First customer quilts from December!

Well i was able to get a few quilts done last week despite a couple of unexpected emergency trips to town. First off i got a call from my good friend, and fellow machine quilter, she was having some “issues” with her machine and needed some help getting it working again. Now i don’t know about you but when a good friend calls, obviously in tears, I tend to want to do my best to help her out. So with my ugly black tool boxes of every tool and extra i thought i might need in hand, i made a rush trip to her place. Well, i did make on stop first, to pick up one of her favorite drink from Starbucks to help calm her down. It took a bit of time but we got the problem fixed as well as did a little other maintenance why i had my tools handy. and another day i had to take my uncle to town to pick up a few things, manly parts to fix the furnace. Leave it to us to have a perfectly running furnace, but the instant it turns cold the darn thing breaks down. So in the middle of the night, why everyone else was sleeping soundly i was down working on the furnace trying to get it to kick on because it was getting darn cold in the house. Good thing i don’t have a problem trying to fix stuff myself huh? Anyway it didn’t take long to find the problem, after all the little blinking light on the front said it had a water backup in the drain area (talk about good luck that the thing has the little blinking lights that tell you what could be wrong!) You see the furnace drips water as it runs. No I’m not a expert so i don’t know why it does it just know that it has done it from day one, apparently its supposed to drip. Anyway the spot were the water drips is about 8 feet from were the water falls into a drain that carries the water outside the house, so there is a plastic pipe that carries the dripping water to that drain. Apparently after 20 something years of service the plastic pipe got a clog, the dripping water backed up inside the furnace and caused it to keep itself from turning on. So i removed the plastic pipe from the furnace and the water went poring out of the furnace all over the floor. for a quick fix i used a piece of old water hose to replace the plastic pipe so the furnace would run that night, and then i did a quick mop up of the nasty looking water that was all over the floor. The next morning we made a trip to get new PVC pipe to fix it properly, luckily there was no major damage to the furnace itself and all is working well.

Yap, sure was a fun week.

Now that that’s over, on to the quilts….

This Irish Chain was made by Mary H. She loves the Irish Chain pattern, and make a lot of them for charity raffles and such. It was quilted as Mary requested with a double ribbon ion the chain area and a Daisy Flower in the open white area.

This Nine Patch Star was made by Becky H. For a christmas gift. Becky always pretty much lets me quilt whatever i think will look good, so i had some fun with this one. Most of it was simple CC but the Feathers fancy it up just a bit!

This quilt, i am calling Scrappy Stars, was also made by Becky H. Once again she said do whatever with the quilting. I had to think this one over a bit but we both loved the end results.

That’s all for sharing from last week! i have five more quilts that are due by the midle of next week, so i must get back to work!

More customer quilting!

here are last week customer quilts. i am in a bit of a rush right now so i am only going to post one photo of each, if you would like to take a look at the quilting more close up just need to click on the quilt you want to see and you will go to that photo at WebShots, then just click, next photo, and you will see the close up!

First off are quilts that were made by Chresta E.

This quilt is called Illusions, let just say after quilting it i know why it has that name! It really hurt my eye and i had to take several breaks so they could rest. Quilted with both white and black thread, with lots of ruler work and polyester batting…

This Star quilt also ,ade by Chresta, was quilted with cream thread, polyester batting, and lots of CC, & straight lines…

The next two quilts were made by Mary H. The first is a Irish Star quilt, (Irish chain pattern combining a star for the white center block area) Was quilted using white thread and polyester batting…

This quilt was made with the help of Mary H. but was made most by a nine Year old boy that Mary babysits for! I think he did a darn good job being his first quilt and all! This quilt will be on display at the Crossroads Harvest of Quilts show on September 18 & 19 2009, stop by Effingham’s Hendelmeyer Park Recreation Center to get a good up close look at all of the quilts show in today’s post!

The last customer quilts for July

The end of July is finally here, it really seemed to me that this month dragged on forever! Yesterday was the annual School Clothes outing with my nieces, Britni and Sydnee. You see mom can’t take them shopping… apparently she has no taste! And today is the official opening of the Local Effingham County Fair. i have five quilts entered this year, something i haven’t done in some time, but thought i would see how tings went. I have entered my Broken Star, my quilt from last years Harvest of Quilts show titled, Quilted to Death, and three miniature quilts, orchid Garden, Tiny Turning 20 ( a copy of my Quilted to Death quilt, and my Broken Star Mini (a copy of my larger broken star) The winners will be announced this afternoon so i won’t know anything until later. Something ells me today will be a very long day! i will take my camera along tonight and get a few photos, so be looking for another post tonight!

OK, enough chit chat, time for the quilts! Just remember if you want to see more photos, just click on the quilt you want to see and you will go to my Webshots album were you can find more photos and close ups!

First up is a applique quilt made by Irma, Quilted with feathers, swirls, and a small stipple around the applique (as requested by the customer) with a red & white thread that matched the applique colors.

Here is another Irish Chain made by Mary H. This is her favorite pattern to make, this one is off to a wedding next week. Feather Wreaths and a ribbon stipple was quilted with white thread, with a polyester patting. not my favorite way to quilt this quilt, but it is how she likes it best.

This quilt is a star quilt (sorry i am not sure of the correct name of the pattern!) made by Chresta E. I used So Fine thread to quilt lots of CC, Swirls, and Waves over this quilt made from dark red, dark blue, and cream prints.

And finally the last quilt off the machine in July is a Tennessee Waltz quilt made by Marlene H. Swirls and CC were quilted with a cream thread and a puffy Polyester batting.

Now to get started on August’s quilts!

Some More Customer Quilts

Nothing much happening here, i have been very busy doing everything but what i really need to do… work! Anyway i have a few photo to share with you. There are a few quilts i have quilted in the past two weeks that are missing. The quilt maker has asked that i not post photos of her quilts as she is going to be giving them as gifts and does not want the soon to be owners seeing the quilts beforehand.

First is a couple of quilts made by Ann S. The First is called African Dreams. The fabric came from a family members trip to Africa. When she first saw it she said she was a bit unsure about what could be done with it, but i think she did a great job on this small wall quilt!Quilted with a black thread, in simple designs and outline the figures helps to not take to much away from the special fabric.  The second quilt reminds me of a Round Robin quit, but in this case she made it all herself! Lots of C., some swirls, and a few twisted feathers quilted in a dark cream thread. There are more close ups of this quilt in my Webshots February album!

African Dreams

African Dreams Close up

Round Robin Style

Round Robin Style, close up

This is a Irish Chain, made by Carol T. White thread was used to quilt C.C.’s in the chains, with loops and swirls everywhere else.

Irish Chain

Irish Chain, close up

And finally we have a Watercolor quilt in a trip around the world setting. I have to admit i do not have the makers name in front of me now but i will edit this post in the morning with her name!Lavender thread, nearly disappears so it is a bit hard to see the swirls and feathering int he main body of the quilt, and the leaves on the border but trust me they are there!

Watercolor Trip

Watercolor Trip, close up

Lots of photos… and boy do i mean lots!

OK, so i have not been keeping up my new years resolution to post about quilting once every week. But hopefully this will make up for the lack of updates!

First off are two quilts made by Georgia B. The first is a embroidery block quilt. i used a white thread to quilt a double ribbon on the borders and sashing and to outline the embroidery using most the pre-printed quilting lines on the blocks and improvising in a couple of spots. Next is a Calla Lilly wall quilt. Sorry there is no close up of this one, but the quilting did not show up on any of the photos. I use a matching green thread to quilt feathers in the outer area and a cream thread to quilt a small stipple around the applique.

Next are quilts made by Mary H. The first she calls this one Baby Hearts I use a white thread for the quilting that includes a lot of continuous curve quilting. The second is a Tennessee Waltz quilt.

Here are two quilts made by Martha S. I am not sure of the names of these patterns so i made some up, forgive me if they are wrong! First off is the Asian Squares, The quilting is very simple, using a cream thread I quilted a bamboo design on the border and simple X’s in the Squares The second one i call Asian Screen as it reminds me of a room divider screen! The quilting is again fairly simple Jist a spider web design and some X’s in the blocks along with a swirl border, all using Black thread.

Next is a green star made by Ann S. Quilted using a lot of Continuous Curves and a Variegated Green thread

Now we have a Jacob’s ladder quilt made by Theresa N. Lots of stitch in the ditch quilting as well as some feathers in the background using a white thread

Here is a Irish Chain quilt made by Sue G.

This quilt called First monday was made for a church raffle, lots of swirls quilted in white thread are quilting over this quilt.

Here are two embroidery quilts made by Norma S. Both were quilted using white thread. The Green quilt has some feathering and the deer quilt is more simply quilted with stipple and swirls

And last but not least are two quilts made by Gerry T. The first is a small Log Cabin wall hanging, quilted using cream thread, ruler work x’s cover the border and some feathers hide in the cream areas. Gery’s second quilt, Marrakesh Chain is quilted with a dark Tan thread, with feathers in the background, some curves in the small squares and a Double Ribbon design int he border and large print squares that are in the main body of the quilt. The fabric in this quilt is from Blank Quilting’s Marrakesh fabric collection.

Hope this makes up for everything!

Are the holidays over yet?!

Well of course not, but at least I finally got all my “have to be done by Christmas” quilts finished and nearly all are out the door! It was a busy week in my quilting studio, I spent more time there than i did in any other room of the house! not that this is bad or anything but i have started to notice all the dust and webs in the corners of the room that have obviously been there for some time. Something tells me next week may be my week off but i will be working hard to get everything nice and clean… and hopefully in some sort of order!

Before I get to the quilts let me show you a little something… have you ever wondered what happens when a quilting machine has to quilt threw the knot of fabric that is created by a number of pieces  coming together at one point? Nope, me either, but this week I was blessed with finding out. I was quilting one of the quilts I will show you bellow and hit a nice thick spot in the quilt top that I wasn’t expecting and this is what happened!

No, this was not fun a all! It messed up a couple of different things that I am not going to go into, let just say that tiny little piece in the middle had to be dug out of the bobbin case with a pair of needle nose pliers because it was stuck big time!

OK, now on to the quilts! Remember if you want to see a better view of the photos just click on them to go to my WebShots Album!

Fist off  are two quilts made by Pat H. They are both made from flannel and have Quilters Dream Poly batting. The star of the quilts are the same design but she has mixed up the borders so they are not exact copies!

Now we have a guild sampler made by Kay W. This quilt is made from blocks that were lessons at her quilt guild. This quilt took me a lot longer than I had first expected, lots of stops and starts and thread changes. There are Red Roses with Green Leaves in the larger open areas of the quilt. Black thread was also used in a number of places on the quilt. The center medallion was quilted with both red and green thread to outline the leaves and roses, and it has a Star Poly Batting. There are many, many more photos of this one at WebShots!

Here are three quilts made by Vickie F. The first one is made from embroidered heart blocks, the second is a Irish Chain, and the third is a Tennessee Waltz quilt. All three contain Quilt King poly batting.

This quilt was made by Helen M. It was made using a fabric charm pack given to her by her secret sister so she named the quilt after her!. The name is Sharon’s Roses, and let me just say the photos do not do this quilt justice as it is way more beautiful in real life!

The next quilt called Simply Sweet, was made by Becky H. and contains Quilt King Poly batting.

Lastly a Thangles Sampler in Blue and Brown made by Lisa K. This would be the infamous quilt that broke my needle! The block that gave me the problem is in the Second row, first block on the left! Even after the needle issue, I still think this one turned out great! I hope she likes it!

Well thats all for now, Next week is my normal week for me but don’t be surprised if you see a few quilt photos next week as I tend to get the itch to quilt! Talk to you all again soon!

OK so for some reason the photos are not clickable, strange I posted them the same way as I have. Of well life goes on as does the blog! The photos above are in my December WebShots album and they start on Page 3!

Busy, busy, busy!

Was it really that long ago when I loved this time of year? The holidays, the family visits, the kids screaming out loud what they want for Christmas. Quilting Machines that never breaks down during my busiest time of the year.

Yap that right the darn thing is down… Again!
Oh well nothing to do about it but fix it and I will, as soon as I get done with this post. I promise!

Well after all the fighting and challenges of finding a difference web host for my photos I am going to go back to WebShots. Why you ask? Well that new place I went to, they removed some of my photos from my albums because the were reported as offensive photos. offensive? Quilts? You have to be kidding me!?!?! Did they even go look at the photos before they deleted them or did they just hit the delete key? There was nothing in the photos that they removed but one quilting, hanging over the edge of the quilting machine, come on give me a break already!

OK, OK…
Calm Down…
Breath….
Count to ten…
1..
2..
3..
4.
5

Oh come on really! Quilts? offensive! Bull@%#$!

So back to web shots I have gone! I will update some of there albums with new photos and add some new albums if need be but in the mean time here are some photos from last weeks work!

This Weeks Work

Well I have been able to get some quilting done this week, in between a bought of dizziness and a migraine or two. man I hate this time of year, allergies are my downfall. I have suffered from hem since I was a kids. Darn things can really bring a person to there knees!Anyway a few details on what I have been able to get done this week!

The first is a embroidery baby quilt made by Colleen R. She likes to have the quilting go around the embroidery but this one had to have some quilting in the embroidery areas, they were just to large to skip over. So I did a simple stipple and some outlining.

The next is …… well I am not sure what it is called but I call it the red quilt. It was made by M.W. Some Windy meandering in the lighter background areas, some swirls on the border and some continues curve with some swirls on the reds in the center.

Another one by M.W. a Jacobs Ladder. I really love the scrappy look that this quilt has! This one has some feathering, some swirls, and some stitch in the ditch. It took some time to quilt, but I think it turned out really well in the end! I am proud of the S.I.D work, it’s some of the best that I have ever done. It may not be perfect but I think it is darn good! The quilt it’s self helped with that, it was nicely pieced and pressed well, and had only a couple a threads that needed clipped before getting started on the quilting.

And the last one from Mardi W. is a cute Umbrella quilt. Nothing to fancy on quilting here, I think the quilt spoke well without any fancy quilting. I quilted a Geo Meandering on the outer border and the larger inner border has a large double bubble fill. the sashing has a double ribbon and some C.C. in the sashing squares. The umbrellas are just some outlining, like I said nothing fancy!

And last but not least is another Double Irish Chain made by Mary H. this one is going to be a raffle quilt for a local Relay for Life event.

A pretty good week all things considered! If you would like to see a few more photos of these and other quilts i have quilted you can find them in my WebShots Albums!

  

 

Friday to Monday!

Well it been a rather productive weekend! I was able to get some quilting done! I’m trying to get as much ready to go before I leave for Paducah next week. ) I know, I know… lucky me!!! remember you can also see my photos over at WebShots!

Pink Squares was made by Janice H. She wanted some feather but said to “do what you want” this modern looking quilt didn’t scream feathers but I did get feathers on the quilt. Classy feathers were not in store but I think the ones I used worked pretty good! Now how did my cat get in the picture?!

 

The two Embroidery block quilts were made by Barb B. nothing fancy on these two just a simple all over on everything but the embroidery squares. Se wanted the quilting to go around the embroidery, so I just outlined everything. These were not easy quilts for me. For some reason my machine did not care for the fabrics in these two quilts one of them caused a tone of thread breaks and one needle break the second one had a odd man made fiber for the backing that caused some issues. but I got them done!

 

And last but not least are the quilts by Dotty K. the small wall quilt also has some matching pillows that I didn’t take photos off. You will see that I “removed” the photos and names from the quilt to give the owner a bit of privacy. I know this makes the photo of the finished quilt look odd, sorry but you’ll just have to deal!The second quilt by Dotty is a Irish chain quilt made for a local doctor from fabrics that once belonged to his mother. The machine embroidery flowers are on Linen fabric, same as the border. Dotty has made a several quilts for this doctor and the next one going in is a wool quilt also with machine embroidery what tell you see this one!

Yes!!! Jury Duty Is So Over!

(ok for some reason I can not post photo links to my web shots album. Darn WordPress upgrade has some bugs or they have blocked users from posting photos this way who really knows for sure! I do not have time to rewrite my post right now so I will post photos via WordPress and I will change everything tomorrow, if it’s working! if you want to see the larger views of my photos go here: WEBSHOTS they are in the March2008 Album and start on page 2!)

Yes! Jury Duty is so over!
I will not go into details but let just say that the lawyer for the defense was a idiot if he thought he had a chance of getting his client out of the charges that were against him. I mean he had a blood alcohol of .120 (legal limit is .08!) This trial was so riveting the prosecuting attorney was showing signs of sleeping!
Let just say that when the judge thanked us for serving a long and busy three months of duty and that we were free to go home we all ran to our cars as fast as we could, just in case they changed there minds! Oh well maybe my life can get back to normal now!
The weeks I have spent on jury duty have really put my farther behind on work than I wanted to be right now. not only on my quilting but on my bloging as well!

Also on the home front this week my cat Yuffie had her kittens Thursday! Four adorable little boys and one cut little girl. Sorry no photos yet, I want to give her a few days before I try moving them around, all new mothers need some bonding time! Finding homes for kittens can sometimes be a real bear. luckily four of them are boys, always easy to find homes for than the girls! I always stress having your pet spayed or neutered, there are way to many unwanted pets out there that do not get the care that they need and the love they deserve. In the area tat I live I see numbers of animals being “dumped” by uncaring and un unrespectful so call owners. Okay enough I wont go into this now but I think you can all see the way that I feel on this subject!

Ok now on to some photos!

I will just be posting a few work photos. I did do more than I am showing but I have a customer that has requested that I not post photos of her quilts on my blog. She does not think her quilting is good enough! Well just to let you know her sewing skills are darn near perfect much better than some that I have quilted, my own included! But I will respect her wishes and will not be posting the photos of her quilts on my blog or over in my WebShots album. Please enjoy the other photos I’m posting!

(remember if you want to see a larger view of the photo just click on the photo below and it will take you to my WebShots album were you can view the photo you clicked and all the others!)

the first two were made by J.B. the way she talked she didn’t care for the green one, it didn’t turn out the way she expected. I am not a fan of green but I do really like this quilt! All the shades of green just make me change my mind about green! The little baby quilt has some machine embroidery blocks, so cute!

These two are made by the Aunt of the customer. only problem is I can not remember her name right now! I know, that’s very bad, but to try and make this look better for me please understand that I have never met the customer face to face. A friend of hers and of mine always bring the quilts to me and I can only think of the friends name right now! Anyway they were made by the customers Aunt ( I think aunt! )

These following were made by a good customer and a greater friend Mary H. A Jacobs ladder quilt and a snowball variation that Mary’s Granddaughter likes to call the Life Saver Quilt, wonder how she came up with that one?!

 

 

 

J.B.’s Green Quilt #1

J.B.’s Green Emb. #2

J.B’s Baby Quilt #1

J.B’s Baby Quilt #2

Dahlia #1

Irish Chain

Mary’s Jacobs Ladder

Mary Jacobs ladder #2

Back of the Jacobs ladder quilt

Marys Life Savers Quilt

MArys Life Savers Quilt Close Up

Dahlie Quilt large view