Carol's Stars

Before quilting

When this blue and yellow quilt was brought to me, Carol told me the pattern was supposed to form circles, but neither of us could see them. The top of the quilt is shown at right as it was draped over my machine (with a few sticky notes attached to remind me of what I planned once the quilt is loaded.) The pink contrasting stars are a "cancer awareness" reminder.

colored pencil sketch to help me think

Often,  I draw the quilts out on graph paper so that I can play a bit and get my creative juices going. When I drew this one out, the circles really popped out at me, so I sketched them in and started playing with some possible patterns.


This really looked like a wedding ring quilt in my drawing, and I had to stare at the actual quilt for a while to allow the pattern to set into my mind.

finished quilt

Once I had the pattern fixed in my head with a few ideas going, I loaded the quilt and got to work. I did the circles first, since the remainder of the patterns would depend on them. These were very large circles - I think 26" - so I had to do them as 1/2 circles to fit into my throat space.












When all the large circles were complete, patterns were placed into the shapes formed by the overlapping circles.

circular pattern detail

My quilts usually evolve as I work, since they seldom end up like I thought they would when I began. Line patterns were designed to fit into the outlined areas, and, in this case, I felt some background fill was needed around the star areas, so I used a pebble pattern.

"Pillow" area

star detail

back of quilt

"Chain of Fools" on my design wall

This quilt took me a while to complete, but I really like the finished look, and I hope you do too.



On another note, my "Chain of Fools" quilt is coming along. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have had to take things apart because I got the triangles turned the wrong direction, but I think I am about two thirds of the way done!




That's it for now. Until next time, happy quilting!!!

Cathy

Verse for the day: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware." (Heb 13:2)

Chain of Fools

A Change of Pace

pieces of the puzzle

The summer seems to be the only time I find some time to work on my own quilting projects, as the school year responsibilities come to a halt. That's what I get for over-committing myself!!! Anyway, thought I would start a few blogs on my own projects just for fun. Currently, I am working on one called "Chain of Fools". I am having fun putting lots of colored pieces together, with lots of 1/2 square triangles and flying geese. I am trying to get all the puzzle pieces to come together - at least that's what it feels like I am doing! (In fact, I'm thinking maybe it's called "Chain of Fools" because only a fool would even begin the project!)


So far, I have four of the blocks assembled, and it is slow going. Right now, my lights are out above my work table, and my not-so-handy, but willing husband has not been able to fix things, so we are waiting for an electrician.

putting the puzzle together

That's it for now. I am still doing lots of long-arming, and will hopefully have an interesting one for you soon!
Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the day: "Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His face always." (I Chronicles 16:11)

A Cowboy Quilt

Howdy!

This one was really a fun quilt to work on. I definitely had to doodle a bit to figure out what to do for these hats and boots, but it finally clicked for me.

One note I would like to make on this one is that the rope in the border was put on prior to quilting - this is NOT the way to do this. It was very difficult to work with, and also caused the quilt itself to be distorted, especially in the corners. Any embellishments should always be added AFTER quilting. (In case you are wondering, she made the "rope" by braiding two colored rick-racks together.)




The hats were actually a bigger challenge for me to do than the boots, and after looking at many pictures of cowboy hats, I opted to simply decorate the band a bit, and add in what I hoped looked like natural creases. Since the hats also had an additional white space below, a complimentary boot/hat border added a little extra charm here.






Some creases were also added to the boots, as well as continuous curve in the square blocks of the boot top, and they definitely needed some spurs!

Since the hats and boots did not have a lot of quilting actually in them, the background area around them was stippled for some extra texture.








The black border/sashing areas were stitched with loops and stars. To work with the "rope", a simple wavy pattern was used to compliment, and for the red corner blocks, a simple continuous curve.









Well quilting pardners, that's all for now. Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the day: "Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:4)

April Pantographs

Isn't it wonderful to see Spring has finally arrived, along with some much needed rain?!! I have been out doing some planting and tending to the needs of my perennial garden. It seems all my bulbs were in need of dividing, and fortunately, I have friends who need some! Well, onto those quilts.....

First, a couple of quilts with feather edge to edge patterns. The first one is a black floral pinwheel, that works really well with an overall feather design.
















Next is a log cabin variety, which always seems to look good with feathers.



























































Then an applique with an all over pattern stitched into it. I have not done this before, typically doing custom work for applique, but edge to edge seems to work on this one. I think it's because the applique patterns are fairly large. Since it has Hawaiian floral applique, a simple floral pattern was used.

This last one is also a type of log cabin, but with a musical theme, so a musical note pattern was chosen.

















































The back of the quilt was also pieced, and the notes stitched in may be better seen here.








That's it for now. I currently am working on a cowboy theme quilt, so I hope to let you see that one soon! Until then, happy quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the day: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." (Psalm 119:18)

Skyrocket

Colorful and Scrappy!

This quilt uses batik scraps to make the "Skyrocket" pattern. My husband thought it was a bit too colorful, but I think it's wonderful.
The bright colors just give it such a cheerful look.















The blocks were connected through the white space, so I created a line pattern to fit, and incorporated the same design used in the sashing.
















Because the "Skyrocket" areas were so colorful, I thought simple would be best for these, so I incorporated straight lines and curves to fit the pattern.










The colorful border - picked to try to incorporated the many colors in the quilt - needed something to tone it down a bit, so  a detailed star pattern was used with a dark blue (toning down) thread.

The back of the quilt shows up all the designs quite nicely.











Until next time, Happy Quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the week: "For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel." (Ezra 7:10)

Appliqued Farm Animals

Creativity!

This wonderful grandmother did all she could to document what was important to her granddaughter as a wedding gift. She grew up in Colorado, is marrying a your man from Arkansas, was raised on a farm, and has won many 4H blue ribbons.

She told me some of these animals she had no idea how to find patterns for, so she found pictures and created appliques from them. I think she did a wonderful job, don't you?



Basic stippling was done around the appliques, continuous curve in the triangular areas, and a border/sashing to fit the theme.

Thank you, Linda for sharing this with us!

Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy

Some Recent Pantographs

A view of the whole quilt.

It seems I have been doing at lot of edge to edge quilting lately. I do enjoy them because they give me a break from the intensity of the work on custom quilts. Here are some of the most recent ones:

This first quilt has a pattern called windy day which seems to give movement to those pinwheels.

Close up of the pattern

back of quilt

The next quilt is the same quilt as the first, but with the colors in the negative space reversed. This edge to edge pattern is quite swirly!




















A red, white, and blue quilt, with a block feather pattern quilted in.

This next quilt is a handkerchief quilt - I have not seen one of these before, and found it very unique. This one has an all over stipple pattern.

This Daisy Chain quilt also has an all over feather pattern.

And, last one for this blog, a charity quilt with a floral pattern quilted in.

I know it's been a while since I have updated my blog, but Dale's recovery from knee replacement surgery has been keeping me extra busy. I hope you are all doing well!

Until next time, happy quilting.

Cathy