Wanda's Lone Star Wall Hanging

A little late to sharing this one as I've been so crazy busy here.  (I always say that - I'm sure it's annoying by now!)  The Husband surprised our little family with a trip to Niagara Falls over the weekend...just a quickie over night stay on the New York side.  We have gone several times to the Canadian side before they required a passport to visit...but now it would cost a small fortune for our entire family to go so - New York it is!  It was actually really fun to see the American side of the falls and there was no shortage of things to do.  This week football has started for my 9 year old and the 4 year old will be a little cheer leader.  School starts next week and tomorrow is the Husband's birthday...and of course I have to do school shopping yet and a full schedule of quilts...so as I said...BUSY!  LOL!  :)

Here is the quilt I finished up right before our mini-vacation...this belongs to my quilting friend Wanda who I met through Connecting Threadz...she is a wonderful lady and her quilting is just beautiful!  You'll have to take a peek at her quilts in her albums when you find the time...

I free handed the little swirls with disappearing ink in each of the corner blocks - then stitched over them and pebbled around them to give a trapunto look.

As with most of my custom quilting I used Bottom Line thread by Superior Threads...it is my absolute favorite thread for quilting.

Wanda provided me with Warm and Natural cotton batting...I was actually really  happy with the texture we achieved!

A little sneak at the back because I rarely show it.  I try to keep things neat as possible - but I'm human and hiccups happen.  My backs are much cleaner and neater than they were in the beginning...I make every effort to keep them as clean as the front!  This is a bit like showing my underwear in public...  :)

I really had fun with this one.  I am kind of obsessed with modern quilts at the moment but I won't deny that I adore traditional quilting.  These sort of really traditional patterns are my absolute favorite to quilt.  :)

...and I'll leave you with a photo from our trip!  If you haven't noticed...I've lost quite a bit of weight!  I'll do an update on that when I have a moment.  For now, I'm working on two quilts for my client Darlene that I know you'll love to see!

Jane's Dear Jane - Finished!

I feel like I am always hopping on the blog and sharing just how busy I have been...well...I have been busy!  :)  I have my iron in so many fires right now - but all is going really well and I have to say I'm really happy with my life and direction at the moment.

The latest work I've finished is a quilt that belongs to my friend Jane (who prefers to go by Rusty) - it is a Dear Jane quilt ... so of course I've been having fun with calling it "Jane's Dear Jane"!  :)  Jane Hardy Miller is a very talented quilt maker - and author too!  She and her beautiful work have been explored on an episode on the Quilt Show and she is the author of several french braid quilt books...but you would never know it in talking to her as she is so thoughtful, friendly, and humble.  :)  I am so honored she allowed me to work on her beautiful rainbow colored Dear Jane!

 

Jane's taste is non-traditional so I really had fun playing here.  I don't think I've ever seen a Dear Jane this spectacular.  Each block is quilted differently - I aimed for minimal but appropriate quilting in each of the patchwork blocks.  All blocks were ditched and unique designs fill the black negative space.  Not all of the colored patchwork has quilting but anything needing a little boost was given something special.  

 

My attempt in the borders was to bring this diamond topped cone shape into the quilting.  I LOVE this shape!  What is it called?  I don't know!  Geometry isn't my strong suit but I love the look.

I used Glide thread in gray and Black and a few matching shades within the blocks.  This quilt took me about three weeks - I worked 4-6 hours a day but of course not always all at once and I took many many breaks to cuddle my little Princess Livvie.  :)

I'm really pleased with the outcome!  This was a lot of fun!  Now I'm of course obsessed with rainbow quilts...I'm going to start my very own Dear Jane but I cannot promise it will be anywhere near on the level of this one.  Rusty's fabulous color know how really took this amazing to begin with quilt and made it out of this world fantastic!