My First Quilting Job!

A really nice, and trusting, friend gave me her finished quilt to quilt (for pay). I was more than a little nervous about being sure it was done right. I was super cautious and it really turned out nice. The edges in the photo aren't great because all I did was sew the binding on by machine and she will finish it with handwork. Thanks for trusting me Virginia!

First Big Quilts

Well, they are not exactly HUGE but they are twin size and up to now I had just done practice pieces so this was huge to me. It is the same quilt pattern that is a sampler type quilt I designed for my quilt guild last year. We did a block a month. It was going to be "Amish" style but some did not want to do a dark quilt so I made two blocks each month to show it could be done both ways. I am pretty happy with the way they turned out. 

New Quilting Adventure

 Thought I'd share the reason for my renewed quilting activity. I decided to take the plunge and get a longarm machine. My shop had a warehouse area that was 10 x 50 with no heat/air and had serious shelving and not even drywall on the walls. Since I retired it had become a storage for anything we didn't know what else to do with and it was a horrible, filthy mess. It had a rollup door at one end for deliveries so an interior wall had to be added with an exterior door so any heat and air added would not just escape around the rollup door. A month of removing shelves, getting rid of tons of stuff and relocating other stuff and then construction, painting, carpeting and I have a finished room. Might admit I went somewhat over my intended budget for the project but it turned out great. I bought some furniture at yard sales and refinished, made a giant ironing table and a curtain to cover up the heat and air unit. Happy with the results...am busy practicing on my quilting machine.

The finished room is 10 x 40. Made a strip with clips on it to hang up quilts. I currently have some old quilts on the wall but hopefully soon it will be ones that I've quilted. Here are views from both ends of the room. The door at one end leads to a 10 x 10 room with the rollup door and is set up for storage. You can't see the door on the other wall that leads to the rest of my shop.

Another Quilt

Yes, two posts in a day after four months of no posts. My intention is to post more often as I am back in the quilting mode. This is another quilt for my best friend's daughter, another Melissa, for providing my friend with a second grandson. I wanted a baby quilt that was sort of masculine and could not find a single pattern that I really liked. I ended up designing this one and was happy with the way it turned out. The basic quilt was pieced and the wheels and letters were appliqued and handstitched with a blanket stitch. It was quilted by my friend, Susan Bailey.

Finally...

I wanted to share a picture of my first "art" quilt that I made for my niece, Melissa. She is an Edgar Allen Poe fan and I was told her favorite color was purple. The pieced background is predominantly purple batiks and hand dyed fabrics. The tree and raven were appliqued on the top. It was quilted by Jan Hickman and I asked her to quilt "Nevermore" onto the trunk of the tree. I was encouraged to try something besides a traditional quilt by my fellow quilters in the Renegades which is an art quilt group that I was invited to join last year.