Mom's red, white and black quilt - quilted!  Her comment "You turn simple quilts into family heirlooms!" Wow - what a nice compliment!!! You know what they say...a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a few pics and thousands of words!

one large block

back of large block

 

border design back

border design

back of quilt

There you have it - front and back.  This stitching on the border is called braided feather and is an original design by....me!

ENJOY!

Hey, it's time for Christmas!  This is how I spent my Monday.

 ENJOY!  For sale in my etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/embroiderybyshirley

Bubbles in the Wind quilted

I think I may have promised quilting pics of a project from a couple of posts ago.  So, here it is!  Called "Bubbles in the Wind".

 I tried to give the effect of wind blowing by quilting in some wavy swirls on the blue; had to add some circles to represent more bubbles.  Then I added some feathers (surprise!) with some little curly fronds in the yellow areas - along with more bubbles.




 I just love all this dot fabric - I created this pattern myself and again hung the quilt on my design wall (really just a large square of foam insulation from Menards...in case you were getting overly impressed by the term "design wall") so I could look at it for inspiration!

I stitched feathers and curly cues in the dot border and a simple swirl on the red inner border - I also created a border of sorts by stitching a border design inside the red border - I really like the effect. Enjoyed this lots! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way it turned out!!

ENJOY!

When I make a quilt, it takes me awhile to decide how to quilt it.  For this beauty, I hung the quilt on my design wall for a few days so that every time I walked by it, I could take a look and think about it. I recently ordered a DVD explaining how one quilter makes those quilting decisions - basically divide and conquer.  One piece of advice which I thought was particularly interesting was to take a pic of the quilt, then print it out in black and white - keeps the colors of the quilt from being a distraction and you see the quilt from a little different perspective.

Anyway, I came up with this design and I really love it.  There are a few different variations I have in mind as well, which keeps it interesting, but they all include the basic curved petal shape with free motion feathers inside.


  Woot, Woot - I do love to do those!  On a sample, I echoed the outside of the petal and loved the look, but for this quilt, I used the seams of the fabric and marked lines between the sets of petals... LOVE!



Hope you enjoy it as well!

Just thought I'd share a few of my unfinished projects.  Sorry for those of you who MUST finish one thing before starting on another.  I start one thing while beginning, while in process or while finishing another!  Makes life interesting!!

 This is a baby sized quilt that I put together last week, no pattern from Joe the quilter (craftsy class). I still need to put a border on it.  this one will be for sale in my etsy shop.

 The pic to the left and the one below are the center portion of a "block of the month" quilt that I purchased from the Aurora quilt shop a couple years ago.  I still have about 4 blocks to finish, then can put the whole top together.  Love this one and will keep it.

The colors are just so beautiful!!  

 This is the front (left) and the back (right) of a baby quilt that I am gifting to someone - I better hurry up cuz the baby has already arrived!

This is a "fruit of the Spirit" wall hanging that my quilting group chose to do.  I still need to stitch down some of the lettering and flowers along the border, then I can sandwich and quilt it.  Everyone who made a quilt from this pattern chose such different color schemes that it's hard to believe they are all from the same pattern.  You may have spied one of these at the quilt show here in GI during the state fair!

This is a very bight little quilt that I put together on a whim - I'll finish it someday, but it's not high on the list at the moment.

Got the pattern for this one off the internet.  Originally it was made from a vintage tablecloth and has rick rack stitched into the blocks - I need to add a white border all around, then it will be ready to quilt - will post closeups then.

I went to a quilt guild last April or May (?) and purchased a pattern book by the guest speaker, went home, pulled out some fabric and this is what happened!  My idea was to add a few little blocks along the border.  I will quilt it soon and it will probably be for sale in my etsy shop.

 A table topper that we put together at my quilting club um....a couple of years ago.  I have it sandwiched, just need to quilt it.

This is a really pretty brown and mauve zig zag quilt that I really love and am going to keep ... for me!  I am putting some machine embroidery in the borders between all the zig zag rows.  I still need to finish the embroidery on two rows.  Maybe I'll get it done this year.  :)


I hope you enjoy seeing all my unfinished projects... now you may be wondering if these are truly ALL the ufp's in my sewing room.  Of course not!!!  Enjoy!

Mom's Christmas quilt

So, my Mom has tons of fabric. It only makes sense since she has been quilting for most of her life.  I returned this quilt to her this weekend, all quilted and bound. (see pics below)...then she informs me that she has Oh, say FIFTEEN quilt tops that need quilting.  Yes, you guessed it - she is trying to use up ALL her fabric while she can still sew.  Okay, well, I know that won't happen, but, really - fifteen quilts???

AND YES, I'm going to quilt them - probably ALL of them.  And while I'm quilting, she will be sewing....Hmmmm.  I think someone will be quite busy for awhile - especially since said someone likes to sew and quilt a few of her own quilts!!!

Mom's Christmas quilt is filled with feathered quilting, some I marked a spine or a circle to quilt feathers around, others were totally free motion with no marking at all.  Isn't it beautiful? (note, beautiful, not perfect).

 This is a pattern Mom got from Missouri Star Quilt Company's website.  They have tons of really good tutorials.  Then she added a few pieced blocks that she came up with I think?

 I love this little block in the corner.  I thought about it quite awhile before I came up with this one by combining two patterns - this was totally free motion, no marking. >>>>>>

 Do you like the quilting on the poinsettia?
<<<<<<<

This pattern was out of a book that has 1000 quilting ideas.  Um, I looked at most of them trying to find something feathery, yet different to put in this space.
>>>>>>>>>




And below, I decided to use the 2 borders as one and quilted feathers all around.  :)  Enjoy!