Garden complete

So, my "Midnight in the Garden" quilt is complete. Binding, sleeve, even label in place.
Unfortunately, I have a hard time getting a photo that really shows the quilting. It is so much prettier in real life!
I have a hard time giving this one up. Still, I believe in the cause. If any of you want to bid on this quilt it will be auctioned off at the HMQS quilt show on Saturday, the 12th of May from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. Minimum bid $100. The quilt is 49x49 inches.

Midnight in the Garden

Ok, so I have spent WAY too long putting together a charity quilt. My excuse is that I hope to be able to use it as advertising. It is for a Riley Blake challenge and I saw last years. I know I won't win the challenge but I hope not to be the bottom of the pile either.
My flowers are all dimensional, which is what took me so long. I knew what I wanted but not how to achieve it. Well, I did achieve what my plan was, however, it is so busy that the overall look isn't what I would have wanted. Too late now. I have to turn it in by Saturday.


Don't ask me why these pictures came out sideways. I didn't take them that way.
Now all I have to do is make the back, and quilt it. Oh, and bind it, and make a hanging sleeve, and put on a label. See my problem? And I have quilts to quilt!

latest jobs

Isn't this cute? I think she appliqued on all the circles, and the rest is pieced, but the circles came out so perfectly. I love how the center of the flower is just a little off center, just like a real flower would be - so I had to emphasis that.
Of course, my pictures loaded out of order again! Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Do I need to load one at a time? I didn't used to have to. This is a close up of the corner of a tree quilt.

This photo is to show you the clouds, rainbows and birds in the sky behind the tree.
And here is the whole tree. You can see why I had to show you close ups - you sure can't make out details even this far away!
And a close up of the bows and blocks quilt. Darling fabric. I think she took the class at Morganson's in Payson.

Charity Quilts

Ok, so these didn't load in the order I wanted, or even the order I uploaded them in, but. . . .
This is a closeup of a quilt I quilted for the daughter of one of the policemen shot down in Ogden recently. The quilting is double hearts and daisies. I wish you could see it better because it really is cute.
This is the Quilts of Valor Quilt I did for the Utah Valley Quilt Guild.
Here is a close up of the quilting. You still can't tell really what it says. The border says "Thank you" and "Freedom isn't free" Inside the quilt along with an eagle, waving flag, star and award are the words "respect, honor, and thank you" It looks better than you can tell from the photo.
And this is the longer view of the little girls quilt. It's called X's and O's. The ladies in my bee did the blocks and one of them - the one who headed up the whole thing, set them. The stopborder is a brown and cream pocka dot and the border has tiny little squares of pink and brown and cream. I hope she likes it.

A quilt for an injured veteran

Yesterday was service day at Utah Valley Quilt Guild. I helped tie 3 quilts, put a label on one, ironed for someone working on a Quilts of Valor quilt, and then started this jelly roll races quilt to make another quilts of valor. I ran out of time so I finished it today and will start quilting it as soon as the backing is out of the dryer. I'll try to keep you posted on what I quilt on it - not sure which way I'll go.

Cactus Flower

I started this top soon after I started learning to quilt - took a class at Quilt Fest. I didn't know enough to do something this complicated and made many mistakes, had to resew too many seams and it still is a bit distorted. I would like to enter it in the HMQS competition. Remember - I won an award there last year, and would like to do something wonderful this year. This quilt is supposed to have wide black borders with vines and flowers appliqued on it. However, the quilt pattern is called cactus flower, and I would prefer to applique on a cactus in bloom. I can't draw. Would any of you artistic relatives be willing to draw me a simple cactus in bloom that I could use as an applique? I still have to figure out what I want to quilt on it too. I'll keep you posted.

A Customers quilt

I just finished my latest customer quilt. Makes rather a good whole cloth doesn't it?
She wanted traditional quilting - mostly stitch in the ditch and crosshatching.
I talked her into a few flowers and leaves in borders to soften the look.
Had a few piecing problems but altogether rather a beautiful quilt. Not cheap, unfortunately. (Sorry ladies). Had I been trying for a whole cloth I would have buried the knots, which would have added even more to the cost. I spent over 40 hours quilting this puppy! Oh, and she created the pattern on EQ.

By the way, it is finally snowing. It has been a weird, cold winter with almost no snow til now.

My latest wholecloth

A glimpse of a quilt I am doing for someone else, and my latest try at a whole cloth. Unfortunately, after I had finished it I realized it is too small by 20 inches circumference to put in the competition I wanted to enter. Sigh. I could try again slightly larger if I could find some 60 inch fabric or wanted to seam the top, or I could color this one and enter it as an art quilt. What do you think?

Award winning quilt photo

Here I am with my winning quilt, and the ribbon. Unfortunately you can't see much of the quilting that won me the award. Anyway, I am so thrilled I can't stand it.

Getting better

I won the BEST ROOKIE award at HMQS!!! That is a really big deal quilt show and I am thrilled to death! I won with the cream and blue baby quilt with feathers, and I will try to take a photo of it tomorrow hanging with it's ribbon. Hurray!
By the way, I am taking a number of quilting classes that are all making me a better quilter. Love that Long Arm Quilting Machine.

quilts and decks

Ok, so, again with the picture problem. Heather is helping me to fix it, but I haven't yet bought the lights I need. This is a poor shot of the last freehand quilting I did. I really like it, but don't know if anyone else will. It was a good exercise though.
I hope to get our stuff up on the website soon, but I want good pictures so people can tell what they are buying.

I also wanted to show you what we have been working on lately. We rented an auger and dug huge holes in the hillside. (Lots of BIG rocks) Then I moved MANY wheelbarrow loads of dirt and rocks out, flattened as best I could and John framed today. We are building a deck!!! Then we will put in a fence from the deck to the side fence in an attempt to keep out the neighbors cats and the people who seem to wander at will through my backyard. (I find tracks every time it snows. Sheesh!)

Roses and feathers

For this quilt, which is for charity, I wanted to try my hand at quilting completely freehand. Remember that I have a Statler Stitcher with hundreds of beautiful patterns created by top designers. However, I still find people who want the freehand look.
I need practice, so I tried to match my pattern to the fabric, which is roses. I got pretty good balance I believe, but my next is better. I will post it later.

A little extra

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I have been practicing my quilting and am getting better. For this quilt, the woman wanted to keep it as low priced as possible, hence the simple meander on the body of the quilt. I wanted to add some sports stuff since her son - whom the quilt is for, is into all kinds of ball. You can't see much, but I added some of all the sports I had at the time. She liked it which was very important.