Patriotic Quilt Finish and a Few Tops

I made a few more quilt tops for my friend's shop, Your Best Friends Quilt Shop, I will show at the end, but I also had a start to finish this past weekend!  I have a non-quilting friend, who wanted to make a quilt for her son in patriotic colors.  He was in the military for many years and was in the Reserves and called up a couple of times.  It is not an official Quilt of Valor though.  She bought the fabrics and had a basic design idea and I made that quilt a couple years ago in queen size.

She had leftover fabric and wanted to make a quilt for her grandson who is currently serving.  She cut a bunch of 5 pointed stars but then didn't know what to do.  She brought everything to me and I had this panel.  She loved it and I designed around it, fusing 1/4" wide fusible web to the stars and blanket stitching them.  Fortunately she had a large piece of red and I was able to use only her fabric, other than the panel.  The 4 corners are a fabric her mother had had and I had included some of it in the previous quilt.  I pieced and appliqued it Saturday and quilted and bound it Sunday.  I do all my quilting free motion on a domestic machine with a 9" throat area

 Spring is coming!  There is still a little snow in our woods and I can't wait for leaves to come out on the trees!

Here are the tops I quilted for the quilt shop.

This quilt uses a cloth book panel cut up.  Closeup is below.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday.

One Block Wonder and New Quilt

I finished another quilt shop sample, but didn't get a picture.  The last shop sample I had here to make was a One Block Wonder out of six horse panels.  I tackled that this past week and got it done!  It turned out well, although I miscalculated and it's wider and shorter than I had hoped.  I wasn't allowing for as much seam allowance in length than it took!  I really do know how to add and multiply!  The shop owner is going to add a border to it.  It turned out to be 51 X 54.

This is the panel I started with, stacking up six of them.

One Block Wonder

 I cut out a new quilt yesterday.  I purchased this kit from Starr Fabrics years and years ago (click for a view of the pattern). There are 30 hand dyed fabrics.  It wasn't quite as vibrant as I had hoped and I set it aside.  There are also appliques with fusible web that I will not  be using at this time.  I need a gift for a friend and I think this will be perfect.  I am ready to sew the strata together.

Hand dyed fabrics from Starr Fabrics.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Finished One Block Wonder

I finished my "Memories of Hawaii" One Block Wonder quilt!  It's quilted and bound.  I meant to put a hanging sleeve on as I did the binding but totally forgot.  I usually sew one the top edge at the same time as I am binding and then just hand stitch the bottom edge.   I added a flange to the binding for a spark of color.

This project was a lot of fun and I am happy with how it turned out!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Panel Wallhanging Gone Wrong, but Fixed!

Several years ago I bought a panel that had two different large flowers.  The designer was Stephanie Brandenburg.  I loved the sunflower and made up the wallhanging using thread painting.  I ended up buying more of the panels and making them up for gifts but somehow I don't have pictures.  I did not have any problems quilting any of them.  I had one panel left and decided to quilt it up.  OH MY.  Distortion, distortion.  I think it is because I did not stabilize the flower first and then fill in with stitching.   Here is the sunflower I did without any issues.

I don't have pictures of my problem wallhanging in progress.   I had done a LOT of threadwork in the center and it was so wavy I thought there was no way I could get it to lie flat filling in the background.  I finally decided if I trimmed out the flower portion I could applique it to a new background.  I had to fuss with it a bit to get it to lay flat, but I managed to satin stitch it.  The background is made up of some leftovers from another project with some blue added for accent.  I am thrilled with the way it turned out and it finishes at 24 X 24.  I used two kinds of yarn with an overlay of tulle in the center.  If only I could take straight pictures!

embellished poppy panel

stitching closeup

I hand couched red embroidery floss next to the binding for an accent.

 I started a new one block wonder quilt.  I started with 7 of these panels, six of them are cut up and sewn into half hexagon ready to place around this panel.  I am anxious to see how it turns out.  It is a great memory of our snorkeling trip in Hawaii.

Our county fair is this week and I am entering six quilts, two of them wallhangings. 

I am linking up with Design Wall Monday.