Amy's Hexagon Star Stack 'n Whack

Amy made this quilt in a workshop at the guild we both attend.  This quilt is an attention getter for sure, but is very far removed from Amy's taste or style.  Amy usually makes more modern masterpieces like this, or this, or this.

After all the careful pinning and cutting and sewing that goes into a stack 'n whack quilt, an all over designs never quite feels right to me, so I decided on an equally affordable freehand option.  For this freehand quilting I did not use a ruler, or do any Stitch in the Ditch, or change thread colors.  A simple continuous curve in the kaleidoscope hexagons, three loops in the black triangles.  I did 3's an e's in the green background, a wavy line in the skinny border and big swirls in the outer border.

There is so many interesting designs created with this process!  Amy went all in and chose my red Stonehenge backing.  I think it look great.  I'm hoping that Amy like this quilt a little more now that the work is done and its quilted!

Hazel Hedgehog

This is Reneta's version of Hazel Hedgehog II by Elizabeth Hartman.  I just love the color combination, and it mad me smile the whole time it was in my care.

Reneta left the quilting up to me, and it took me a while to decide what to do.  I have quilted wood grain over Elizabeth Hartman pattern in the past, but that didn't seem to fit.  I thought about flowers as I know this quilt is a gift for a special little girl, but I didn't want to do anything to compete with Hazel, so this wavy line/bubble combination was the choice.

I am not the biggest fan of cuddle fabrics, but this one really suited the quilt and just adds to its sweetness.

Over the last week I stole some time and made a few projects for me.  There are many great tutorials online, and sometimes letting someone else do the math and hand it to you is just perfect.  This is the One Hour Basket by kelbysews, and it lived up to its name.    I didn't have fusible fleece on hand so I quilted the outer layer, batting and an extra scrap fabric together to give it body.

I also made this iPad mini case using the Tablet Case tutorial from Sew in Harmony.

Chilly Charmers

The fun and folky quilt was made by Gail.  The pattern is a Block of the Month from Pearl Louise Designs called "Chilly Charmers."  I should note that you are really not seeing the final product as there are many embellishments that Gail will add now that it is quilted.

All of the applique was fused and then stitched down with a machine buttonhole stitch.  It really adds to the charm of the quilt.  Gail & I decided that I would stitch in the ditch around the applique and then keep the rest of the quilting fairly light.  I used two threads for the entire quilt.  So Fine #489  -"Lewis and Clark" was my choice for the borders and colorful pieced sections, it is a mossy green than was good at blending with black and green and red.  For the stitch in the ditch and the background quilting in the blocks I used Superior's new MicroQuilter thread in Natural White.  It is a 100 wt and just blends in so well even without an exact color match.

Gail requested simple piano keys on the border and I think it was a great choice as it frames the piece nicely, and doesn't compete with the busy print.  I had a lot of fun playing on this one.  Thank Gail!

Bayside

This pretty quilt was made by Sandra.  I love the fresh clean look.  The pattern came from the book by Janie Lou called Precut Quilts and is called Nest and Feathers.

We decided on the Bayside panto and a charcoal grey thread to add a nice even texture across the entire quilt.

Sandra had a fun and kind of unique backing which adds a nice surprise.  I'm not sure exactly what the designer would call them, penguins maybe, but I see puffins.

Map Quilt

This unique quilt was made by Reneta for her daughter McKenna's upcoming high school graduation.  Reneta had been struggling to come up with just the right idea for the quilt but when she found this Mark Ashkenazi panel at society6.com she knew she had her inspiration.

The panel is 100% polyester, so not your typical quilting material, but it quilted up just fine.  Reneta use a Batik precut strip package to frame the panel.

I love how the quilting turned out on this one, although I was a little stressed that things might not work out they way they looked in my mind.  The horizontal latitude lines were a breeze to quilt, but even after turning the quilt, the gentle curves of the longitude lines were challenging on the longarm as I didn't have rulers to match the ever changing curve.  With the help of many Quality Street chocolates to calm my nerves it all came out great!  I used Superior's Microquilter thread on the map section.  It is a 100 wt thread that blends in really well.  I wanted to add texture but not distract from the artwork.

I used the grid that Reneta created with her piecing to quilt clam shells in the colorful section, as was able to fit in just a wee bit of personalization too.  Although it is hard to see I used a lovely variegated Lava thread in this section.

The Tula Pink backing is young and cheerful.

You will notice in many of the above picture you can see bare concrete and grass.  Those photos were taken last week.  This is what we woke up to yesterday.

Lots of drifting, some were much higher than my 24" quilting ruler.

An average spot on the driveway was about this deep.

I can't see the grass any longer.  Thankfully we are shoveled and blown out.  I just need to wait for the city to plow out the cul-de-sac so I don't get stuck again!