Leigh Big Stitch Collage

Leigh calls this her "Big Stitch Collage" quilt.  She's carefully stitched down with large hand stitches the fabrics to a backing fabric, then added embellishments, a few of which are shown here.  I love how Leigh comes up with these great ideas, and then turns me loose to finish them.  This one was only stitched in the ditch as there was no way that my machine could go over most of the items. So my quilting was mostly something to hold all the layers together, no for decor.

Yes, that's a small stick with some dry moss on it.

An old watch face

A small stone

Someone's hand crotchet piece about 2" across

An old key and the string that it's attached to.

 

"Pigs" by Leigh

I have renamed this quilt "Pigs can Fly" and began singing the song "Pigs Can Swim and Pigs can Fly" by the Irish Rovers.  A record that was often played at home when I was growing up.   It all started with the feathers in the outer border.

Leigh wanted to user her homespun fabrics, so this is what she created.  They are so cute!!!

 If you want to listen to the song, here's a link. (I hope) https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=song+%22Pigs+can+swim+and+pigs+can+fly%22

Cross stitched blocks by Vickie

Vickie told me that this is her "last quilt", that she had given all of her supplies to charity.  I'm a bit sad about that.  Always lovely to see what she has come up with.

This quilt started as a stamped design in blue ink and then Vickie stitched over it with embroidery floss in either orange or red..  When the blocks are laid out, they make an alternating flower design in the corners, above, and this lovely design in the center of each block

My job was to quilt the remaining blue lines, so there is a bit of a scallop design that outlines and surrounds the blocks.  The blue ink will wash away the first time the quilt top is laundered, so I was not allowed to press the top before quilting.  That would have permanently set the blue ink, and that's not the look she was going for.

 

Embroidered wreaths by Vickie

Vickie is another person who loves a technique that I think she must be nuts to engage in.  I can't imagine doing this much embroidery by hand, let alone multiple quilts! 

This is at least the 2nd of Vickie's quilts and she is working on another .  Watch this space for more
 

"Kaffee Fasset" by Leigh

I have to giggle at Leigh.  These fabrics and colors are just NOT her style, and yet, here's a 2nd one (at least) from this same fabric.  Her comment was "I have so much leftover."  All circles with hand embroidery around each one.  Then she just turned me loose on it, no instructions on how to quilt it.  So, I played...

Each large circle had additional circular designs quilted into them.  Some crossing over each other, or whatever I felt like doing at that time.  Then a background fill in some of the negative space to add dimension to the quilt.

Each block was separated from the one next to it with 3
 squares of fabric stacked on top of each other.  These were all "pebbled" with quite tight quilting.

 The background of each circle block was quilted with up and down lines that had been marked off with a ruler so that they would all end up approximately the same height.