"Chrissy Down Under" by me!

Finally I got this quilted!  

McKenna Ryan designs these amazingly detailed patterns, and I've been working on this quilt for about 4 years or more.  Frankly, the primary reason that I got it quilted was because Judee wanted me to quilt her "True Nature", and I wanted a chance to practice on my quilt first.

This full quilt shot is before it even got taken to the basement for quilting.  Then I got started and really had a great time.  The title of the quilt comes from the fact that these are Australian animals celebrating Christmas.  I know what some of them are, but not all of the animals!

Assorted little critters sitting on Christmas ornaments.  Each piece is appliqued individually, and then outlined to hold it in place permanently.  A tight background fill makes the appliques stand out.

I think that these are possums.  Momma and baby.  Clouds in the background were outlined for texture.

Koalas with bubble background.

Baby Kangaroo wears the Santa hat, while momma gets a scarf.

The bird is an emu, but I don't know what the bear looking critter is.  See the waves in the ocean?

This is a Tasmanian Devil, but he looks more like my cat Hamish than the Tasmanian Devil I remember from Bugs Bunny cartoons.  I love the texture of bricks in the chimney, and siding in the house.

Parrots with a peacock feather meander for the background.

I just started to quilt, and ended up quilting a ribbon background filler to mimic the ribbons on the bells.

Not too much quilting on the houses, but I love the sand that the kangaroos are standing on!

Flannel quilts by Sara

 Here are two lovely flannel quilts that Sara made.  The floral is for the daughter of her hair dresser as a high school graduation gift.  (Lucky girl!)
Sara chose an all over design called Hydrangea, and it is just perfect on this quilt. 

This one is for her grandson. I love the masculine look of it, but it's got Minky fabric on the back, so it's extra cuddly.  Guys need something soft to wrap up in too!

The quilting design is called "Stairs", and has two rows of undulating lines with a row of stair steps in between.

"True Nature" by Judee

 Here's something to test your mettle.  I received an e-mail from Judee who lives in Tillamook, OR.  She has this lovely McKenna Ryan quilt top that she has made.  Here's what Judee had to say about the quilt.

 "My son, who is a fishing guide, and my husband, Doug are involved with the CCA (Coastal Conservation Association), which is an organization trying to save and protect the salmon and steelhead.  The Tillamook Chapter of CCA holds a banquet in the spring to make money for the Oregon Chapter of CCA.  This banquet has a auction, which is mostly fishing gear relates, but also has art prints and other items.  The banquet is attended largely by fishermen and their wives.  I was asked by my son, Travis, who is also the banquet chairman, last year if I would make a "guys" quilt for the auction in 2014."

How can I possibly turn this down?   I had my own McKenna Ryan pattern quilt top ready to quilt, but hadn't worked up the nerve to start it yet.  This project got mine finished, so that I would feel like I knew what I was doing for Judee's.

 

 All of those little tiny bear faces are cut out of individual pieces of fabric, and then appliqued to the background.  The backgrounds have shading, but everything else is applied individually.  Wow.

While initially rather scared to take on Judee's project, I had SUCH a good time working on it.  I was so fearful that she wouldn't like how I quilted it, but she gave me free rein.  I received a lovely note from Judee as well telling me how much she loved the quilting, and this was before she even got the quilt back.

I hope that the quilt will raise a lot of money for such a great cause.  Although I haven't yet met Judee in person,we have a plan to meet at the local fabric store when either she is in Portland, or I am in Tillamook.  I am sure that she is a lovely person to make such a beautiful quilt, and then to give it away.

Updated on Mar. 23, 2014.  Be sure to check out the comment on this quilt.  Judee got some great and exciting news about the quilt!

Blue by Helen

Welcome Helen!  Helen is new to the Portland area, but not new to quilting.  She brought me three lovely quilt tops, and this is the first to be completed.  This quilt is for one of her daughters, the other daughter will get the same design, but in green.

Helen chose wool batting, my new favorite for bed quilts.  I also love the hydrangea pantograph that she chose.   These photos don't do the quilt justice.  It's pretty here, but it is just lovely in person.

Half Sqaure Triangles with Vanilla Cream (the original project) by Michael

 And here is the original quilt project that resulted in the "Leftovers" project from Michael.  I cannot imagine how many 1/2 square triangles there are in each block, but there are 20 blocks total.

Here is a closeup of one of the blocks.

The back of the quilt.  A lovely black fabric really makes the yellow bobbin thread stand out.  Gives it a great texture too.

Leftovers with Vanilla Cream by Michael

"Leftovers" seems like a rude title, but that's what these 1/2 square triangles are made up of.  Like me, Michael got a little carried away on his cutting of 1/2 square triangles.  Rather than let those go to waste, he made a smaller quilt top. 

Vanilla Cream is the name of the pantograph that he chose to quilt this with.  Reminds me of my swirl design from Circle Lord, but a little bit different.  This is the backing because the quilting really shows up on there.  Soon, I'll have the original quilt that these squares were destined for.

Funky Monkey strings

Oh dear, me and my collection of strings.  Here's another quilt in that collection, and I'm already piecing blocks for yet another one.  This one was supposed to give the effect of zig zags, but that doesn't seem to have worked.  Oh well, still keep someone warm.The name "Funky Monkey" comes from the title of the Pantograph that I used on this quilt.  Here's one of the monkeys.

And here they are playing in the palm trees.  Cotton batting, so it's already been shrunk up and ready to donate to the police.  I often wonder if their response is "Hey!  Look what we got!" when they find my quilts in the Sunshine Division barrel, or if it's more of a "Great.  That quilter is back again."  I surely hope it's the first.

Aunt Delia's Dresden Plate by Val

 I love antique quilt tops that finally become a finished project.

Val is a new customer to me, referred by a friend.

This is what happens when I rely on my memory.  I had originally posted some incorrect info, so here's what Val had to say that is correct! "I love the pictures on your page! One correction. Aunt Delia was my aunt, not my husband's. She was born in Plainville, Kansas in 1885. I had thought she was probably in her 80s when she made these blocks, and guess I was probably right". .  Based on the seemingly circa 1970's fabrics, that was probably the time of completion, but there are certainly fabrics that are much earlier than that in this quilt.

 Much of the piecing is done by hand, there is also machine work.  I wonder when she started working on this, and when she finished, and why some is hand work, and the rest machine.

The blocks are 16" finished, and the outer borders are 12", so quite a bit of space to fill.  In the background of each plate, I quilted a tight swirl to let the green center star design be the focus.  Each "slice" of the plate has a shepherd's hook quilted into it to simply hold them down.    I then repeated the swirl design in the background of each block.  Again, this allows the focus to be on the piecing, but also holds everything together.  In the outer border I quilted a large feather with tendrils that grew off from the sides.  With a border that large, trying to fill it with a plain feather would have been difficult at best.

 

In the sashing strip between each block, there is a feather band that "grows" in opposing directions.  That way there isn't a top or bottom to the feather.

All in all, I'm quite pleased, and I hope that Aunt Delia likes how we finished her lovely quilt top.

Ormeuti

 This one is for my darling niece, Maddie.  Maddie is 6'3" at the age of 18, and has loved giraffes for some time.  The name "Ormeuti" is from the Masai language for giraffe.    This was supposed to be a high school graduation gift that she was going to design, but that didn't happen.  She wanted a quilt of a giraffe, "looking up at stars".  We shopped for fabric one afternoon, but that was as far as she got.  I think she was overwhelmed at the idea of drawing a quilt for me.  I found the giraffe design online, and even better, found the giraffe fabric!  I initially thought that I was going to have to applique all of those spots onto the giraffe.  I opted for cotton backing to keep is less "puffy", and also because it's going to live in a college dorm, and this seemed an easier care fabric than the wool batt.

 I wish I had eyelashes like this!

 I had posted the quilt before the borders were attached to ask for suggestions on how to quilt it.  I got some great ideas from my friends, and ended up outlining each and every spot on the giraffe.  I love the texture that it gives it.

 This is the background fill in the night sky.  The fabric is dark blue, and matching thread.  However, there is light beige in the bobbin, so you see little dots of white on the dark blue.  I've decided that these are small galaxies beyond the stars.

The border quilting which really doesn't show much on the front.  I wanted the borders to be leaves and such, so  vine in the middle border, and wheat in the 1st border.  Feathers just seemed appropriate in the outer border.




 Here is the back of the quilt.  A pale yellow with tiny white polka dots.

I love how the quilting on the giraffe stands out on the back.

Terri's Log Cabin Star

 A much less elaborate quilt than her previous one, but still such a lovely quilt.  She chose and edge to edge design of trees going in opposing directions.  Perfect for this quilt since there is no obvious top or bottom. 

Peace on Earth by Terri

I surely hope that I get a better camera than my I-pod for Christmas, because these really aren't going to do this quilt justice.

The center panel and the birds at the top and bottom are all embroidered by hand.  Tiny little french knots to make the eyes.  The work in the lettering alone astounds me!

T

Terri and I discussed how she wanted it quilted, and trying to find something that wouldn't overwhelm her wonderful stitching, but still hold it all together and make this even more of a treasure was such fun.

 Terri signed off on doing a feathered wreath in the star blocks, but since they were so small, I was fearful that this would overwhelm them.  Curves to the rescue.

We had talked about continuous curves in the pinwheels, and in the checkerboard border, but when I got to the border and only did 1/2 of the curves, I like it so much that way that I left it.

 More modified continuous curves

Feathers in the outer border for the traditional quilting motif.  I can't wait to see what she'll bring another time!  She was so nonchalant about her beautiful hand work.  "Oh yeah.  I usually have something to work on." 

Diane's quilt

 This quilt is made from 2 jelly rolls and assorted strips from Lisa and Rachel's stash.  Jelly rolls are these really sweet rolls of fabric from a collection that are cut into 2.5" wide strips.  Then the manufacturer rolls them up to look like a jelly roll, and we quilters can't seem to get enough of them.  Confession time.  I have several in my closet looking pretty on the shelf, not actually being used.  Bravo to L&R for actually using theirs!

The backing fabric is a wonderful soft, grey flannel, and they used wool batting.  This quilt will be lovely to look at from the top and backing, and so warm and soft to the touch on a cold winter's night. 

I believe that the quilting design is called "Florentine", but it's relatively new to me, and I can't be sure.  Perfect on the jewel tones of the quilt.