Some Charity Edge to Edge

Happy August!


Summers often seem so busy with vacations, family visits, and other stuff, and I hope you have all been enjoying some special times.


I have had these charity quilts from LNCQ (League of Northern Colorado Quilters) sitting in my closet since February, and I finally had a gap in my schedule to get them quilted. A big thank you and many blessings to those of you who contributed time and materials to make them!

These charity quilts give me a chance to show you some more edge to edge quilting patterns. This first one is quilted with a flower pattern, which gives some life and definition to this simple quilt.















This next quilt looks like it will most likely end up with a young girl, so to keep the fun happy look, I quilted in a butterfly pattern.

This one looks more like a young boys quilt, so it has an owl pattern quilted in.

A panel quilt of a gnome village has a "Sunny Day" quilted pattern.

It is hard to say to whom this pinwheel block quilt might be blessed with, so it received some simple quilted feathers that would be age and gender neutral.

And finally, this really happy little quilt, and the smiley faces just said bubbles to me.

 I am so relieved to be able to finally get these out of my closet, and I am sure the charities these will go to will be anxious to receive them!

Happy quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the day: ".....Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil." (Joel 2:13)

A Visit to California

Samantha and Emily enjoying the
Lake Tahoe beach.

Family - What a Blessing!

Sarah with Emily, Ryan, Samantha, and Adam at
 beautiful Lake Tahoe

Dale and Cathy with Ryan, Emily, and Samantha.

It was about time we were able to make it out to California to visit our daughter and her wonderful family! The grandchildren are growing up way to fast, and this visit we saw some big changes in them - We both had to reach up to hug Ryan, and the girls are becoming beautiful young ladies. But we had so much fun!

Emily doing some serious painting.

Samatha often gets a bit silly.

The girls and I always do lots of crafts while Dale and Ryan play golf. Usually, Sarah's husband Adam plays also, but since he hasn't played for quite some time, he decided it would not be very good for his ego to go against those two.

Sometimes the girls do some
silly things to poor Grandpa.

Grandma trying to figure out the game.

The girls tried to teach Grandma their new game - I'm a slow learner - somehow you obtain an apartment, get married, have a baby, and the baby grows up. When you tune into the game each day, it is a surprise as to what stage your baby is at - but you have to care for it! A good game to learn some responsibility, but I have to say, I don't think I was a very good parent, since I never quite got the hang of what was going on!

We have been back home for a little over a week now, trying to rest up (it was a long drive!) and get caught up on things. Cathy is, of course, back to trying to get those quilts out!

More quilts soon!
Cathy
"For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul He has filled with what is good." Psalm 107:9

A Grand Champion

Congratulations!

For all of you who contributed entries to the county fair, thank you! We so enjoy going to see all the beautiful quilts hanging - so diverse and inspiring - and what an opportunity to show off all the work and effort you put into your quilt. I also think it is worth entering to obtain the suggestions for improvement from the judges - they do a wonderful job of encouraging and stretches us to improve our skills.

Congratulations to AJ, who won the Grand Champion award for her beautiful Christmas quilt! I have an overall picture here, but you can view her quilt in my December 2013 blog - it is amazing and worth your visit.

Not all of us can be grand champions, but it is very satisfying to win any award, and also to know that you were courageous enough to try!

Love to all of you, and again, congratulations to our fair contributors!

Cathy

A Few More Pantographs

 July Quilts

Hope you all enjoyed a festive and safe 4th! This is a great country we live in, and I am thankful for the freedom we enjoy and those who fight to help us keep that freedom!

Well, summer is in full swing now - it's hot outside (and that makes it a great time to get some sewing done!) Since my trip to NY, I have been trying to catch up with my quilting schedule, so here are some recent pantographs (edge to edge) quilts for you to check out.

This peach and black floral is quilted with an edge to
edge feather pattern. Since it is hard to see the pattern
on the front, below is the back of the quilt.

This one is also quilted with a feather pattern, which is better seen in the below photo

A close up of the feather pattern, but the quilt coloring is not
quite right - that bright blue in  the center was actually purple!

A beautiful patriotic sampler - so appropriate for this time of year.
This one will be a gift for a family member who served in the Korean war.

A closer look at the star pantograph.

A colorful batik quilt with an "Evening Star" pantograph.

A closer view

The back of the quilt shows off the patterns better - depending on how
you look, there is more than one to be seen.

A wonderful scrappy quilt, this one has a bubble panto to offset all of the straight lines.

A close up - I almost feel like blowing bubbles now!

That gets me pretty well caught up - now if I can just get all those custom quilts finished!

Happy summer quilting!
Cathy

Verse of the week: "Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity."
 (2 Timothy: 1:9)

A Mansion and a Bear Claw Cabin Quilt

Summer's Finally Here!

I am just returning from a visit with my Aunt in New York. My sister comes up from the Phoenix area, and then we travel on together to Rochester. Our Aunt lives in Bath, which we both affectionately call the town that time forgot. We always plan on doing whatever she needs - she is in her 80's and does not get around very well - as well as getting her out to do some exploring. Bath is in the Finger Lakes region of NY, and is an incredibly beautiful area with rolling hills, lots of gardens, old Victorian homes, and scenic winding roads.

The Sonnenberg Mansion

This year, we made it up to the Sonnenberg Gardens, where you can enjoy a garden and home tour for only $10! The original mansion was built by New York City bank financier Frederick Ferris Thompson and his wife, Mary Clark Thompson, the daughter of New York State governor Myron Holley Clark. We spent a whole day visiting, and because our Aunt was in a wheel chair, received a royal tour which included lots of history and tidbits. There are a variety of gardens, all worth exploring. The many and various trees on the property are attributed to the fact that Mrs. Thompson had every visiting dignitary plant one! (Well, to me this was a fascinating fact.) Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit, even if we didn't get to plant a tree.

So, my little vacation is over and I am back to work. Here is one of my latest quilts - which will reside at the owners cabin once she gets the binding on- the perfect place for this quilt.

A view of the whole quilt.

The Bear  Claw blocks with a maple leaf quilted pattern.

The inner border with squiggles in the log cabin blocks
and oak leaf motifs in the triangles.

Outer border with appliques details,some oak leaves quilted in, and
all echoed around.

Quilted detail in the flying geese with leafy
bracketing borders.

I have a lot of catching up to do, so until next time - Happy Quilting!

Cathy

Verse for the week: "Many nations will come and say, "Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us about His ways and that we may walk in His paths." (Ps. 4:2)

Embroidered Roses

Hi, everyone. Hope this day finds you well and thankful!

This elegant quilt of hand embroidered roses is a special treat for me. I don't often receive embroidered tops to quilt, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work on this one. My picture of the whole quilt is not the greatest, but with the close up photos I think you can get a better idea of what the finished work looks like.















There were large white blocks in the center, and since this is a traditional quilt, a feathered wreath seemed a perfect fit here. This one has a few additional ribbons and leaves which adds to the frilly look of the quilt.

 The setting triangles received a similar look.













For the borders, a rose swag was chosen to go with the theme and enhance the overall look.

 The embroidered blocks themselves simply required a bit of  complimentary outlining and detail to give them a quilted look without taking away from the hand work.


The binding on this quilt will be red, and I hope my client will let me see it when she is finished. The hand work is stunning, and I hope I did justice to her hard work!

Until next time, Happy Quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the week: "Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know what day your LORD will come. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him." (Mathew 24:42,44)

A Funky Autumn Sampler

Quilting Fun!

This sampler had blocks that I have not seen before, some of them really funky looking. It also had some very plain blocks which needed to fit in with those funky looking ones - I had to get my creative juices going! I had this quilt hanging on my design wall for a while, wondering what I was going to do with it. It was not until I loaded it and started working on it that it all came together.













I started with one of the more unusual blocks, adding design elements (curves and zigzags) that were consistent with the shapes in the  block. Adding in the "peas in a pod" circles made a statement, which I continued with for the remaining sampler blocks. Figure 8's and continuous curves were added as needed for some of the block shapes.

The design elements were added to the more  more simple looking blocks to give them the same character as the more complex ones.

The setting triangles were completed with a curved crosshatch pattern for additional texture, which I have shown on the back of the quilt, since it is hard to see here with the busyness of the fabric.The sashings and parts of the border patterns can also be seen here.

Well, that's it for today. I am now working on some embroidered roses, which I hope to show you soon!

Until next time, Happy Quilting!!!

Cathy