Hunter's star from Betty

Betty says that this is her last quilt for a while.  This one was made for a nephew who "Likes orange and has a pick up."  So lots of orange fabrics, and the back contains a panel of a vintage pick up truck.

 Sadly, Betty says that she is "finished" quilting for a while.  I hope that she will return soon, I so enjoy working with her.  She's also "through with orange", and I don't blame her.  Not my favorite color either.

"Orange Batiks by Carla

This is one "hot" quilt with great, bright hot summer colors.  Maybe this is why it's been so hot in Portland recently.

 Quilted with a simple design called "Simple Squares", just enough to hold it together but not detract from the quilt top.

"Monstera" by Janice

When I first saw a portion of this quilt, I thought that the fabrics looked Asian.  Boy was I wrong!  In fact, my husband has a shirt with the same parrot design that we purchased on our honeymoon in Cancun  (Great fabric stores there 24 years ago)

Quilted in a bright green thread with the "Monstera" quilt design. 

 

"Sparkle and Shine" by Doana

Isn't this pretty!  I love medallion quilts.  Okay, I guess I love quilts, period  Doana is new to me customer, but I hope that we'll get to work together again soon.  Her piecing was lovely, the quilt rolled up like a dream with perfectly straight edges. 

 Out of my comfort zone in that she asked me to choose a "simple edge to edge" design.  I opted for Curly Swirly as it is something that just holds the quilt top together and doesn't detract from the beautiful piecing.  Bound and ready for snuggling on the sofa, and on a snowy day like today, that sounds like a perfect plan.

"Knights and Dragons" by me

This is actually another mystery quilt from "Mystery Quilts anonymous", but I am not taking the time to find the correct name.Besides, this name fits so well.

The focus fabrics were found on yet another bike ride.  I think this one was a 2 day Seattle to Portland.  We rode it in 2 days because darling brother Joe had to ride the Elliptigo.  He did the whole route, but needed 2 days to make it.  So, an overnight in Centralia, WA resulted in a quilt shop!  Had to steal fabric from my friend Xande who I knew had bought some of the same.

At first, I was so happy that they had included a "girl" knight in the fabric. You can tell she's a girl, there's a bow on her helmet.   It wasn't until I took this photo that I realized that the girls were left behind at the castle.  No dragon hunting for them.  Still the fabric is/was darling.
 

"Round About Stars" by Sandy

 Isn't this pretty!  Sandy is a first time customer for me, but I hope that we'll get to work together again.  She sent me a photo of how the original quilt was quilted, and I took those ideas and then went slightly differently. This resulted in trying out several different ideas, and I'm thrilled with how it all turned out.

"The Lion" by Robin

First, let me say that I LOVE these patterns!  They are by Violet Craft, and the line is called "Jungle Abstractions".  All paper pieced.  Now, for the most amazing part.  This is Robin's 2nd quilt!  Two quilts is all she has ever made, and this is what she makes! 

Quilted with the pantograph "Fern Gully" which I think is perfect because it makes the lion look like he's looking through grasslands.  So very cool!  This is for her son who is heading off to college soon.  I hope he realizes just how amazing his mother is.

"Snowflake Spendor" by me

 My friend Kathy got me hooked up with an online mystery quilting group.  Oh dear.  I'm in trouble!  This one was my first one.  Only 2 colors, so chose orange and purple.  Of course, I went for scrappy, because it makes me happy, but this may have been a bit too much.

 Difficult to see in the photo above, but it's quilted with cat silhouettes, and the reason I chose that design is because of the cats in the border.

Then on Christmas Eve I'm madly stitching the binding down in the hope of finding a cop to give it to.  Found one, but he was behind me at a traffic light, and probably not the time to leap from the car and run back to him.
The following Saturday on my way home from an appt. I saw an officer pull into the parking lot of the church near our home.  Followed him, and then waited outside his vehicle.  "Well hello there." he says when saw me.
Nice officer, on his way to a meeting, but came over to pick up the quilt after his meeting.  And to get a bit of the story behind why.  It just warms my heart to "stalk a cop" and give them these.

Log Cabin by Pat

With all of the quilts that Pat has made, and yet this is her first Log Cabin pattern. 
I love the orange in the border, surely not something I would ever choose, but it's great.  So very pretty.

Orange Log Cabin by Maria

Here's another lovely from Maria in New York state.  It's variation of a Log Cabin block.

Fun to fill all the background spaces with different feathers

feathers that swirl off in the outer border, piano keys in the pieced border

Hand appliqued flowers.  So impressive!

Feathers that start in the middle of the area and swirl around so that there is no "top" or "bottom" to the quilting. 

"Postage Stamp Cross" by me.

Another quilt for the police.  This one is made up of squares that were cut at 2", so they end up being 1.5" squares when they are stitched.  Really fun to play with the two different fabrics that make up the cross, then the just random for the background.  Lots and lots of memories in this quilt  As I was quilting it I would try to remember the original project that the fabric was used in, but there are just too many to remember them all.  Most fun was using up to finish this quilt.  Grandma Pearl would be so proud.  Used up a bunch of squares, pulled the borders and backing from my stash, and all of the black binding was already made, just needed to be stitched together to make it long enough.

 Quilted with the swirls board, "Halloween" orange glide thread.  I though the white border would give your eye a place to stop, but then it needed something bright for the outer border.  I love the owls in it.

"Mouse and Moon" by Xande

 To begin with I truly admire people who do paper piecing.  I am able to do it, but have other techniques I prefer.  Secondly, Xande designed the whole quit by herself.  Found a design idea that she liked, then figured out how to make it a paper pieced quilt top.  Wow.

 I am pretty certain that the background fabric glows in the dark, as does the thread.  Swirly design in the moon face,

 and 2 new quilting designs "discovered" for this quilt.  "Constellation" in the background, and an as yet unnamed border design.  Suggestions?

Some flames in the belly of the mouse to give him some texture, and continuous curves in the star to emphasize it.

Snowday, by me.

I really think that this is the last of "those blocks".  The ones that I keep saying I  think this is the last of them.  But really and truly, I think this is it!

I called it "Snowday" because I got up on Sunday morning ready to ride my bike, but looked out the window and it's freaking snowing!  (I live in Portland.  Snow is a rare instance around here.)  Since I'm not riding, I guess I'll quilt!  Actually, I did ride 0.29 miles that day.

Anyway, threw this one on my girl and swirled it out for the police.  Such a thrill to get rid of them all finally.  

When I first started cutting fabric, this was to be king sized quilt, but I didn't like how it was turning out, so I made it into a multitude of charity quilts.  Will now have to go back and see just how many quilts were generated by that.  I just went back and counted 4 quilts to the police from this collection.  A much better use of the fabric than the original plan!

"Here Kitty Kitty" and "Mr. Soft Ears" by Me

My friend Anne has a neice who is going to have twin girls.  Any excuse to make a quilt, or two.

Anne has a lovely dog, Talon, who is represented by "Mr. Soft Ears."  Talon has the softest ears I've ever felt! "Here Kitty Kitty is for the cats that live where the girls will live.

A detail of Mr. Soft Ears. Can you see his whiskers?

Outer border from the front and the back below.  I've got rulers, let's play with them!

Detail of Here Kitty Kitty.  I tried to quilt in things that cats like to play with.  Feathers in the border, bubbles, and then some "fur" in the body of the cat.  The arches in the border, below, are more playing with my rulers.

Rings of Saturn by me

This quilt went to the police.  One of the last (but not the last!) of the charity quilts that started out as something else. 

I had planned on doing all kinds of ruler work on it, but ended up using my swirls boards to just get it finished and off to someone who could use it.  I know that there's at least one more of these type of quilts to quilt, so it'll get ruler work.  I just need to schedule it in the queue .  Even though this didn't get quilted the way I had planned, I'm still happy with how it turned out.  It also gave the quilt it's name.

Unicorn Mosiac by Xande

I can't remember who gets this quilt, I believe it's a niece or nephew of Xande's.   I love the design that she has come up with, although I didn't see it  until I was finished with it and hung it up for the photo.

I can't be the only person who is amazed that all of the unicorns march around the border in the same direction!

Sheep!  The backing is flannel, most of the sheep are white, but there's a blue one plopped throughout.  So cute.

Winken, Blinken and Nod by Sharyle

 I can't say why Sharyle is making this yet, but...  She's made an attic window block to frame the panels of Winken, Blinen and Nod, then it's quilted with an edge to edge star pattern.

 You can't really see the attic window effect in a close up shot, but I also wanted to show the details.

No, the backing isn't grey, it's a perfect match of the same lime green in the front, but in Minkee fabric.  I love how the quilting design really shows on the backing.  This also gave me a chance to realize that I had completely missed quilting a 6" square in the bottom corner of the quilt.  Due to the way the pattern is quilted, I had just missed that when I was trying to not quilt off the edge of the quilt.  Back on the machine, and a quick finish in that little spot.