Two from me for the police

I have decided to call this one "Sometimes a lack of math skills can be a blessing."  For those who don't know me, "Beth Math" is a common joke.  Yes, you'd think a quilter and musician would have better math skills, but no.   The name of this quilt comes from the fact that I pulled fabrics to start a quilt with  a plan to use up large quantities of a leftover piece of fabric, as well as make one for the police.  That turned into the initial quilt and a one made of leftovers.  Then there were STILL fabrics left that were cut to size, so I put them up on the design wall to come up with a pleasing arrangement.  I also got to dig through my stash of batting to find enough leftover bits to pull enough for these two quilts.  Quilted with continuous curves and a leaf meander in the border to hold it all togerher.

 This is called "An Out of this World Vacation."  I was about 3 days from leaving on a 3.5 week bike trip, but needed to finish a quilt on my computerized machine, with no other quilts to work on with my freehand machine.  Finally decided to pull a panel from the stash, add borders and quilt it for the police.  This panel was probably purchased on a bike ride as well.  

I quilted the path of the planetary rings, around each planet and astronaut.  Again, leftover batting and the same backing that was already loaded from the quilt above.  Dig through the binding bag and now it's complete and ready to give to an officer.

"100 Acre Wood" by Michael

One more from Michael.  AA Milne and his Winnie the Pooh characters on a blustery day.  Quilted with a panto called "Natural Music", and it took me a long time to realize that the "wind" makes the lines of a music staff.

My favorite part of this quilt is Christopher Robin's socks where one isn't fully pulled up.  So dang cute!

Yes, Pooh is flying with a mylar balloon, made from a satiny fabric

 

Michael's "Halloweener Dogs", "Vintage Hallowen" and "Rooftop View"

As always, Michael has been busy.  This one is my favorite though!  All the little Dachshunds in Halloween Costumes, but the ones in the pumpkins are the best

check out his fangs!

Vintage Halloween seems to have been a panel or at least all from the same fabric line.  Such fun to try to read all of the "newspaper advertisements"

Rooftop view (either sunrise or sunset, I've forgotten)  I think that this is one of two that Micheal will create and quilted with a strong diagonal design to mimic the rooflines

 

"It all started with Andy" by me

 I got to know our neighbor Andy through a brief conversation in the winter.  We got to know one another better and by summer she had shared that she had ice dyed several garments.  I immediately saw the potential for fabric and that's where this all started.  All of the fabrics started as solid white, some were tone on tone.  So when the dye reacts, many of the white print doesn't absorb the dye.  

This is a baby quilt for a future great grandbaby of a biking friend, and grandbaby of her son. 

For Julie Ann's niece

I wish I'd asked for the name of this pattern.  I love the striking graphic design.  Quilted as well with a strong diagonal design to mirror that.

 

For grandson by Judy

I lived next door to Judy when I was a kid, and even babysat her sons at some point.  She made this quilt for her grandson who is starting college in the fall.  He will wrestle for school, so a part of the quilting design were circles to represent the wrestling mats.  Another hobby is fishing, so the fishing lures in the cornerstones are perfect!

 

Applique Flower and "Joanne's star" from Lynne

Lynne inherited these quilt tops from family.  The appliqued flowers were machine appliqued to batting before they were pieced together.  Quilted with a "Loopy Hearts" meander

Joanne's stars had been a tied quilt and used for some time that way.  Then taken apart and I re-quilted it.  A few worn spots but it all worked out beautifully.  I love that Joanne embroidered here name and the date in the quilt.

 

"T-shirts" by Mary Beth

This is a memory quilt for a friend of Mary Beth's who's husband has passed.  So this needed to be done as quickly as possible.

 I love how she incorporated the zipper into the quilt.

"Cats" and "Lambs" by Leigh

Leigh is known for her amazing applique, and here she is at it again.  I love that all the kitties are polka dotted, and with their red bowties. 

Quilted with a feather meander so that they'd have something to play with.

And some sweet lambs.  Having grown up on a farm, I'm familiar with sheep and lambs, and if they were this cute in person I'd probably love them more.  Quilted with a curly meander in the background to mimic their wool, and wool batting to come full circle.

 

"Medallion" by Pat

 

Pat tells me that this quilt is circa 1990's a Jenny Byer pattern made with templates.  Pat pointed out to me that this is a medallion quilt and then pretty much turned me loose.  I did suggest wool batting to allow the quilting to really show,

I started out by basting the entire quilt together so that I could move it back and forth on the machine without risk of wrinkles.  Then I SID around each block.  Once that was done I quilted different designs in the blocks, but still had all that background to fill.  I ended up taking several photos and had them blown up by a blueprint company, so that I could draw my ideas on a much larger scale.  Once I knew what I wanted to do, I got one more large paper pattern made of the star block below.  Then traced that onto the quilt top, and quilted the "star" using rulers  Each section of the star was quilted individually with feathers, and the background of the quilt was quilted with rulers and meandering feathers.

Clearly pat was pleased when she picked it up, and then sent me a text stating that the quilt was "out of this world."  I'm so pleased!  I had such a good time working on this quilt!

"Meg's baby quilt" by Pat

Pat is going to be a grandma!  So of course the new baby to be needs a quilt.  Pat's daughter Meg chose the pattern, and liked the quilting on the pattern so much that this is what she requested for her quilt  So, parallel lines around every other block  Very geometric.

 

"Hexagons" by Leigh

I love English Paper Piecing, and that is how this quilt is constructed.  But what really makes this quilt is Leigh's exquisite fussy cutting of fabrics!  The peacock feather motif above is my personal favorite, but they are all stunning.  I sid around the center circle, then quilted continuous curves in the hexagons.  Finally used a circle ruler to quilt a circle at the outside corner of each block.

 

3 from Michael

I love to see what Michael has each time he drops off quilt tops.  This one, the sweet bear, is my speed.  No paper piecing, but you get a darling quilt top out of it.  And so versatile!  It's a brown bear, but why not a polar bear, or a panda bear?  So many different ideas!

This is not my speed.  Paper piecing, but so well done!  Love the metallic fabrics in the dragon.  The quilt is called "Bookwrym", and we quilted it with a design of a single book laying open as though it was being read.

Amazing!  I'm sure we all recognize Buddha, and in such vibrant colors!  This one just glows. Quilted with a design of a Lotus leaf.

 

"Julie's Star blocks"

Julie's piecing on this quilt is impeccable!  You can roll it onto the machine, and the sides are perfectly straight!  What a thrill to quilt this..  Quilted with an edge to edge design of leaves, and so soft and pretty.

 

Michael's "Ladies of Fashion"

Michael is at it again with his tiny little pieces.  These are mostly queens from history, Queen Elizabeth, Marie Antoinette, but also Isadora Duncan in top left corner.

What really astounds me is the different types of fabrics that he incorporated.   In addition to traditional quilting.  cottons, there are lames, a few other types of metallics and even a home dec fabric or two.  But it all worked out beautifully, and with my amazing APQS Lenni we sailed right through it all.  Quilted with a pattern called "Juliet" which seemed appro. as well.