Finishes!

I have my friend's Faith, Hope, and Love quilt from McKenna Ryan completed. I took the blocks to my local quilt store and just laid them out on different batiks. This dark border and sashing fabric had lots of green in it that just blended beautifully with the blocks. I really thought I was going to get a very light color border fabric but the dark just brought out the colors in the block beautifully. I love it and my friend did also, it has already gone home with her.

After finishing my friend's quilt, I started some quick chain pieced flying geese blocksI finished two fall table runners:The pumpkin quilt is made from batiks, really fast and easy. It is a pattern called Pumpkin Party by Pearl Louise Designs.

The second table runner used my flying geese patches:

It is a pattern called September Sparkler by Birch Creek Quilts. The "sparkler" part comes from embellishing the leaves with iron on Swaraski crystals - can you see them sparkling in the picture? There were a couple beautiful quilts at the local guild quilt show this past summer with crystal embellishments and this little table runner was just the perfect size to try it out. They were a little fiddly to work with, but I got out the tweezers to place them just so and then added them after I quilted the table runner. The instructions said to iron from the back but since I had already quilted the table runner, I put a piece of cotton on the top of the placed crystals to act as an ironing cloth and set the crystals with the iron on the top. It seemed to work pretty well, I have flicked them with my fingernail and they seem pretty secure.

Have a good week all,

Happy Stitching,

Cheri

McKenna Ryan and Balloon Glow

I have been working this week on the blocks for the McKenna Ryan quilt Faith, Hope, & Love. The blocks are assembled and now I am going to add sashing and a border. The patterns show these 12 inch blocks mounted on artists canvas and hanging them separately, but I am making these for a friend who would like them as a wall quilt. I think a bit of the appliques get lost in the multiple background fabrics, not enough contrast, hopefully I can bring them out a little with the quilting.
The local vineyards around Omaha hosted a wine tasting and balloon glow last weekend. I attended with a few THOUSAND of my fellow Nebraska residents.

It was a very popular event, so much so, we could hardly get to the wine tasting tents and just said the heck with it, got a whole glass of wine instead of trying different wines, settled in our lawn chairs and enjoyed watching the balloons preparing for take off.At dusk the balloons returned and lit their gas burners for the glow, just beautiful.

Happy Stitching!

A Ghastlie Pillowcase

My sister in law saw a recent post about a customer quilt I quilted that used the fabric line Ghastlie Manor from Alexander Henry. She wanted to know where to get the main fabric because my nephew currently loves creepy, scary, eerie things (much to her chagrin because he is a preacher's kid, : ) don't you know PKs are always the worst ones in the bunch). Anyway, I sent her the info about the fabric line and a couple websites of where to order it but I also went right to my local quilt store and got a little so I could make a couple pillowcases. There are lots of pillowcase patterns on line but I used the instructions from Lazy Girl and I made two in about an hour. So Orden John, they are in the mail on the way to your house, one for you and one not so scary one for your sister Sherrie. Happy, happy dreams you guys! I also have had a couple quilts on the long armmachine lately, love this Plummage pantograph by Willow Tree. This quilt belongs to Donna, she is making it for her granddaughter. I also quilted this lovely little musical quilt that Donna made for a friend, very pretty.

Happy Stitching All

The Humble T Shirt Quilt's Place In History

I am very fond of T shirt quilts. They are so personal, a collection of a hobby, such as car shows in the quilt above, high school memories, vacations, or sports. Wasn’t it just natural to make these collections of clothing into a quilt, just like our great grandmothers used precious scraps of clothing while piecing quilts in prior generations? The T shirt quilt is so well known toeven non crafty people, a gift enjoyed equally by males and females, young and old.

T shirt quilts can be taken on by those who barely know how to sew with their simple straight lines, large pieces, and usually only one or two coordinating fabric choices. And yet they offer a chance to be creative, choosing or finding just the perfect coordinating fabric like the car fabric for the car show quilt, or the dog paw print fabric for the high school bulldogs team shirts, or bicycles on the bike ride shirts.I have made a t shirt quilt for my daughter with pictures from her senior year in high school scanned and transferred onto fabric and added as the corner stones and stars in the quilt.
As quilter’s we love to look at antique quilts and we all hope our quilt’s make it to future generations to be loved and treasured. Material culture is a term that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. The study of material objects (material as in items - not fabric) to get a historical look at past societies. I think the T shirt quilts we are making now will tell future generations more about our current society than any other quilts we are currently making.They are the bread and butter of my little long arm quilting business and I love seeing the different T shirt collections that come under my needle.
Happy Stitching All