Tasty Thank You!

Around noon today, we got a call from Edible Arrangements asking if we would be home to receive a perishable delivery? I was pretty sure it was a mistake - perhaps someone had given them the wrong phone number. Today is not a birthday here or any other occasion. But no, they had my name, the delivery was intended for me. Hmm.... what could this be about?


It's from Robin's Dad/Jewel's husband, CJ. (He and I share the same initials!) - it came with his hand-written note thanking me for helping to finish Jewel's Baskets. What a sweet surprise - pretty, too!

The Shindig Quilt continued

I finished the quilting part of the raffle quilt for the Shindig.  Photos were delayed when I dropped the camera  - we're limping along until we can get a new lens. Surprisingly, these came out: we get good light in the afternoon on the lower slope of the driveway.

Here's one of the entire quilt -

 And of course some closeups to see the quilting!

The four stars with white backgrounds got the simpler motif set in a circle, - then there is curved cross-hatching on two scales (1/2 inch and 1/4 inch) with some feathers to fill out the surrounding white area.

The stars on a blue background got the more complicated version of the motif set in the circle.  Then I surrounded the star with  a feathered circle - maybe it's a feathered wreath, but I usually think of a wreath having the feathers on the outside of the ring - or both sides. Here the feathers are just to the inside.  The space between the star points and the feathers has a simple meander.  Outside the circle are 1/4 spaced lines. You can also see the corner and  side triangle motifs in this photo.

This next photo shows a detail of the wide blue border - half circles, feathered like the ones above, with lines spaced at 1/2 inch inside and outside.  The very outer border is scalloped and the scallops are filled with more curved cross-hatching.

I have to include one last shot to show how the designs worked together.

Jewel's Baskets

Back in 2008, when I was still quilting professionally, and shortly before we moved, Jewel asked if I would quilt a quilt she was piecing. I agreed and put her on my schedule - always about six months out for custom work. Her time on my schedule came and went and she hadn't brought the quilt to me. There are a lot of reasons a person might change their mind about having me finish their quilts, so I didn't say anything.

Some time later, Jewel's daughter Robin asked me if I had Jewel's quilt. Jewel had forgotten where it was. The missing quilt turned out to be an early symptom of the Alzheimer's Disease that killed Jewel in early 2011. I contacted Robin after the funeral was over to say that I knew she would find her mother's quilt, and when she did, I would be happy and honored to quilt it for her family. Robin let me know when she found it, and put the final borders on the quilt. I just got back from delivering the quilt to Robin.


Jewel was a beautiful woman, and I knew Jewel's Baskets would be beautiful and a pleasure to work on. Her quilts were always pretty, made with rich colors in quality fabrics. This one turned out to be a king-sized quilt with plenty of room for traditional quilting.

Robin is an accomplished quilter, and she likes to incorporate circles in her designs, so feathered wreaths were the obvious choice for the setting blocks. I made a swag to fit the side and corner triangles.


To let Jewel's work be the star of the quilt, I kept the quilting to a minimum on her baskets. They got simple cross hatching while the flowers in them got simple continuous curves, with leaves quilted on the green fabrics. The red inner border has classic Egg and Dart, based on a circle.


Robin pieced the backing out of seven different floral prints. Sorry about this photo, but I had to rumple it up because it was much larger than the 2 king sheets I laid it on for protection on the driveway, the only place close to big enough to see the entire quilt.


I know Jewel's family will treasure her quilt.

A small glimpse

Quilting the Shindig Raffle quilt is coming along well. I was smarter than usual and am taking photos of what I have done so far. Because I enhanced my paper design plan right on the quilt, as I roll, I will forget what I've done. I usually have to roll the quilt back and forth a lot to remind myself. Photos will be much faster, and more accurate than a drawing.


For example, in this area, I wound up placing my long curves (the ones that have the feathers inside the large triangle) a visual extension of some of the curves in the motif. It does show up nicely from the distance of the photo. I think this will be pretty marching around the stars.

The quilting motif inside the 6 inch circle is a modified portion of a design from a 1930's era Better Homes and Gardens quilting pullout. Our committee of three started with an idea of a traditional quilt, though we took a turn to more contemporary with the fabric choices. Although there is also a contemporary flair to my quilting, I'm using designs based on tradition -- cross hatching, feathers, circles and straight lines. I like to repeat designs. The one shown here also appears in the blue stars in the field of the quilt. I used a more complex version of the same design in the field's white stars. I was able to re-use stencils I made of these two designs for a quilt I worked on for Dorry back in 2009 - see photos of the quilt and motif source at the end of this post.

I thought I might be working on this quilt for up to three weeks, but it's been a lot of fun and the quilt is already approaching 1/4th finished... I just started on Saturday.

Now it's my turn....

Last year, Alice and Ann made the raffle quilt for the local Folk Heritage Committee and Shindig on the Green. The Shindig is an Asheville tradition since 1967. Every Saturday night in the summer, "along about sundown," local bluegrass and old-time musicians along with traditional clogging groups perform in free outdoor concerts. The Folk Heritage Committee also puts on the annual Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, an indoor concert with some of our favorite local acts, which dates back to 1928.

I was very honored that Alice and Ann asked me to help with the fundraiser quilt this year. We have since met several times to come up with a concept, discuss designs, and cut out the fabrics they purchased. Alice and Ann did a wonderful job precisely piecing the stars and setting blocks, and put the center of the quilt together. I have just finished putting on the two borders (the pieced blue and yellow inner border, and the solid blue outer one) and am getting ready to start quilting this queen sized quilt.


We hope the traditional stars, bright colors, and queen size of our quilt will help the committee sell more raffle tickets than ever. Now I have to decide on my quilting plan and get on it!

A Vogue Knitting success

I just finished this "Drape Neck Top" from last year's Vogue Knitting.



The gap in the front lower edging is intended. I thought it looked odd, but decided to knit the top as designed. It's growing on me.

Here's a closeup of the drape neck treatment the magazine named the design for, and the ribbon-lace effect that splits at the "v" and travels up to the shoulders.

I had to take a few shots to try to capture the drape of the fabric and design. The blue color is closer to those I took in the sunlight with heavy shadows.



I started this project in December, as a break after a solid month working on that large throw - after two sets of the lace on the throw, I allowed myself a few rows on this one. The back was completed by the time I finally got the throw done.




The yarn is 100% cotton - I think this will be very comfortable and cool to wear when the weather warms up.


With our early spring, those hot days of summer seem like they are very near.

Joyce has a new quilt!

Joyce's quilt is completed except for a label - I told Joyce if the quilt is going to get a name, she gets to pick it.


I shipped the quilt to her on Tuesday and she got it today. On Monday, I put an old sheet on the slope of the driveway where it had no tree shadows to get a better picture of the colors than I could get in the studio - the quilt is too large to hang from my quilt display rack.




And of course there have to be a few pictures to show the quilting. I had the most fun with the curved rays in the accent triangles, and the triangles on the border made from the custom dyed fabric, by Vicki Welsh.


My goal was to keep the quilting graphic, fairly open, and to enjoy it, which I did.

Finally, I'll include one last view of the quilt in Joyce and Don's house - with Noni, since you always have to have a cat in quilt photos.


What's your next quilting project going to be Joyce?

The Greenest Quilt ever

This quilt is an international cooperation. It's a new quilt for Dorry's son Casey. Casey's aunt Kerry - Dorry's sister - made the top, choosing fabrics to remind Casey of his New Zealand heritage. New Zealand landscapes are known for their beautiful intense greens, and green is Casey's favorite color.


The photos were lit to show the quilting and so some of the non-green seems to be highlighted by the camera. Trust me, this quilt is Green Green Green!


We picked an all over New Zealand-based motif called Rotorua - the name evokes pleasant family memories. This close up shows the curls in the leaf shapes.


Kerry made the top, I quilted it and sent it to Dorry, who is putting the binding on. I hope Casey likes his Serene Green reminder of his other home, New Zealand.


I am not quilting for hire anymore, but Kerry thanked me for my labors on this quilt with a very special gift from New Zealand just for me! It came sealed up in plastic, but there was something about it that made Lu very interested.


and Lily likewise. The yarn contains Merino wool - something New Zealand is famous for - but also a good percentage of soft Possum fiber.



The postcard from Kerry in both photos shows the New Zealand possum. It's not related to our North American marsupial possum except by name, so this is a very special yarn in our hemisphere. Kerry sent me plenty enough to make a long sleeved sweater.

Lida Rose

For once I have a name for a quilt! The original block had four pinwheels and my first quilt in this series was named for a song. So I chose to think about musical themes, with Four-Part Harmony for my inspiration and landed on the barbershop quartets in The Music Man. Dorry chose the June Bride theme for these challenges, and Meredith Wilson's lyrics to Lida Rose include "I'll pop the question" and "I can hear the chapel bell chime." The link is to a You Tube version with the Buffalo Bills doing the duet of Lida Rose with Shirley Jones singing "Will I Ever Tell You."

So here she is, ready for display.


This side angle permits you to see the quilting on the dark part of the pinwheels, contrasted with my solution to the mis-matched seams on the light part. I wanted to push it to the background, but I often like to use channel stitching for contrast. I used simple stipple meander to create a border for the channel stitching I enclosed in an echoed triangle.



Now I can relax and look forward to seeing what the rest of the group did.

Spectacular color!

Vicki Welsh's custom hand dyed fabric for Joyce's quilt arrived yesterday and it is gorgeous! Today I finished getting the quilt ready to start machine quilting. Vicki's piece could not be more perfect with the color wash Joyce created with all the triangles of red, purple and blue -

I've taken a couple of shots from closer up for Joyce to admire the new borders -

Vicki died a three-yard length of fabric so no piecing of this border was required. She put blue on both ends, red in the center, and a couple of shades of purple between on both sides. Here's a shot from the perspective of the bluest part of Joyce's quilt-


Usually, our camera turns purples into a weird red color. This time, it seems it got carried away with the reds, intensifying them so they look pixilated in this photo.

One taken from the opposite corner - I sent Vicki some sample triangles from the red and blue parts of this quilt - she filled in with the purples.


It was extremely easy and fast to get this custom piece made! Just as a reminder, Vicki's hand dyes can be purchased from her Etsy shop.

(earlier blog posts of Joyce's quilt can be seen by clicking on the "Joyce's New Quilt" label at the end of this post)