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Crossroads Harvest Of Quilts 2011 Raffle Quilt
I finished this one up earlier this week!
We have a great guild, and once again Sue W. was in charge of the raffle quilt for our next show. Sue has been in charge of the raffle quilt for the past few years, and has a great group to help her out when it comes to making the quilt top. This year they chose a Burgoyne Surrounded pattern. The fabrics were purchased (i believe) at our local quilt shop Angie’s Nine Patch in Effingham IL, and Quilters Dream Poly batting was used with a white on cream backing fabric. I used a Dyed natural thread as it matched very well with the all the colors of the fabric, saving some time not having to change colors of thread!
i have quilted this particular pattern only once before, but i wanted to do something “more” quilting wise for the raffle quilt. What a great time to get quilt block huh?! i ended up taking a few photos of the quilt, printed them out and used them to sketch the quilting designs on until i found a set of designs that i liked. I was also a bit leery with this years quilt as a couple of guild members were overheard at last years show saying that the quilt had to much quilting on it. I wanted to have that WOW factor but i didn’t want to do to much to take away from the quilt pattern itself. This made it harder to come up with the designs for the quilting! Feathers,of course, (in the background area) had to be included as they always draws attention to the quilt, and i decided to go with a simple piano key border, simple yes but every quilter in my area loves the treatment so i went with it! i did some simple lines in the actual design portion of the quilt block to keep the flow going, then add in a few swirls and it done! I am concerned that the quilting is not consistent over the entire quilt. The feathers are more close together than the lines and swirls but i think with the batting used it will be OK, i think!
See how the feathers swirls around in the same direction? I had to watch this lick a hawk! I had to frog a section as i quilted the feathers the wrong way. 20 minutes to quilt its, five hours to take it out!
This is the back of the quilt, see how the feathers are closer together than the lines and swirls? i am hoping this will be OK but the more i look at it the more i think i should have added something more in that area to fill it in some.
Raffle tickets will be available soon from any Crossroads Quilters Guild member as well as at the show!
I will be sure to post more info on the show soon, lots of changes this year most importantly being a new venue!
Thanks for taking a look!
Photos Updated!
Just to let you all know i have finally updated my Webshots album for December 2011′s Customer quilting!
I’m not going to post them all here but if you want to see them just click the photo below and it will take you to the album!
Like this:
Quilt photos!
OK, after that last “vent” of a blog post i thought i would let you all see a few photos of my machine quilting for the past month or so. Not all the quilt i have quilted during this time are posted just some of my more favorite ones! If you want to see more photos check out my WebShots Album or just click on a photo!
Snowman, machine Embroidery
Bullseye
Dragonfly’s
Day & Night
Broken Star
Broken Star
?- anyone know the name please let me know!
Victory Garden Sampler
I made a promise a long time ago…
I made a promise to myself a long time ago….
“NO MORE DOUBLE WEDDING RING QUILTS!”
Yap, i like most quilters who have made my way to the more advanced quilting patterns have made a double wedding ring quilt. And like most of the quilters that have made one i to have said i will never make another one… EVER AGAIN! It’s not that it was a difficult quilt to make, it was just so blasted time consuming . OK , let me admit it, I got bored with it. And i made the striped pieced version were you sew strips together then you use a plastic template to cut out the curves. Still i just didn’t enjoy making it. It took me over a year to complete and i think i only completed it when i was threatened by my Aunt G who had purchased the fabrics for me to make the thing. In the end it turned out pretty good, if i do say so myself, on ly problem was i couldn’t use it! Here have a look….
Oh wait, Yap no photo of the thing!
Can’t you tell i LOVED it SO MUCH?!
I’ll try to describe it for you, the background was a Black Moda Marble, the small bits were all pastel shades of Moda Marbles as well. So why couldn’t i use it you ask? Well duh it was black, and i have way to many cats that leave long hairs everywhere they go and even places they don’t go! Hey that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! So i had gift it to my Aunt Irene and Uncle Phil for their 50th wedding anniversary. Hey it looks great in their bedroom, oddly enough it looks like i made it just for that room. Wish i could find that darn photo they sent me! OK, OK, so i probably could have used the quilt myself but to be honest i was so no into the thing when it was finished and Uncle Phil said he really liked the way it looked so why not right?!
Why the sudden interest in a Double Wedding Ring Quilt? Because of this photo that showed up on my Facebook wall this week…
Yap, them colors just scream my name! The photo come from the AccuQuilt website. Now i do not have the AccuCut Go system that this photo is selling, and i can’t see buying one just to make this one quilt. But i do still have that template set that i use the first time, well i am pretty sure i still have it in the sewing room anyway. I should be able to make that work right? After all i am positive i had some perfect fabrics in the perfect colors to make one darn close to what the one in the photo looks like. i should just make one right?
Well i want to but i am still doing my best to talk myself out of it! Well if i do make it i need to get it started ASAP if i want to have it in the next Harvest of Quilts show. it’s less than a year away and the first one took over a year to make. i would really have to be dedicated until i get it finished.
What am i thinking?! Am i Crazy or what!
Yap, you guessed it, I’m gonna go pull out some of my fabrics and see what i can come up with! See you all again when i come up for air!
Catching up!
Its been a week now that that the quilt show is over and things are starting to get back to normal, slowly but surly back to normal! i spent most of this week just getting everything put away back were it belongs. I still have a bit more cleaning to do but it requires getting a few more things put away first. I did take some time this week to get caught up on uploading photos to webshots, all the ones that i had put on Flicker are now available on webshots. I know everyone LOVES Flicker, and i did give it a good try, but i still find myself going back to Webshots it just works better for me. Also got most of the quilt show photos posted under a new account just for the Quilt Guild.
As you saw from the last post i fell down the stairs… again. I swear i am the most clumsiest person i know! Well the fall might have had something to do with the dog toy on the second step but still i fall down the stairs at least once a month, this is really starting to get old!
The Crossroads Quilters Guild harvest of Quilts show & contest, well i must say this was our best show ever! I’m not sure if it is because we finally have it down to a art, or if it was the great help we had from the local World Changer group. very year we have helpers to help us put up the show frames, hang the quilts, move tables, and then to take it all down when the show is over. This year we were lucky to find the World Changers group, we had so great workers both kids and adults that put in a lot of time and effort to help us out. The best example as to how well they worked is this… This ear the last quilt was hung at 9:00pm in years past the earliest i have ever been able to leave was around 11:30 pm. They were there to work, and they did a amazing job! Our judges this year were from the Salem IL. Happy Hearts (is that the correct name?!) quilt guild. The arrived bright and early at 7:00am on Friday morning and started judging right away. They had a task ahead of them what with 13 categories to judge. If you are interested in who one you can find out here: Crossroads Harvest of Quilts 2010
I was lucky to win two ribbons at this years show, both First and Second in the Miniature category. My first place ribbon was for my Cosmic Star Mini quilt. It actually took me just as long to quilt it as it did to make it. It was made as a copy of a quilt my aunt made that was also in the show titled Cosmic Star. It was after i filled out the entry forms that i learned the real name of the quilt was Cosmic Jewels not star. Oh well no one is perfect right?! My second place ribbon was titled “Girl are you crazy?!” I got the name from a friend that said exactly that when she was watching me make the tiny Nine Patch blocks. It to was a copy of another quilt i had in the show Nine Patch. I made it to display the quilting more than the piecing. Here are a couple photos of my ribbon winners!
Did you notice the tags are switched on the quilts? Goodness the person in charge of taking the quilt should really make sure she gets them right next year?! Oh right… that was me!
A few of my customer quilts got ribbons as well….
Gwen O.’s Sunbonnet Sue Ultimate got a first place ribbon in the Mixed Technique category
Nita M.’s My Sweetheart Quilt, won a Second Place ribbon in the Pieced or Wholecloth, Custom Machine Quilted category
And Mary H.’s quilt titled Dizzy Geese won a Third place ribbon in the Pieced or Wholecloth, Custom Machine Quilted category
Now, this was my last year as being the person in charge of the quilt show, next year however i will be the assistant chairman of the show, second to Marilyn S. I know she will do a great job and i think her greatly for volunteering to take over!
Ok, i think that about it for now. You can find a lot of new photos in my WebShots albums, and i will be adding more in the next few days.
Thanks to you all for stink with me after all the blog confusion! And don’t forget you can find me on Facebook! Elizabeth Karnes
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!
Quilts from November
Sorry about the lack or Machine quilting photos & updates lately, I’ve been in a bit of a funk and just have been having to force myself get work done. So i thought i would post a few favorites from November…
First a couple of quilts made by Pat H.
I loved her Dresden plate (a fave pattern of mine!) The back or of the quilt turned out looking great to!
The Santa quilt was made using pre-printed panels, the quilting was pretty simple, but added that final Christmas touch with the Holly leaves in the border.
Another Dresden plate, this time made by Shirley A.
This last one I’m going to share for now, Is from Leta W. I’m not sure of the name but i wanted to share it anyway. This was one the the quilting designs just jumped into my head the minute i saw the quilt, it doesn’t happen ofter but this quilt really talked to me. The quilt top itself was started by a family member, then was finished by Leta’s Husband. I think he did a amazing job at finishing it up, great points, and a perfectly straight border defiantly speaks of his piecing and cutting skills!
Well that’s all for now, check back soon for a few quilts from last week!
Some customer quilting… finaly!
I have been really bad at posting customer quilting lately, but to be honest i have a really good reasons! First off, you can only look at so many t-shirt quilts and Irish Chains before you go nuts, and i have quilted a lot of them lately! Anyway here are some of this past weeks machine quilting work!
First up is a quilt i actually quilted a couple months ago. i wanted to wait until Dolores picked it up before i posted any photos of it. The quilting isn’t fancy, pretty basic actually, but it turned out pretty good. i am not sure of the name for this scrappy quilt, so if any of you know please tell me!
Next up are a couple of quilts made by Mary S. Now Mary hasn’t seen these in person yet, she will be picking them up Monday so i am not sure how she lies them yet. i always worry until the customer see there quilt first hand. The first one is made with LARGE Drunkards Path blocks, all in Batiks even the back! i used variegated thread top and bottom and Mary sent a low loft polyester batting so it has a little puff but not much. I am really happy with the border on this quilt, it was a new border design for me and i think it was perfect for this quilt. It just didn’t scream feathering, but i wanted something different. I quilted a spine then did a fern type feather on one side of the spine then a swirl on the other side. The blocks themselves are quilted with a curved design or swirls with a simple up & down straight line background quilting. Yap, I Really love how this one turned out!
Mary’s second quilt, I have been calling it Bricks & Squares is a new quilt pattern for me. I’m not sure of the name, or even if it might possibly be a original design? Anyway I used a dark brick red thread for all the quilting, swirls for the borders and some fills in the pieces block that kind of went along with the fabric designs. This one turned out pretty good to but i still love her batik quit!
The last quilt i will be sharing was made by Connie S. It was made for i gift for her son who is coming home for a visit this upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. It is a Snowball Star pattern and i used Hobb’s 80/20 batting with Mother Goose color thread. This is, i believe, Connie’s 2nd quilt. She is doing pretty darn good on her piecing and her pressing is just perfect! And lets talk a bit about here wonderful flat borders! Its always great to have a quilt that I don’t have to worry about Easing in a waving borders! Great work Connie!
Ok, that is for sharing this week, hope you have enjoyed the little show! There is at least one close up photo of each of the above quilts in my November 2009 Customer Quilting Webshots Album! Or you can just click ont he quilt you want to see close up to go directly to that photo, the close up shot(s) will be the next ones in line!
Crossroad Harvest Of Quilts
This past Friday & Saturday was the Crossroad Harvest Of Quilts show and contest. I am one of the co-chairmen for the show so it was a very busy week getting all the last minute things ready to go. In the end we all had a great time, and learned even more about the other member of the quilt guild.
Once again, this year i took photos of each quilt to put on a CD for the guild members, i have also posted the photos on my WebShots page so if you would like to check them out you can go here :
Crossroad Harvest of Quilts 2009
A number of the quilts that i machine quilted won ribbons, so of course i am going to brag a bit!
First up is Chresta E.’s Brown Bear, it won a third place ribbon in the Baby Juvenal category
Chresta also won a 2nd place ribbon for her Illusion’s quilt in the Pieced or Wholecloth, Custom Machine Quilted category.
Most cool of all was the Mary H.’s Lone Country Star quilt won a first place in the Pieced or Wholecloth Custom Machine Quilted category, but best of all, she also won Judge’s Best if Show!
I also won a third place ribbon for my miniature Split Nine Patch quilt, Don’t get me wrong i am thrilled that i won, but i am just not happy with my piecing on this one. I wish i could have taking more time to get it just right.
If you would like to see better views of some of the quilts listed above in other blog postings,
A big congrats to ALL the winners of the show!
A Huge THANK YOU to all the helpers at the show including the local 4-H Ambassadors who helped to set up & take down the frames!
And to our Vendors at the show, thank for attending and i hope to see you all again next year!
September, My Favorite Month & Some Customer Quilting!
OK so ya, its my birthday month, so of course i like it! I have never understood why people get so sensitive about birthdays, whats one more year? OK so in a few years when i say i am not ever getting any older, remind me i said that! My birthday falls on the 14th, and i will be turning 33, and I will be spending the day at quilt guild meetings. One for the upcoming show and a second one that night to finalize all the last minute stuff. Yap, fun day.
Anyway, earlier this week, before the disaster with my machine i was able to get a few quits finished. Keeping myself busy helped to keep my mind of of other Stuff. But when the quilting stop it all cam rushing back. Dennis is getting worse everyday. today he stopped responding to us, and can no longer swallow. Thursday before he stopped responding he let us know that he was in pain. The nurses called in stronger pain medication and it arrived today. The Hospice Nurses are saying his passing could come at any time now. I hate the thought of seeing him leave us, but i know he will be in a better place and free of the pain. For now we wait, and leave each moment as it is the last we have with him.
First up in the list of quilts from this week is a quilt titled Day & Night, made by Chresta E. Quilted simply because of the heavy seems were all the points of fabric come together. One thing you don’t want to do is hit one of the thick spots! Trust when i say the outcome ain’t pretty!
And now we have two quilts made by Colette F. First up is a baby quilt using the X-Block ruler. Frog, yap, Frogs. What more can i say? OK i can say i think Colette has a thing for frogs (more on this later!)
The second quilt from Colette is her Guild Challenge quilt. A little back story… this is the first year our guild, The Crossroad Quilters Guild, has done a challenge quilt. What we did was have everyone who wished to participate to pick these four things, a quilt block pattern, a color, a thing other than a animal, and a animal. These items were each placed in four different bags and one was picked from each bag. We ended up with the following, Log Cabin Pattern, the color Brown, a Apple, and … a Frog. Wanna’ guess who picked the frog?! Come on Colette, a frog is a Amphibian not a animal! Anyway the challenge give was to make something, anything from a quilt to a bag could be made as long as it contained all four of the items that were picked from the bags. Thanks for the frog Colette, i will get back at you for this one, just you wait!
More photos of Colette’s frog quilt are in my September WebShots Album!
