Another Quilt of Valor

ok, this one stumped me for awhile. Wasn't sure what to do with it. The lady who pieced it did an amazing job! The pineapple center  is 1/2" paper pieced. Lots of work. She even matched the white on white stripes in the white squares. So with all that work, there was no way it was going to just have a simple all over pattern!
So, I stitched in the ditch around the red pineapples, this allowed them to pop up and the blue flag pineapples also.
In the center white squares I placed a star to match the stars in the white border.
The red and cream striped border with black servicemen, I stitched next to the stripes.
The borders with the writing, I just squiggled since you would not see anything anyway.
The blue borders were different sized on the top and sides so I made the centers 4" to accommodate
the continuous freeform feathers and added straight lines to the edges.
When finished I was very pleased with the effect.

Hexi Quilt

This darling Hexi was pieced by owner Lola B. When Lola showed me the top she pieced, I loved it! Couldn't wait to quilt it.
She brought a very thin batting of 90% cotton and 10% poly. I added a layer of Hobbs 80/20 to get the definition as shown.
We both opted for a lavender Glide thread which looks awesome.

After looking at this for awhile, it dawned on me, The wide border matches the bedspread in my guest bedroom!

The entire top is quilted free motion.

This is the back of  the quilt. The lavender thread
really shows off the quilting. Although it does not show, the backing fabric actually has a hint of yellow in it. Think she could hang it this side if so desired!! So cute!
What do you think?

Treasure Challenge of 2016

I belong to a wonderful group called INMQ (Inland Northwest Machine Quilters). This is the second year that we have a contest called the Treasure Challenge. The club purchased vintage quilt tops. A $50.00 dollar entry fee was required. Then we randomly drew numbers for our quilt. The Lady who won last year was the first to draw. And of course, anyone could exchange their quilt with hers! Well, no one did till---- I was next to the last person to recieve a number. And I chose to exchange my UGLY quilt with the one she drew. (Hope she will speak to me soon!) She wasn't to happy. But on a cheery not, If anyone can turn her "treasure" into something amazing she can!
So that said this is my "treasure" top. pieced by hand. Most of the pieces are on the bias and they are stretched.
After trimming threads for an hour and a half. (will post a picture soon). I steamed and starched for over two hours and a whole gallon of water to ease out the incredible fullness in the blocks.


 you can see the pieces are hand stitched in this picture.

Pictures of the progress will be posted as I work on this intermittently. This project will be a process. It will be entered in a special category at  this comming Falls WSQ show in Spokane, Washington. Wish me luck.

Quilt of Valor for January

Lots of ruler work in this one! I used thequiltedpineapple.com 20" curved ruler in the sashing to create a second design.Then feathered in the center of the sashing design and the center of the blocks to unite the feathers.  Like the look of this quilt. My wish is the person who receives it will enjoy their quilt. I know I gained a lot of pleasure in the quilting of this treasure.

My Sampler Quilt

Drawing the feathers.

As you can see, I drew the feather designs in with a Marvy pen. I forgot to get a full picture of the quilt top before it was quilted so forgive me.

I am using two layers of batting. Hobbs 80/20 on the bottom and a Hobbs white polyester medium thickness on top as the quilt top is white. Using two layers gives a great definition to your quilting. 

Before the feathers, I stitch in the ditch around every block using a 60 wt thread. All stitching in the white areas is done with Glide thread. Color used is called Linen. For the colored areas I chose Affinity thread in aquamarine. It's a variegated and looks metallic.   I used the 8" curved ruler  from my new set purchased from thequiltedpineapple.com Love the rulers. I also love my "littleone" straight ruler from deloasquilts.com. Took her class at MQX in Portland, Oregon BEFORE I purchased my long arm. So glad I did that! She gives a great class.                            

The final quilting! This took about 30 hours of my time. Soo worth it. I just love the contrast of the blues and greens with the stark white. The quilting just "pops". Now to bind it. 

Happy Turkey day.

Ribbons

Spring Garden Quilt received a 2nd place ribbon at our local fair.
It also received an Honorable mention for Machine quilting Excellence at the Spokane Quilt Show.