Oh my gracious where has the time gone!

Almost a year without any postings and you all must know that I haven't given up quilting! I will post some pictures of things I have completed.  I think I forgot to take some pictures along the way too, shucks!

Ava's Heart

 This quilt was for a great niece in Virginia named Ava. The pattern is from the Moda Bakeshop, a super easy applique project. It used charm squares and I bought the giant rick rack on ebay.

I saw this Celtic knot small wall hanging in Quilters World.  It is reverse applique and was a bit of a challenge for me.  I made it for a principal at the high school where I work - as she was leaving.

This was a more modern take on a quilt for one of the niece's - Cherie

who completed her AA in the June.

The pattern was called Cherry Picked and was a freebie from the Fat Quarter Shop. I used charm squares and the border was from my stash.

This Green Bay Packers quilt and coordinating pillow cases was a commission for our son Terry's girlfriend.  It was her son JaVaughn's Christmas present.  

I was please with the Disappearing 9 patch pattern I used. The cheddar fabric was hard to find, I guess I should have had someone in Wisconsin find it for me :)

I do finishing work also.  This was a cross-stitched topper that I was asked to quilt.

The paper doll pattern was so adorable and I just wanted to share with you. I did echo quilting with clear thread around the main items and meandered the rest.

This quilt was for our son Terry in Virginia.  We stayed with him this passed summer while on vacation.  All the batiks were from a grab bag purchase from the Fat Quarter Shop and the pattern was from my quilting bestie, June in Vancouver, BC, Canada, Curves remain a challenge but I bought a special foot at the Road to California Quilt Show to assist me.

This quilt below is another finishing project.  My friend, Ubirdia pieced the blocks and then I squared them, added sashing and borders and then quilted it. This was my first true attempt at feathers.  It was from Leah Day and was called feathers and pearls.  Ubirdia was pleased with the outcome and that is all that matters - for me I am not so sure I am loving the feathers.

This quilt was from a recent issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. They did theirs in reds and I switched it out for berry colours.  I called it Chocolate and Berries.  I made this for Terry's girlfriend, Vonda.  She is such a delightful woman!  Who knows if they will ever get married, so I surprised her with a quilt at Christmas time!  Love you Vonda!

Recent Quilts Completed - Spring Fling, Disappearing Four Patch with a Twist, Variation on a Yellow Brick Road, and a classical 16 Patch with muslin background.

 I am calling this quilt Spring Fling - it is from my latest issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  I subscribe to only one magazine and in order for me to justify the cost - I do make at least one project from each edition.  
I am still working on making a quilt for each month of the year to hang over my fireplace -  this is for the month of April or around Easter time. Some of the fabrics have Easter motifs and others and just spring tones.
I am going to stop putting sleeves on the wall quilts I make.  I bought clip on fancier café style curtain hooks and hung this quilt using them and I liked the look and so much easier :)

The white on white background for this quilt was an online purchase from a seller at The Quilting Board.  It was advertised as white on white but when it arrived it was all about the great state of Texas - steer skulls, cowboy stuff, lassos, branding irons, etc.  Not what I expected but all cut up it worked out fine. This quilt has a polyester batting as there is so much with background and I didn't have a white cotton batting.

This pattern is called a Disappearing Four Patch with a Twist.  I had picked up this fabric online for $1.00 a yard. The lavender and sunflowers was in strips and a border style fabric and the green was a solid also for $1.00 a yard.
Here is the link for the pattern http://round22.blogspot.com/2012/07/disappearing-4-patch-with-twist.html  - it doesn't come up as a hyperlink but you can find it this way.  Her example is much nicer than mine.

This too, will hang over the fireplace for the month of June or become a baby girl quilt for a present. I will likely do this again with fabrics that had more definition but for $ 4.00 the quilt is not so bad.
I pieced together some cotton batting to make this quilt and I just zig zag the edges together, no fancy tape for me.

I have always wanted to do a Yellow Brick Road - but with no yellow :)  This quilt is for my step-daughter here in California who is likely moving to Atlanta with her beau in the summer.  I wanted them to have something special to start there new life together.  What could be better than a new super Queen size quilt.  I messed up cutting the fat quarters, but I am very pleased with how it turned out.  No one but me would truly ever find the oopsie.

Lastly, is the 16 patch with muslin background.  I made this for my g/f Clara.  She gave me a jelly roll and I found this pattern in a book by Pam and Nicky Lintott from across the pond. It is a variation on an antique quilt.
 

Clara will give this as her charity quilt for the guild later on this year.  I love the look of muslin in quilts!  I buy it by the bolt at Joann's with a 50% off coupon, nothing too expensive and it seems to work just fine in quilts.

Yippee, I have arrived - truly first paid commissions! African Queens and Moons in the Windows.

 Last summer I was approached by a friend to make her two quilts.  One would be an over sized twin and queen.  I told her that she could have the family rate but she would need to buy everything but the thread.  Alva, wanted an African Queen quilt with green setting blocks for the queen quilt. 
Over Christmas vacation we went to L and M Fabrics in Anaheim, and I helped Alva with her color selection for the fabrics, batting and we chose Kaufman fabrics at $2.49 for the backings. I ended up adding a few more African fabrics from my stash to get it to the size I wanted and we were going to use back for the sashing, but I went with chocolate brown as the black was too harsh. 

 The Queens have different skin tones in keeping with their ethnicity.  The block was one I received from my quilting guild years ago. This is a fun and easy block to make the colors are more vibrant than the pictures - it was an overcast day in Los Angeles on picture day.

 For the Moons in the Window quilt - I used batiks in the blue and orange-yellow families for that part of the quilt and a nice background.  I added another row (not on the pattern) to the bottom and top row,  and added a solid matching border to all sides to make it bigger. The original pattern called for a 61 inch square and I wanted a rectangle.

Alva wanted to use polyester batting and I used Hobbs.  Everything quilted up really nice using Superior's clear thread on top and their Bottom Line on the backside.  I haven't gotten passed  meandering and I am glad that everyone likes that for their quilts.

Needless to say, Alva was elated with her custom made quilts.  I also received a substantial tip which was super!

It was really nice to be paid for doing something that I love to do.  The money I earned was my Spring Break spending money as I went to visit my daughter in Redmond, WA and my other daughter from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada flew down to see us all and my sister from out by Mount Baker, WA came in too.  It was so nice to have my family together :)