Friday, June 12, 2009

Newphew's Graduation Quilt

My nephew Spencer is graduating for High School on Sunday. I made him a water waves quilt as he is a swimmer -- oh and a musician and a runner; and an all round nice young man. He won a local 5 mile race on Friday!, which has competed in since he was in grade school.

I used the free "Warm Wishes" pattern, from the Better Homes and Garden site. I changed the center strip of the pattern to a wider piece as I had more of the black fabric and less of the other colors. I used a blue-green batik that has fish swimming in all directions. I chose a tie-dyed looking blue fabric for the back of the quilt. Using a variegated blue thread I proceeded to quilt waves through the entire quilt! I love the effect it created -- kind of a soothing feeling of comfort; hope that that is exactly how he will feel! I used Hobbs 80/20 Batting, a cotton and poly blend to keep you warm and cool at the same time.

More pictures of this quilt can be found on my website in the Media Gallery, under Examples - Waves.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

"Don't Fence Me In" quilt on the front page of local paper


Our local newspaper, the Boscobel Dial, recently published a front page article about Linda Halpin's quilt patterns being published in the Quiltmaker Magazine (see previous post). Click on the image in order to read the article. I was so pleased with the article, and it makes me smile to be mentioned for my quilting work, which I just love to do! This rail fence quilt, which is a variation of the traditional rail fence design, was quilted with leaves and swirls that vine across the fence line.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Twitter

My daughter is helping me get connected to the online quilting communities, and therefore for those of you who are technologically advanced (I am working on it!:) you can now follow me on Twitter!!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A customer's quilt I quilted for a magazine
























I am so proud to share with all of you, my very first mention in a professional quilting magazine, via Linda Halpin's beautiful quilt! The name of the quilt is “Don’t Fence Me In”. It is a split rail variation. It is called a 'bonus quilt' because it is a quilt made from the scraps from another quilt design by Linda called the "Northeast Quilt", aka Flying Geese Quilt.

I have been anxiously awaiting the print of this article for months. Now I finally have the pleasure of posting about Linda's quilt pattern and outstanding quilt which can be found in Quiltmaker Magazine's May/June 2009 Issue. 

I am so proud of Linda's work and although I have already told her I would like to congratulate her again on another creative quilt design. Furthermore, I am very honored that Linda chose me to work on this project with her. Working with Linda to determine the exact personalized quilting design for her quilt was only half the fun, because then I got to quilt it! I love to quilt leaves and swirls that vine through the quilt. They fill the open spaces of the quilt just perfectly, letting the tiny triangles stand on their own.

On Linda's quilt I stitched with a freestyle quilting method. This quilting technique incorporates various shapes and designs to accentuate the already fabulous fence design and fabrics of the "Don't Fence Me In" quilt. As you can see in these pictures, as well as the pictures I took here in my studio (which can also be found, soon, in the Photo Gallery under the folder "Don't Fence Me In" ), the delicate meandering of the leaves and swirls, as well as the squiggle lines in the rail fence highlight the tiny triangles of this quilt which are complemented by Linda's lovely design and color choices. 
See more of Linda's quilting designs and patterns at http://www.lindahalpin.com.