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.

 

"Cross-stitching" by Emily

This quilt is not out of focus, but the piecing is all made from roughly 2.5" finished squares to give the effect of crosstitch..  Emily had made a matching quilt and quilted it on her DSM, and did straight line quilting at about 1/4" apart.  This is what she asked for on this quilt as well so that they would match.  I was sure that since the fabrics were made from a heavier linen type of fabric, both front and backing, that quilted that densely would result in a very stiff quilt.  It appear that Emily was correct and I believe that she is pleased with how it all turned out.

 

"Chrost,as Fat Qiarters by Joy

I love having projects ready for the holidays long before the stressors of the holidays begin, and clearly so does Joy.  Fun Christmas quilt top made out of fat quarters and ready for binding.  Quilted with the panto called "Flurries" in a slightly gold colored thread.  Well done!

 

"Odds and Ends" by me.

The block is named "Odds and Ends" and it was made for a friends who is graduating from High School this year.  Her preferred colors are green and blue, and I had such a good time making it.  All of the fabrics are hand dyed, starting with either plain white for the green or a white on white fabric for the blue the left me with white feathers on the blue background

The "spoltches" are a part of the hand dye process, and when I inadvertently splashed the green fabric that was soaking as I started the blue. 

 Even with all of my careful measuring and calculating how much fabric I'd need, and then allowing an extra yard for each, I was still short on the dark blue for the binding!  Thankfully, I had some of the same fabric dyed light blue from a previous project, so used that for the little bit of leftover binding.

"Ghost Puppies" and "Skinny Puppies" by Leigh

I cam up with the name "Ghost puppies" because they look so sad and skinny!  I felt sorry for them! The lower photos is a much better representation of the colors, my camera wants to make things more orange.I quilted these with a background fill of many designs including leaves, feathers, swirls, you name it.

 

And "Skinny Puppies" although they aren't all that skinny like the others above.  These puppies all became "feathered wreaths" with the feathers growing from their bodies.  so much fun for me!

 

Bear Paw Sampler by me

I wanted to learn more about color theory, so purchased a book and this was the suggested block to make and practice your skills.  All the fabrics are from my stash, and I had such a good time working on it.  (although still not a fan of Bear Paw Blocks, they are too each to rotate and make a mistake)

 Ready to go to a police officer for donation

Beach Huts and the North American Mystery by Sharyle

 This was a mystery quilt from Heart to Hand, but I don't recall the exact name of the pattern.  This is quilted with a design of Palm Trees, and it took an hour to quilt each pass of the quilt.  Wow.

And here is the North American Mystery from around the same time.  Reminiscent of a Native American Blanket pattern