even more than we already do and have decided we will have to let parts of the garden go unwatered, the front lawn will be the first to go. 

Another concern is our fire season. Again, as a native Californian I have lived thru a few close calls. In the 90s in Paradise was a close call and again in 2007 was evacuated from my home, drove to my friend Sally's home only to be evacuated there as a fire in Tahoe raged across Angora Ridge to Fallen Leaf Lake and came very close to Tahoe Keys along the South Shore. Many friends lost their homes, thankfully no lives. 

I am getting back on track with my longarming. It felt good to get some quilting done last week on two quilts that were promised as graduation gifts. The first was a Sunbonnet Sue quilt that I started before Mom's decline. It has a wonderful story and was a bit of therapy to finish for a young lady to remember her grandmother. The quilt is a group project made for her using her grandmother's 1930's fabrics. Both quilts have been picked up and I have pix on my camera that I will share on a new post. Actually I think there may be some that I took with the quilt in progress...

Yep, found this one with the border started along with a few more quilts for Claudia, Pam and Sandy that were finished but not posted here on the blog. There was so much to do for Mom, it became a 24/7, more that I expected. I am happy I was able to it, it's always been my goal to be here for her when the time came. Now it's time to try and move forward. I am happy to be a quilter because it is very much therapy with the added bonus of meeting and knowing other quilters that support each other. When Lesa and Debbie came to pick up the Sunbonnet Sue quilt, they brought a beautiful card and flowers. Who could ask for more?! Bear hugs and many many thanks!

Enjoy the day... "We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."
Native American Proverb

Jo