Finished the top of the charity quilt

Last night, I added the borders to the charity quilt:

Today, I found a pretty blue fabric that is 108" wide to use for the backing fabric.  I also picked up some thread.  With the batting already in the craft room (purchased when batting was 50% off at Hancock Fabrics), I am ready to start the machine quilting.  Considering that the quilt needs to be ready to head to Reno in mid-July, it is probably a good thing that I'm ready to start machine quilting!

Paisley Bird Quilt

After being inspired by the Denver Quilt Festival, I spent much of the evening last night and most of the day today at the sewing machine.  The top of the paisley bird quilt is now finished for the most part:

The top of the paisley bird quilt

I have definitely had fun with this one.  And, I'm always pleasantly surprised when the idea in my head looks similar to the end product.  Although, I'm still trying to figure out if it needs a border around the outside edge...

Regardless, I think there will be some more embroidered birds in my near future.

Denver Quilt Festival

Today, we went to the Denver Quilt Festival.  Wow.  There are some incredibly create, artistic quilters. As we walked around and looked at all the different quilts, wall hangings, clothing, and dolls, I was in awe.  The techniques, materials, and stitching were all amazing.

After looking at the finished quilts, we headed toward the vendor area.  There seemed to be fewer vendors this year, but the vendors that were there all had interesting items for sale.  My friend Sue had come with us, and one booth called to both of us.

All in all, it was very inspiring. 

I came home and sewed.  I now have all 20 squares finished for the paisley bird quilt.

Here is how the bird with all the french knots finally turned out:

Now, I just need to figure out the best layout...

Finished with the french knots

I finally finished embroidering the last of the centers for the latest quilt, which I'm calling the paisley bird quilt.  Here is the tail of the last bird:

Finished tail on a Paisley Bird

I've had a lot of fun with these squares.  I'm almost disappointed that I'm finished with the embroidery part of the quilt.  I will definitely be embroidering more of these birds.  While I'm finishing up the sewing for first the 2013 charity quilt and the sewing on this quilt, I'll likely do a few more of these for table runners and pillows. 

Each of the birds have their own personality.  I'm looking forward to seeing the personality develop on a few more of these.

Going a little french knot crazy

I've been working on another quilt.  This one has taken some time because I'm embroidering the center of each block.  I'm working on the center of the last square now.  And, tonight I think I've gone overboard on french knots.

French knots and blanket stitching

Normally, I don't have the patience for french knots, but tonight I'm finding it relaxing.

I may just have to create more of these once I have enough for the quilt.  I can picture a couple of pillows and perhaps a series of patterns.

Charity Quilt 2013

Once again, I've been working on a quilt to be donated to raise money for a special needs school.  This year, though, between having a long commute and working on a few other projects, I decided that I needed to keep it simple.

It took me a while just to find the inspiration fabric.  I eventually found it in a fabric store (Factory Mill Outlet) in Colorado Springs.  Then, I needed to figure out the design.  A trip to a quilt store in Pueblo triggered the design. 

I was soon sketching it out. Then, cutting it out.

I skipped a step, unfortunately.

And, unfortunately, it was a pretty important step: measuring.

I had cut up most of the inspiration fabric before realizing that I didn't have enough of the fabric to finish the quilt.  Because I hadn't bought the fabric locally and I didn't have the time for a run down to Colorado Springs, I had a couple of alternatives:  buy more fabric online, give up, or modify the design.  The design modification won out.

Here are a couple of photos of the quilt top, which is still in progress.

This first photo shows a close up of the inspiration fabric.

And, here is a photo of the top:

It isn't quite finished yet.  I want to add a border around the entire quilt, possibly up to 8 inches all the way around.  And, yes, the cream inserts are the re-design.

Back Again

I'm not really sure why I stopped posting for a while.  I was definitely still working on projects the past few months.

One of the projects that I was working on was finishing up some of the lap quilts for the veterans program.  The lap quilts were distributed to the veterans at the Winter Sports clinic in March.  Here are five of the finished lap quilts.

Two of these I started before I stopped posting.  The other three were ones that my husband designed.  All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the way that they turned out.

This lap quilt was a Stack-in-Whack quilt that another quilter had started.  It was pretty obvious that she had intended for it to be a full-sized quilt.  But, she never had a chance to finish it.  It was a pleasure to be able to finish two more squares, and then turn the start into something that could be used to keep someone warm.

It is also a reminder to me that life is short...