Nautical Quilt by Amber

Amber purchased at least 2 jelly rolls of fabric, probably more like 3, to make this quilt for her brother.  The theme of the fabrics is "Nautical", Sailing ships, sea birds, ocean animals etc.  She chose to have it quilted with an edge to edge design of waves, all done free hand.  Turned out very pretty, but wonderfully masculine for her brother.

In fabric terms, a "Jelly Roll" is a collection of fabrics, all cut at 2.5" wide by 45" long.  Then they are all rolled up and tied with a pretty boy and resemble a jelly roll from a bakery before they are taken apart.  So fun to look at in my closet.  I have at least 2 of them right now, but if I use them, I won't have them to pet and look at anymore!  I wonder how many years before I do something with them?

Modern leftovers by me

Oh horrors.  Have I made a "modern quilt"?  This quilt was going to be a Bonnie Hunter "Celtic Solstice" mystery quilt.  I was faithfully cutting out my fabrics, and managed to keep up with most of the sewing for a good chunk of the time.  By the time the reveal of the final quilt was completed, I was through with this project and really didn't want to bother with making a honking huge green and orange quilt.  "But I've already cut up so much fabric and pieced so much of it!  Now what?"  Hmm.  If I take these bits and lay them out this way, then add white background to make the narrow strips bigger, then alternate them...  Hey that worked!  Poof!  It's a charity quilt!  Long and skinny, but it will keep someone warm.  Extra warm as I used leftover wool batting.

Quilted with a pantograph who's name escapes me at the moment, but I think it really works on the quilt.  By the way, this is only a small portion of the pieces from this mystery quilt.  There will be more charity quilts coming from it in the future.  First, a few other projects needs to be taken care of though.

Mosiac baby quilt by Xande

How did I ever get so lucky as to meet someone as much fun as Xande?  I'm out riding my bike one day, and came upon another rider who rides about the same speed as me.  We rode along together for some time, until our routes took us to different parts of town.  We exchanged e-mails and discussed meeting up to ride Rocky Butte for training.  That was about 1.5 years ago, and I can't keep track of how many miles.  Since then we've done Rocky Butte most Sundays.  If one of us can't make it, the other usually does it for the other.  We've ridden Cycle Oregon together, and other times just getting together to ride.  So I've met this really fun friend to bike with, and she quilts!  This is the first one that I've quilted for her, but I'm waiting for her "Movie Stars" quilt to be pieced.  This quilt is made up of approx. 2" squares that she puts up on her design wall until she's happy with the arrangement. 

Quilted with pink Glide thread, and a pantograph of butterflies.

I love the backing fabric!  Cats on flannel, and it's pink.  All from her stash.  Another reason to love Xande.  She collects fabric too!  If you ever want to join us for a ride, we usually meet about 9:45 am on Sundays by the entrance to City Bible Church.  We'll be the ones in bike gear, complaining about riding but talking about how much character we are building.  Personally, I think I am enough of a character, but who am I to say?

Baby quilt for Auden by Nathan

Nathan contacted me about quilting this quilt for his best friend's new baby, Auden.  A bit of a rush because he needed the quilt finished and back to him in a week.  Thankfully, when he called, my machine was between quilts, and this was small, so I squeezed it in.  I believe that this is Nathan's first quilt, but I don't think that it will be his last.  To go with the red "A", Nathan chose red "So Fine!" thread, and stars and loops.  He then asked me to bind it with satin blanket binding.  Not something I had worked with before, but I'm always up for a challenge. Nathan says that he remembers a quilt from his own childhood with this soft satin binding, and that's what he wanted for Auden.  I love the pop of red color around the outside of the quilt.

 

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Nissen's baby quilt

Lindsay contacted me about making a baby quilt for the newest member of their extended family, Nissen.  Lindsay chose the fabric, and transferred the ultrasound photo to fabric.  I then pieced the quilt and quilted it for her.  What a lucky baby!

Elephants #1 and #2 by Veda

This is technically Elephant #2, but I quilted him first.  Wool batting, flannel fabrics, King Tut thread, Swirls board

Elephant #1.  Exactly the same except that he has cotton batting

I love the ear outline stitched, and the water that they are blowing over their backs.

Giraffe by Veda

Isn't this sweet?  Some lucky little girl will get a giraffe to snuggle up with.

I love his/her mane and eyes.  Quilted with So Fine! thread and the Swirls board

Baskets by Kris

Kris does it again.  Her piecing is wonderful, and then she tells me to pretty much do whatever I want with her quilts.

I didn't know what to do with the baskets, but felt that they needed something to hold them down.  I ended up doing a tear drop shape in each triangle, as well as stitching them all in the ditch.

Feathers in the corners and in the outside of the sashing strips.  Bamboo in the inside of the sashing, plus all are SID.

Swirling feathers in the outer borders.

And a shot of the backing.
This quilt was on my girl for some time, and then my girl decided to attempt to break down in the middle of this quilt.  Argh!  Finally got her back up and running with help from Mr. Wonderful.  Now she's purring again, and we are enjoying each other's company again.

Glide "Mocha" thread in the top, and So Fine! in the bobbin.  Someday, I'd really like to meet Kris in person.

Michael's "Amish With a Twist"

This is a BOM quilt from a company that shall remain nameless.  The idea was that this was a 12 month project where each month you would get fabrics for a portion of the quilt, as well as directions to make the block or blocks for the month.  The frustrating part for Michael is that it took greater than a year to get the last segment to finish the quilt, so a one year project took closer to two years to finish.  Michael has since renamed this quilt "KQB" an acronym for a new title that Michael chooses to use for this quilt.  Other than the lengthy time to get the last parts, I think the quilt is lovely.

With all the colors in the quilt, Michael opted for plain white, but with a slight sheen to the thread.  Quilted with an all over design of giant clam shells.

Churn Dash by Natalie

I believe that this quilt was the Swiss Mystery from the Heart to Hand quilt shop.  However, Natalie may have simply made a series of churn dash blocks to make her mother a quilt.  

Quilted in an edge to edge design with the Baptist Fans design.

Dala Horses by Natalie

Here is the 3rd quilt for Natalie's mom's summer house.  I believe the Dala Horses are the stylized horses in the border print.  I'm not sure where the applique designs comes from, but they are all done by hand.

Continuous curves in the squares and triangles.

Peacock feather meander in the background around the appliques, and they are all SID.  Leaves in the sashing strips.

A shot of the background showing the leaves, the background fill and SID around the applique.

Leaves and vines in the border over the horses.

Blue and Yellow Churn Dash by Natalie

Natalie is making 3 quilts for her mother's new home, and here is the second one.  I believe that is twin sized.  I have always loved blue quilts, and the fact that it's scrappy makes it that much better for me.

Quilted with the Baptist Fan design.  Another of my favorites.

Hand applique floral with 9 patch by Sara

Sara says that she isn't that thrilled with this quilt, but I think it's stunning!  The flowers were hand appliqued, the vines were done by machine. 

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 My first attempt at swags.  I think I've got some room for improvement, but I hope that Sara will love them.  I knew that I wasn't going to be able to turn the corner with the swags, so I did a corner fill by marking a partial swag, then filling it with feathers.

Free hand feathers in the background of the quilt, avoiding the appliques.  I'd hate to see all that lovely hand work mashed down with quilting!

Oregon Trail by Nancy

Oh wow. To be half as creative as this.  Nancy brought me her family's history as shown by the dairy farm.  This is her husband's side of the family, and their trek across the US by wagon trail..  As before, if you lift up various elements, there is much more information hidden underneath.

For example, lift up the Teepee above, and you get to read the "book of remembrance" below.

Nancy has embroidered some of the state lines to indicate where the family was initially from, and then as they get closer to Oregon, she used orange thread to show their path.

All of the animals are cut from faux fur fabric and glued down.  They often have beads for eyes, or other types of fabric or embellishments to make them more lifelike.

Oh the details!  If you pull the canvas covering apart, there is a photograph of one of the ancestors "driving" the wagon.  Yes, the wheels all spin, and the rope and chains and bag of flour are all hanging from the side of the wagon.

Here's a lady peeking out of the cabin window.  Notice the broom and dustpan next to the door, and the quilt on the left side of the house.  There was a metal washtub on the right side of the house, but it came loose during the quilting.  Nancy will quickly get that reattached.

Because so many of our family histories or at the very least genealogy is written in the front of the Bible, that's what Nancy did as well. Below you'll see the names and dates of family members, and the colored dots indicate the embroidery thread color that indicates where their homes are on the quilt.

ABC's with house bordery by Terri

 Terri made this quilt for the grandchildren she doesn't have yet.  Good planning!  Then when the babies arrive, she's ready to go. 
Much as I hated to stitch over her beautiful embroidery and applique, Terri was okay with that.  I love the additions that she made to the blocks, especially momma bird looking down at her nest.

This bunny is my favorite though!

I love the fabric in the letter "Q".  It's little chicks!  She had this fabric in red, orange and blue.  I'd love to find some of that to add to my stash.

Houses go all around the perimeter of the quilt.  Maybe they are little red schoolhouses though.  All done in varying shades of red with lots of different prints.  Quilted with So Fine! thread in a dark cream and giant clamshells for a quilting design.