Mary's Prairie Star

Mary first showed me this quilt in the spring of 2010. My first thought was "I have to quilt that?! I'm not good enough!" My second thought was "I get to quilt that?! Won't that be fun!" Mary had made the quilt top in a record 5 weeks during a class that she took at a local quilt shop. The pattern is by Judy Neimeyer, and it's just amazing.
Since Mary uttered those dreaded words "Do what you think it best. I trust you." when she dropped the quilt off, I quickly ran to the APQS forums board to post pictures for my friends there looking for suggestions. They didn't fail me, and soon I had some ideas running around. I finished up what I was working on, and that gave me time to let those ideas simmer and percolate. Once I got quilting on the quilt, I found that I couldn't wait to get back to it.
The computer won't let me put all of the pictures here at once, so scroll down, or keep looking for some closeups of the quilt, and the backing which shows the quilting. I have encouraged Mary to enter this quilt into a show, and I hope that she takes me up on it. Well done, Mary!

Mary's Prarie Star

Baby quilt for Melissa's baby

The baby's name has not been announced yet, so she remains "Melissa's baby". The quilt is a simple rail fence block, set on point and then quilted with a pattern called "Clematis", and the quilting thread is called "Wisteria Lane". I thought both were appropriate since Melissa is a horticultural therapist. Done in shades of lavender and greens.

West Texas Night

Lisa designed this quilt to remind her of having lived in Texas. I love the idea of a bargello quilt done as a landscape. To simulate the heat of the area, I quilted sunfire in the sand and the mountains, then flames going sideways in the sky. The cornerstones received a single sunfire design, and the borders were treated to "brain coral." Fingers crossed, we've just entered it into a show!

Apple Toss

I so admire people who do applique by hand. Nancy is one of those amazing people. Sure, I'll spend 3 years hand piecing and hand quilting a quilt, but hand appliqueing the blocks? Not so much. Nancy intentionally has all of the apples going different directions so that the quilt isn't directional. She chose the palest yellow thread color to blend with all the creams in the backgrounds, and the Apple Crisp pantograph. So fun!

Baby quilt by Mary M.

The baby's are coming! Actually, they seem to be all arrived. Not multiple births, but lots of women making lovely baby quilts. This is Mary's version, done in blues and greens. So sweet! She appliqued a few birds, and pieced several different block designs. She chose and all over design of a swirling meander in my "Lime Squeeze" from Rainbows. Probably my favorite color of this type of thread.

Green Rails by Norma

I'm sorry to say that I can't remember how many great grandchildren Norma has now, but I'm sure that each of them has a least one quilt from Grandma to keep them warm.
Norma chose the "Automotion" pantograph for quilting this, and a really fun lime green thread. Makes you want to be a kid again so that you could have a quilt like this.

Blue and White Star

Carole pieced this quilt for her husband so that he can have "a blankie" when he takes a nap in the afternoon. I love the star design made from squares and 1/2 square triangles. So simple, yet so elegant. Carole chose an all over design of loops and stars which I think perfectly compliments the quilt. The backing is a solid blue, but with the flash on the camera, one shot came out pretty dark. I wanted to include a heart in the quilting so that Carole's husband would always know how much Carole loves him.

Noah's quilt

I was introduced to Noah, his mother Chris, and brother Lars by my dear friend Wendy.
In 2009 I pieced and quilted a quilt for Lars' high school graduation, and in 2010, it was Noah's turn. Sadly, the day that Chris and Noah were going to come to Wendy's shop to choose fabric was the day that she entered the hospital for the last time. After Wendy had passed, Chris approached me about making a quilt for Noah. He had already chosen the pattern, "Entwined" from the book "40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts." by Evelyn Sloppy. I always laughed that this was the one quilt from the book that I didn't want to make. However, I love how Noah's version turned out. The poor guy had about 15 women "helping" him to choose his fabric, but he was strong and able to stick with what he wanted. He talked about a river running through a forest, and I believe that's what the quilt turned out to be.

Congratulations to both Noah and Lars, these are two of the nicest young men I have had the pleasure to meet. I wish that Wendy could have seen your quilt, but I know that she is smiling down on us.

San Francisco Giants

Joan's beloved sister began to piece this quilt top for her son, but never quite got it finished. Joan took it on herself to finish up the top and pieced the backing. It's quilted with Swirls to mimic the baseball theme of the quilt. Go Giants!

Wedding quilt by Liza

Oh my Heavens! This quilt is machine pieced, and hand appliqued. Parts of it are hand quilted, but I was fortunate enough to be able to finish the quilting. Liza contacted me saying that she had begun this quilt, but needed help finishing it. It was a wedding gift for her friends who were married some time ago. Liza worked on it while on bed rest during a pregnancy, and wanted to finish it herself. However, with 2 small children, getting a large quilt out to quilt just wasn't happening. I followed what she had begun to hand quilt, stitch in the ditch around the motifs, and then adding feathers in the background and leaves in the fans. Both Liza and her husband were pleased with how the quilt turned out, and I'm sure that the lucky couple will be ecstatic to receive such a wonderful gift.

Dresden Plates by Harriet

I love Dresden plates, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for all the work of appliqueing them. This is the second one I've done for Harriet, and her piecing is perfect. We did Baptist Fans on both of them, and they are both so soft and lovely.

Joan's latest baby quilt

Joan does love her lime green. There's a new baby in her family, born on April 1, 2010, and a lucky little girl is going to receive this quilt. We also used Joan's favorite thread, or at least her most popular choice, Rainbows "Lime Squeeze", and did a Flora and Fauna meander for the quilting design.

"Fascinated by Monet"

After my dear friend Wendy passed away, I learned that Dennis and Carolyn were expecting their first grandchild in June, 2010. They told me that Wendy had planned on making a quilt for the baby, but it just didn't happen. Needless to say, this meant that I needed to finish this up for her. Choosing the pattern was obvious, it needed to be one of Wendy's designs, and I love her Monet quilt in it's many varieties. The backing was also easy, I've loved this fabric with Wendy's "Weeble" dog on it since it arrived at the shop. My friend Rachel helped me choose the fabrics for the top, again choosing some of my favorite fabrics that hadn't yet made it into my stash. Below is the picture of Weeble on the fabric, and the label. The label reads "Fascinated by Monet" Designed by Wendy Ann Wood, pieced and quilted in her honor by Elizabeth T. Durand. The quilting design is on of my favorites, "Swirls" and we used variegated thread in the top.

Feather Sampler

Who knew I could quilt like this? In about 2007, I took a Feather Sampler class from Dawn C. director of education at APQS. At the time, she had us all stand up, and placing right hands over our hearts, swear that we would complete the sampler we were about to learn. I'm ashamed to say that it took me this long to make it, but I think it was worth the effort. The quilt is a wholecloth made from muslin, then I used a variegated thread called "Rainbows: Opal". I'm very pleased with how the whole thing turned out, and can't wait to try some more of my own quilts.