Central Washington Applique

This beautiful batik applique quilt made by Robbie, shows various scenes throughout central Washington.  I quilted the blocks in a variety of stitches to accent  the applique.

The top of the quilt started with mountains, which I stitched with a rugged zig zag.  I put gently curves in the sky portion.  I was thinking of cool mountain air.

Border and shashing treatments

Birds on a branch before,

Birds on a branch after.

Washington Wildflowers

I love this fish!

And finally the horses. 

I really enjoyed the variety of scenes, which led to a variety of quilting ideas. 

Thanks for reading, I appreciate your company.

Esther

No Fooling, a baby quilt

This cute baby quilt started with a panel,

The family has strong Celtic roots, so a Celtic quilting theme was requested.

In alternating blocks I stitched this heart knot, and the alphabet blocks each had individual treatment.  Where are the pictures of those blocks you ask?  Sadly, I don't know.  Thought I took some, but can't find them.

And this is the border, Celtic interlocking hearts.  

I always love Prairie Points on a quilt, and these added that special touch to this baby quilt.

This quilt was a fun challenge coming up with the Celtic designs, and knowing the family roots, this quilt has some very special meaning stitched into each layer.

Thanks for reading, 

Esther

Debi's Bear Paw

Here are some pictures of the quilting I did on Debi's Bear Paw quilt.

Here is the quilt before quilting so you can see the layout.

Large feathers went around the outer border, and the first border had some dot to dot.

I used some straight lines within the center sections,

I divided the background space with a check border, and more feathers arching around the corners.

And in my hast to get this off the rails, and another loaded, I did not get a photo of the entire quilt finished, but I think you can get an idea.

I am finding my New Year's balance, keeping up with my sewing goals and resolutions.  I have not bought fabric for over thirty three days!!!!!  And........I have made my bed every day in 2014.  Simple as the bed making goal is, it is huge for me.  It sets my whole day off in the right direction, and it was a habit that I was very negligent in, so I am quite pleased.

I am also trying not so much to slow down, but to pace myself at my own pace.  As silly as it sounds, this blog is one of my most stressful things on my schedule lately.  I know it is all me, there are no blog police, it is all for fun, but nonetheless I put pressure on myself related to my blog.  So, if I am sporadic, or infrequent, that's just where I am currently.   Thanks for sticking with me, I do appreciate it.

Esther

Holly's Flower Girl quilt

I made this Flower Girl quilt with fabric from Thimble Blossoms for my little Holly.  She recently switched from a crib to her big bed.  

I will start off with the finished quilt so you can see the design and layout.  I alternated two quilting designs for the flower blocks.

One of the designs was an open petal idea with a very simple leaf design.

The other blocks has gridwork inside the flower, with arch shapes bordering that.

I incorporated a design in the sashing, and I love the way it turned out.  Because the blocks were quilted on printed fabric, which doesn't always show off the quilting, I wanted to highlight the solid sashing.

And here are random shots, some while on the longarm, and some in the awesome afternoon sunlight which really shows off the quilting.

This shot shows the fun border, and the two different design I used in the leaf shapes.

And, the final shot of the back.

Thanks for looking,  I do appreciate your company

Esther

Resolution Recap so far

Well, working on my Dear Jane is one of my top resolutions for this year.  I love working on the crazy little,(4 inch) tiny pieced, intricate and ridiculously difficult blocks.  With every finish I feel a small victory.  Some are really not that difficult, but overall they are challenging.  Here are a few that I conquered so far this month.

And another goal was to learn FMQ on my domestic machine, following along with Leah Day's  building blocks and FMQ tips and ideas.  I am not giving up on this even though it is difficult for me.  My skills are much more refined on my longarm.  So, here are my blocks for this month, in all their wobbly glory.

And yes I have been quilting, and should have a quilt finished this week.   Thanks for reading, I appreciate your company.

Esther

A table runner, and How to Plan a Camping Trip

First off, this beautiful table runner that I quilted during December for Sue.

Here is the untrimmed runner so you can appreciate the design and applique.

And again I apologize for the camera photos.  I quilted teardrop swirls around the applique, and continuous curves and swirls in the center blocks.

And now for a helpful tip if you have ever wanted to plan a group camping trip.  We are campers, but this idea would work if you are more resort oriented, or any other "vacationing" ideas you prefer.

Have you and your family and or friends ever talked about a group vacation?  "We should all go camping together"  "Let's do it this summer" "Oh that sounds fun, let's plan on that"  and then somehow it never happens. Summer comes and gets filled up, and the talked about get together never happens.  Well, thanks to my daughter, here is her way of changing that.  

First of all pick a date.  Someone has to take charge, so it might as well be you (or my daughter).  Pick a date. I suggest early in the summer, like the first weekend the kids are all out of school.  Then pick a place, and send out the info with a link to reservations to all you want to join you.  My daughter used her FB page.  She had a link to the campground, told which loop to ask for, and the dates.  The beauty of this plan is that it works!  Everyone that wants to come can, and they make their own reservations and plans, but they are still part of the group.

Every year our group grows and changes, but we all know that the first weekend of summer is our annual camping trip and it is then put early into the busy summer schedules.

Well there it is, let me know if this seems like a plan that will work for you.

Esther

A bit of quilting

Here are a few, and by that I mean three photos of a quilt that I finished for my friend Debi.   This is an unusual quilt that to me looks like stained glass.  Each of the black strips is actually a flange of fabric.  Because of this I did SID on each block.  

You can also see that I did swirls in the sashing, and for the border,

I stitched two sets of arcs.  This reminded me of church windows so I thought it complimented the stained glass look of the center of the quilt.  I love the shapes made by the stitching lines, and would love to do this again and quilt inside some of those shapes.  For this border I kept it light and simple.

And because I have only three photos of this quilt here is the last shot of this one.  I do apologize that there is not a shot of the whole quilt.  I am going back to using my camera for blog shots instead of always grabbing my phone for its convince. 

And for the end of this post I want to write some of my goals for 2014.  I think new starts are always a good thing, even if the "new" start is finishing something from another list.

So starting there, I want to use what I have already purchased.  This includes finishing my UFO's, using the fabric I have, even if I don't use it for the original purpose.  Just use what I have is my plan for this year.

Last year I made this post about working on my Dear Jane quilt.  Well, that post was a resolution fail.  So, again, and with more dedication I want to focus on this quilt this year.

I also want to learn to free motion quilt on my domestic machine.  I know I am a longarmer, and that will be my first choice, but I do want to learn this skill on my domestic.  So, I am doing the 

Building Blocks quilt a long, hosted by Leah Day.  

And, for some spontaneous reason I signed up for a block of the month project  from the Fat Quarter Shop.

These are my fabric and quilting related goals for this next year.  Some of my personal goals are the typical eat healthier, exercise regularly, and clean out some of my closets!

I will keep you posted on progress and most likely distractions along the way.  Thanks for joining me, I appreciate your company on my journeys,

Esther