Meg's quilt is ready for binding!

Let me just tell you this is one big quilt!  lol

Meg made this quilt for a dear friend who LOVES color.  Crazy, bright, busy color!  Each block is a different bright and colorful fabric. 

I alternated clean straight line quilting in the blocks and added my favorite fun fill in the sashing.  I believe it was Angela Walters who said "Quilting the same thing over and over is not being stuck in a rut.  It is perfecting a design".  Well I LOVE perfecting this one, lol.  It's fun and whimsical and yet adds clean even texture without being so busy as to compete with busy fabrics.  Love it!

Bridge quilt backing

I just had to share a couple pictures of the backing of my bridge quilt. (we're not allowed to show our quilts until after the official unveiling at NW Expo) I rarely say I like the quilting I've done on one of my own quilts as they are usually rushed jobs so I can get customer quilts back on.   But I'm really happy with the quilting on this quilt.  I was surprised to turn it over and find that I like the backing just as well.

You see this fabric is from a bolt of fabric my friend Carol and I bought together and then put it in a closet for years.  And then thought "what were we thinking"?!  We've both used it for backings and it looks great!  Funny how you can love something, hate it and then love it again.

Smells like Brenda around here =)

I've been quilting for Brenda for about 12 years.  Almost all of her quilts are pink and green florals and smell divine. 

I'm not sure what perfume Brenda wears but I like it!  The funny thing is I'm deathly allergic to perfume but thankfully I don't react to this one.  I look forward to opening the drawer to take out her quilts because my whole studio will smell heavenly.

I love this simple horizontal channeling on the borders.

Per Brenda's request I kept the quilting on the piecing clean and geometric,

and filled the background with loads of texture.

I used 3 templates for the quilting, 2 small circles and a straight ruler.  After all theses years Janet Lees favorite ruler continues to be my go to ruler.  I love it!

Brenda has two absolute no no's when it comes to quilting her quilts, no feathers and no meandering.  Sounds simple enough doesn't it?  Well it's darn hard, hahahahaha.  Traditional floral quilts cry out for feathers at times.  It has been a fun challenge to come up new ideas.  I do love a good quilting challenge =)

Diane's retirement gift

 It's hard to capture the beauty of this quilt in a photo.  It is gorgeous!  

I love the subtle vine applique on the border.

Diane made this quilt for someone in her office that is retiring.  She has graciously allowed 15 people to pitch in for the quilting and will add their names to her beautiful gift.

A couple views from the back

What a nice retirement gift!

Another for Sadie

  I'm loving all the modern quilts I've been getting in.

But it's sure fun to switch it up once in a while.  

I still managed to get some straight line work in =)

A fun little squiggle in the border.

You may recognize this border from her last quilt.

Dirt

Want to know what makes me want to jump for joy?

Dirt!  

Those of you who know my ...er....um....pool story know what this means to me.  Is it enough?  No! Is it going to make a dent in my ...er...um...problem?  No!  But I still felt tremendous joy at the sight of this truck.   And so the dirt begins.  (Chad reminds me it's not actually the first load, but it's the first load that came in a dump truck! lol)  It may take years (oh please no) but it has started.

Two for Nancy and one for Lynette!

Love this baby quilt!

 The fabrics are a perfect fit for it.  I love a colorful quilt!

The center is freehand and the outer squares are quilted to form little pillows.   

I never tire of a good batik 

 

I mimicked the pattern of the backing fabric for the borders.  It's one of my favorite E2E fills on batiks.  It's a softer approach to a geometric shape adding loads of texture.

This little beauty is my friend Lynette's very first attempt at making a quilt!  (for her soon to be first grand baby)  So proud of her.   She admitted to having a little moment of not liking me during the construction process but forgave me when she saw the finished result.   When constructing the nine patches Lynette used a scant 1/2" seam rather than the correct 1/4" seam resulting in the nine patch being about a half an inch smaller then the solid blocks.  The seems were tugging and splitting open to make it all fit resulting in what we call a very friendly top.  (as in waving to everyone)  When asked if I could "quilt it out"  I was honest and said yes, but you wont be happy.  Go home, get a seam ripper and put on a good movie.  She took the whole thing apart and then trimmed the solid blocks.

She was beaming when she returned the "new" top.  Perfectly flat!  But now the batting was too small.  Once again she returned home to fix the batting.  I did offer!!  I promise! lol  But this grandma wanted to do it all herself.  You can hardly see the seam on the batting.  Well done Grandma!

Lynette requested E2E swirls with a few larger swirls thrown in.  I chose a wavy piano key border to mimic the waving kite strings in the fabric.  I think it goes well with the whimsical swirls.  I believe she is hooked on quilting now =)