Nested Ohio Star Block

One of my local quilt shop gems, Among Friends Quilt Shop, has a block of the month program where you pay a fixed amount upfront and if you bring in that month’s block completed the following month, you’ll get the new months’ block/fabric free. It is a wonderful way to learn new skills and get in to the habit of stitching. It is one of the ways I first started to learn how to quilt myself.

Carol had her son meet me with her quilt top she did as part of this program and it is beautiful! I was so impressed by her son too. He said he helps her quilt and he certainly had more than a passing knowledge about quilting so I believe him!

The sashing is pieced too so that stars emerge between the blocks!

I love the balance in this quilt between the orientals and the regular prints. It is just beautiful.

Carol chose to have Oh My Feathers pantograph placed on this top. An all over, edge to edge pattern is really the best choice for a quilt like this. With this many fabrics it would be difficult to see custom quilting. It looks wonderful!

Block of the Month Sampler

When it was time to pick out the appropriate all over, edge-to-edge quilting pattern it made sense to use the Funky Fleur De Lis pantograph. After all, Louisville’s city symbol is the Fleur De Lis! Now this displaced native Louisvillian can be reminded of her city where ever she goes.

I kept the density of the pantogragh low as it is to be a snuggly quilt for the new owner.

This week I’m finishing up 2 t-shirt quilts made out of cheerleader uniforms for two seniors on the Sacred Heart cheerleading squad. Here’s a mock up of the placement of the shirts/uniforms for one of the girls. I included a photo of the girl and embroidered her name below the picture. It turned out very nice!  I’ve now got it all quilted and bound so I’ll share the final photos soon. 

Pay Day Quilt completely free motion with stitch regulated APQS Millennium

My online quilt guild meets up every summer. It is one of the highlights of my year. We laugh and cry and eat and create for 5 straight days. I love every minute of it. There are about 3o of us who go and we are in our 8th year (I think). One of the activities we have is a challenge. This year we are supposed to make a black and white and red quilt. Last year we were supposed to make a quilt using the colors from a candy bar wrapper.

Feathered Curl Filler with Circuit Board and Arch Filler

Of course, I don’t get a chance to piece my own stuff any longer but one of my close friends in the group, Sandy, is a phenomenal piecer. As a longarm quilter I get to see lots of piecing and a wide range of piecing abilities. Sandy is one of the best piecers I know, hands down.

Her quilt top at the retreat last year was inspired by a Pay Day candy bar wrapper. She made up a bunch of half square triangles and then randomly sewed them together. I loved the abstract nature of her final product and it was a little scary too! In fact, I gave it back to her initially because I simply couldn’t figure out what the heck to quilt on it. I pride myself in being creative but this quilt top had me stumped!

I used the Berries and Bananas Filler Here

Finally I was up against the deadline for Paducah entries and I knew I just needed to force myself to come up with a plan. I took photos of the top and pulled them into Photoshop so I could doodle on them in order to audition designs. I used my vast library of inspirational photos culled over the last 4 years of internet surfing using Evernote and I came up with a plan.

Throughout this post you’ve seen photos of what I did on the top and I’m quite happy with it. I quilted it completely hand guided, free motion with Hobbs Wool batting and a second layer of Hobbs 80/20. I used Bottom Line thread, Sew Fine and a bit of Glide thread too. This quilt was accepted in the Hampton, VA show being held this weekend so if you are going first stop by the APQS booth and say hi, then go find my quilt and let me know if there are any shiny ribbons hanging on it.

Pebbled Filler and Woodgrain filler

We’ve entered the top in Paducah too and I’m hoping it will get it but we won’t know for a while.

What do you think? Do you like it?

You can watch a video on how to make the Berries and Banana’s filler on the APQS YouTube channel.

http://youtu.be/n0tN_fa3Q_M

BirdMan with Apollo

He was a Green Cheeked Conure with personality to spare. His chosen human was BirdMan and I know how much my son’s little heart has been hurting. In English class at school he had to write a poem. His first poem was a silly one about aliens living in his closet.

He came home from school, though, and said that after listening to the poems written by his classmates he’d like to write another poem. I asked him what his topic should be and he said, “Apollo”.

Here’s his poem:

Gone

Wrapped in a cloth as soft as himself.

His feathers are cold but as colorful as his personality.

Claws gripped as if still standing up.

Have you ever felt what it’s like to loose a part of you?

Eyes open staring at the ceiling.

Beak opened as if to say one last word.

Lying down to relieve pain.

Have you ever felt what it’s like to loose a part of you?

You can still see him happy and flying,

But that memory fades as you see his cold body.

You check what might have caused this but you

Know a bird never shows pain.

Have you ever felt what it’s like to loose a part of you?

Trying to remember the love and care you gave.

The first time you held him your bond began.

Over the years you cared for him and developed a special relationship

But a pet will never die without grief.

Have you ever felt what it’s like to loose a part of you?

I have.

Apollo 3/15/06- 1/19/12

5 ½ years old

I’m happy to announce that I will be teaching my “Intelliquilter- Beginning Custom Quilting” class on February 5 from 6pm EST to 8:30pm EST. The class is taught with multiple webcams and screen sharing so you can see exactly what I’m doing. This class is $50. 

Here are the topics we’ll cover in this class:

This class utilizes the Intelliquilter computerized quilting system and is designed for those who own and Intelliquilter system. It covers recording your own designs with pattern designer, placing/sizing motifs in quilt blocks using the quilting machine to mark out block boundaries, combing multiple patterns in a block, adding background fillers behind appliques using both Fan Pattern and Echo Pattern. Tracing around appliques using the machine for no-sew zones. Using Line Pattern for continuous curves and borders. Creating No-Sew Zones as well as creating Clipping blocks will also be included. Using Path pattern for a variety of application will also be touched upon. We will touch briefly on different ways to tackle borders but this topic will be broken out into a seperate class that will be taught at a later date. 

This class does not cover pantographs. If you would like the Pantograph IQ class which covers basic operation of IQ, see my other posts announcing that class which will be taught on Feb 4. 

You can see more about the classes here:
http://www.quiltedjo…/p/classes.html

If you’d like to take this class, please send me a private message or send me an email at Ky Triplets (the symbol at) gmail.com (take out the spaces) call me at (502) 718-7148.

Here are the technical requirements if you would like to take the class:
For PC-based participants:

Internet Explorer® 7.0, Mozilla® Firefox® 3.0, Google™ Chrome™ 5.0 (JavaScript™ and Java™ enabled) or the latest version of each web browser
Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Cable modem, DSL, or better Internet connection
Minimum of Pentium® class 1GHz CPU with 2GB of RAM (recommended)

For Mac-based participants:

Safari™ 3.0, Firefox® 3.0, Google™ Chrome™ 5.0 (JavaScript™ and Java™ enabled) or the latest version of each web browser
Mac OS® X 10.5 – Leopard® or newer
Intel processor (512 MB of RAM or better recommended)
Cable modem, DSL, or better Internet connection 

• Free GoToMeeting app from the App Store or Android Market
• WiFi connection recommended to use VoIP