Saturday Morning Post ~ Barbara's Applique

Glorious applique by Barbara H. 

This week felt more like Spring rather that the coming of Autumn

working on this beauty :0)

Custom quilted

with lots of outlining 

and a cross hatch fill behind the flower vase. 

Worked out great following the dots of the fabric's print!

Dot to dot crosshatch :0) and no marking!!!

Layered with two battings, a cotton with scrim base

with wool on top for a trapunto look.

Thread is Omni in Vanilla Wafer for the sashing and blocks.

So Fine 50 for all of the outlining and SID. 

I am loving the So Fine thread from Superior! 

A close up of the Friendship Star design

and the back that had a whole cloth look

The vase was not quilted on purpose. 

Barbara layered a piece of batting between her applique and the top

and added her own stitches in blue

It gave the vase allot of dimension

and if stitched thru again, could have looked like a blue pumpkin!

The cotton batting will give it enough stability 

for a wall hanging. Barbara plans to hang it in the entry hall where she lives.

This quilt will sure add a cheery hello to everyone that come in!

 Thank you Barbara!  

Cindy brought in 6 quilts and I have been busy working on those as well. Two are finished and one, on my frame is ready for a little SID and then it's a finish. Yea! Had allot of paperwork and mail to catch up on this week. Turned over my term's accounting for our guild to our new treasurer, Chris to begin a new term. Thursday's guild meeting was so cool with Joe Cunningham as our guest speaker. He was wonderful, talented and very engaging! Wishing I had singed up for his workshop, it was full with 20 participants! 

So busy, I didn't realize until yesterday that it's Labor Day weekend already and a long weekend, how sad is that! I am headed to Yuba City today to attend a Maintenance workshop for my longarm at the Sew So Shop and my Innova dealer. Looking forward to that and then... to enjoy an extra day off :0) 

Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend! 

Tot Ziens, Jo 

Saturday Morning Post ~ Delores

It's been a productive month in Moonbear's studio! The first part of August's quilting time was devoted to Delores who brought along 6 quilts and 4 pillow shams from Arizona. Five of those quilts were king size and one queen. Delores doesn't make little quilts! She comes to Chico to visit her sister and brings along her completed tops which get quilted while she visits and then she heads back home with her quilts. Here are a few pix...

This quilt has a panel that she pieced into the top, loved the colors and here, how the early morning sun caught the flowers as I was taking pics. Quilting design is Pearls and Feathers. All of Delores' quilts are quilted with Poly Puff, a batting from Quilter's Dream that she loves for the loft... and it has allot of loft! Quilted with a purple Glide thread. 

This was a fun quilt, a Broken Rail which we found worked perfect for a quilting design by Jessica at Digi-Tech called Bubble Weave. Again, the Poly Puff bat and a Glide thread in Marine.

These are the pillow shams on my frame, loaded side by side worked really well...

There were two king quilts made with the Poppy fabrics and a third king made with the teal and black fabrics with a black and white print. I didn't put up all of the quilts for pix because of their size, but here are the first five with shams stacked on my table while I worked on the last quilt...

No.6 is a quilt that was made by another sister who has since passed away, so this was a special one. Each block is the same layout, 16 total all made with allot of machine applique detail. Both sisters were happy to see it quilted.

Quilted with allot of outlining and a border/corner set for the outer borders as well as added along the sashing. The backing Delores brought was a beautiful batik wide back in aqua greens. It was perfect! Quilted with several threads, Glide for the borders and So Fine #50 which has become my favorite thread from Superior Threads for outlining and custom stitching. 

Thank you Delores and Alice! Next visit is scheduled in March 2016

Seven more quilts completed this week, yep it's been a good month for catching up! One is in the last post, the Christmas quilt for Beckie. Another posted this morning on the new Facebook page, also a sample for Honey Run Quilters made by Kelly that will be going to PIQF in October. The pic was taken yesterday at the beginning of the stitch out, it's finished now along with two for Betty D, two for Phoebe and one for Claudia.

Enjoy your weekend

I am headed into the studio to take pix of and trim this week's beauties

and then spend the rest of the weekend on my quilts! 

Very happy with some cooler temps...

You know you live in the North Valley when the low 90's are cool temps!!!

Tot Ziens, Jo

A Quilter's Mixology

VERY NICE!

Wonderful perfect curved piecing by Linda D

from a quilt in A Quilter's Mixology

by Angela Pingel

We both zeroed in on this quilting design

Mid-Century by Patricia Ritter

I changed it up a little for Linda's quilt by elongating the design and making the circles oval instead of perfectly round. Quilted with Superior's So Fine #50 thread in a medium gray. Just the right value to add texture to Linda's quilt but not interfere with the prints and graphic nature of this quilt. Batting is Quilter's Dream Blend. I recently tried So Fine #50 and like it much better than Bottomline. Both have their advantages, the latter if you want the thread to disappear the most, it's as thin as hair! 

It curves at the bottom only because of how it is hanging here.

Linda's plans for this quilt is a wall hanging in her living room. I was very careful with the direction of the warp in the backing and batting to make sure this will hang nicely :0)
Yes, most batting has a warp just like fabric as well as a front and back!

Kelly fell in love with this top when Linda brought it into Honey Run Quilters for backing, which I just discovered I forgot to take pix of, will have to add that.
Added is a pic of Linda's quilt with the backing folded over the top...

It's a great fabric, perfect for this quilt. If you are interested in the book, Kelly ordered it and it will be IS available at Honey Run. Linda's top has some of the same fabrics, from Moda's Persimmon from Basic Grey that Kelly used in The Big Wedding quilt she made. This is Kelly's quilt hanging up at the store...

completed with binding. Kelly does the best binding!
If you are looking for someone to bind your quilt, Kelly is your go to person!
Looking forward to seeing Kelly's next quilt and it will be a class at Honey Run!

Thank you Linda :0)

Make the time to take some stitches because...

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

Enjoy your weekend, tot ziens, Jo

Roses for Janie

Framed Roses made by Janie. 

Soft pastel colors, all rose print fabrics
framed in solid greens. 

   Quilted with Zen Roses, an e2e from One Song Needle Arts and Digi-tech

with wool batting and a variegated So Fine #40 thread in soft greens,
#707 Wagga Wagga, funny name :0)

The wool batting has such nice loft.
The binding will also be a darker green to create a frame around the
entire quilt. It's actually not as dark a green as it looks in the pix.

After binding is added, this quilt will be ready for Janie

when she returns next week to work on Amaretto Cottage,

a quilt we have been working on together for a year. 

We are almost ready to add the final two borders and then quilting this beauty.

Also in the works are the Snowman quilts

Two customers worked on and finished this block of the month
Merry Merry Snowmen

with machine applique and hand embroidered details.

It's really cute and fun to work on :0)

 There are several snowmen peeking out of the blocks.

 This guy is up in the cornerstone of the border and will have beads added for eyes

and more embellishments will be added once the tops are quilted.

I am very happy with my Innova and how nice it handles hand guided

as well as doing ruler work. 

Enjoy the weekend

Make the time to take some stitches, Jo

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