Hexagons by Amber

I love hexagon quilts, but I will only hand piece them.  Strangely that is so much easier than to piece them by machine.  I don't have to deal with "Y" seams, and look at the collection of them that Amber has here!  I also love the gradation of  color from light to dark. 

Here are the threads the we used.  Glide "Hawaiian Blue" and Bottom Line in the bobbin

The backing really shows the quilting.  I did continuous curves in the hexagons, a leaf design in the first border, and randomly stitched in the ditch on the outer border.

A close up of the font.

Coffee Quilt by Patty

I think that Patty found a bolt of coffee print, and made her own panel quilt with this one. 

Quilted with the Swirls board by Circle Lord.  I know that I drink too much coffee, but when quilting this quilt, I just wanted to have a cup of hot coffee in my hand.  The dumping May rain didn't help either.

Patty chose "Freedom" from Superior Threads King Tut collection, and I used the same So Fine! color in the bobbin as in her Chicken quilt.

Chickens by Patty

Am I the only one who channels Bugs Bunny, and thinks "Penguins is practically chickens" when I see this quilt?  Can't be.  I am guessing that Patty found a panel of chicken fabric and used these for the blocks, then the perfect chicken footprint for the background.  The minute she pulled this quilt top out I knew that it needed the "Chicken Wire" panto.

A couple of the different panels

As I was quilting this quilt, and listening to my old Country music CD, the last track was "Chicken Reel" by Les Paul.  Check out the link, I'm sure you know the tune.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Reel

Two shades of red "So Fine!" thread to quilt this.

Grey and Teal by Sharon

Sharon had made a quilt for her son's girlfriend and chose to use wool batting.  Turns out the her son is allergic to the batt, so he can't snuggle underneath it with her!  Good to know in case you make a quilt for someone who is allergic, only to find that they can't use your lovely gift.  Only one photo, wish I'd been able to take more.  This quilt is quilted with the Vanilla Cream panto, Warm and Natural Batting.  Machine bound with the "chevron" stripe fabric so that it looks like it is cut on the bias.

 

"Library" by Becci

Ack!  She's never sent a quilt out for quilting before!  The pressure!  I love the quilt!  Becci has a friend who is a librarian, and will be receiving this lovely quilt.  Haven't you always wanted to do this yourself?  Gotta love that it looks just like a set of book shelves.  Mostly they are standing upright, but there are a few that are stacked, or leaning against others.  The vase in the middle is a perfect addition.

All the books are SID, and every once in a while I quilted a design in the "spine" of the book.  The grey with the diagonal  lines, and the yellow with the birds both have quilting.  All quilted with monopoly thread to give texture, but not distract from the piecing.  Becci also chose great fabrics, so many of them really looked like the spines of classic leather bound books.  The background was quilted with a vine and leaf design to tie in with the fact that books are made with paper which comes from trees.

 

Burgoyne Surrounded by Terri

After seeing this quilt finished, I think that I may have to add making one of these to my list of quilt tops. I love scrappy quilts, but also the consistent tones that Terri has used here.

Quilted with So Fine! #402, cream, and the Swirls board.  So pretty!

"FrankenQuilt #10" by Michael

I have to point out that the term "Frankenquilt" is something the Michael calls his quilts, not a term that I have started to call them!  He's attempting to use up his scraps, but from my own experience, I think this is a never ending process.

 Start with a piece of fabric, add more to it on all sides.  Trim to size, and then take the leftover trimmings and start another block with those.  This quilt has flannels, shirtings, quilt cottons, even a bit of home dec fabrics in it.

Michael wanted the "Sunburst" panto and "any variegated thread"  I opted for something a little calmer than we have used in the past.  This is called "Caravan" by King Tut. 

"Cars" by Michael

Michael is at it again.  This one is for a charity through his work. 

He started with 2 panels of cars, then added sashing to match the colors in the panel

I love this idea for putting the blocks together and giving it a uniform theme.  Must remember this!

More vintage cars in the border.

Quilted with "Automotion" panto, and Glide "Titanium" thread in the top, Bottom Line for the bobbin.

Snails Trail by Sara

This quilt will be going to Florida for the parents on the new baby who received the baby animals applique quilt that Sara made. 

We seem to be having a run on So Fine! #402 thread.

All done in seashell fabrics.  Creams, pale blues and greens.  So soft and relaxing.  I quilted a Pond Water meander design as an edge to edge, and that made it that much more relaxing to look at.

All those lovely snails trail blocks, and all those triangle pieces that have to be matched up.  Well done Sara!

The Pink and white quilts by Kris

Shoot.  I don't seem to have any photos of the smaller quilt, or I have them mixed up with this quilt.  The blocks were the same in both quilts, but I changed the quilting in the border slightly so that they weren't identical

A meandering feather in the border between the flying geese units, and all of the triangles were SID.

Feathered wreaths in the setting squares.

So Fine! #402, Cream thread for top and bottom.  Blends in perfectly.

Shells or "The Cheddar Quilt" by Kris

Kris contacted me via e-mail, and we have yet to meet.  She had 3 quilt tops that needed quilting for a cancer fundraiser coming in June.  This quilt was made to honor a friend of hers who owned a Shell gas station for many years, but had recently passed due to cancer.  After a quick consult to my friends at APQS online, I got the perfect suggestion for quilting.  Since the gentleman had owned a Shell gas station, why not quilt the Shell logo in the open spaces?  I simplified the logo, but you still get the general idea of a shell.  Smaller in the blocks, and a larger version in the setting triangles.  Kris referred to this as the "Cheddar" quilt when we were talking about how to quilt it, but in my mind it became known as the Shell quilt.

Now if I had only further listened to my online friends and used white pounce chalk power to mark the shell design!  I went over the quilt with a damp toothbrush before sending it back to Kris, but she still needed to wash it before finishing it.  I used So Fine! thread in top and bottom, cream for the continuous curves in the squares and nutmeg for the shell design.

Canning Tomatoes, pints, by me.

I named this quilt because I started to work on it when I was at my mom's house, many years ago, canning tomatoes.  We didn't have a range hood in our kitchen at the time, and she has central air, so much more pleasant to go to mom's and do it there.  Plus I get to spend time with mom.  This quilt is "Pints" because there is a larger version of the same quilt that will be "Quarts".  Plan A was to make one large quilt top, but it seems that I can't count, and cut way too much black and white fabric.

Red Glide thread throughout the top.  Feathers in the red blocks, and continuous curves in the squares.

The backing to show the quilting.

The narrow white border needed something, so I changed to White Glide thread and quilted a leaf design there.  I tried to use the red thread, but it looked like it was bleeding.  Regular feather border in the black border, and Molar feathers in the red outer border.  Again, wool batting because I love the loft and warmth that it provides.

Iceland by me

Here is my Icelandic Mystery quilt top from Heart to Hand.  One of those quilt tops that have been patiently waiting their turn for quilting for quite literally years.  I hung it up seeking inspiration for how to quilt it, and decided that it was rather a "ho-hum" quilt to.  Hmm.  What can I do to make this more fun?
I pulled out some photos for inspriration, and my rulers and went to work.

Feathers in the blue border to fill the whole border, and piano keys in the larger outer border.  Hard to see, but they are there.

Here is the setting triangle on the outer edge.  Ruler work rules!  I added diagonal lines in the setting triangles, and some straight lines in the blocks with more diagonal lines.

Completed quilt top, but you can't really see the quilting.  After adding the blue binding and the pink thread in the blue border, I'm pleased with my blue border color choice.  Initially wondering what was I thinking when I put that border on.

Here are some shots of the back to show the quilting.  I really like how you can see the quilting on the back.

This is a much better example of the pink backing that I used, not the orangey color in the other photos.  Doesn't show the quilting quite as well though.

Continuous curves in the squares and more ruler work in the pieced rectangles.

Feathers around the green triangles.  The green fabric is an ombre, meaning that it changes color across the width of the fabric.  Light to increasingly dark.

Here are the threads that I used.  Glide "Pink" in the top, and Bottom Line white in the bottom.  Wool batting gave it a wonderful loft to really show the quilting too.  All in all, I'm quite pleased with how it turned a somewhat blah top into something really cool!