MY JOURNEY: QUILT # 16

 Another quilt from the Special Exhibit My Joyful Journey, part of the Virtual Quilt Festival, December 3-5, 2020.

Q UILT #16: A-Round With My Friends, 67" x 67", machine pieced, hand appliqued., hand quilted, 2011

The Story: Begun as a round robin with two friends in 2004 , I made the Feathered Star center. When I got it back I knew it deserved to be bigger so I created the applique border--an adaptation of a Nancy Pearson border design. I worked on this quilt for 7 years and was very pleased to have it receive Best of Show at its first quilt show. 

It was also juried into AQS Paducah, 2012 and included in the book 500 Traditional  Quilts, published in 2014. It was also included in the Special Exhibit in Houston, 2014, featuring some of the quilts from that book. I put my best hand quilting into this work on all original quilting designs. Collaboration with Ellen Anson and Sharon Suever. 

Let's quilt.

Barbara 

My Journey--QUILT #2

 Another quilt from the Virtual Quilt Festival, December 3-5, 2020. 

QUILT #2  Charm Quilt, 96" x 104"  Hand and machine pieced, hand quilted

The Story: Begun in a Friendship swap with my first guild in Virginia, triangle blocks were sent to me after I moved to Alabama. The top was finished March 1991 and hand quilted by December 1992. It was in the frame in front of a window for so long the border is badly faded. 

Subtitled: Quilt Shop Nightmare--I Want a Quarter Yard of Everything Please.  My love of fabric, the more, the merrier, had begun.

I designed the hand quilting motif and cut the template to mark it. Many of these blocks are signed by the makers, my first quilting friends who took me under their wing:

Here is the stencil I made--designed to avoid all the intersections. The one tip is chopped off because of the size of the template plastic--I just turned it when marking that tip. I have not used this design again, on any other quilt, but it was perfect for this one:

Let's quilt.

Barbara

A Finish and A Start

I finally finished hand quilting a small quilt with Big Stitch.  I started this baby 2 years ago and dug it out from the bottom of a pile a couple weeks ago to get it finished.  Now it's done:

This project came from Carolyn Forster's book Utility Quilting.   There are several quilts in that book I like and it has great info on finishing quilts as well as instructions for fast hand quilting with Big Stitch.

I needed a quick project to work on this morning so I got back to these sweet little X Blocks.  They are made the same way as the X Block swap blocks I wrote about here. 

These finish at 3" so it's a little quilt.  I started with 5" Charm squares where the large blocks start with Layer cakes, 10" squares.  I plan to make one more set of 6 to provide a little more variety.  I am linking up with Patchwork Times.

Tomorrow I head off to Houston for the 35th anniversary of Quilt Market and the 40th anniversary of International Quilt Festival.  It is sure to be a great two-week trip--I'm really looking forward to all the folks I'll get to see there.  A few special friends are making the trip this year and that will make it an even more exciting event.  I'll post a blog or two as time permits.  First, comes the work I am going there to do, then the fun stuff.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Show News!

Just got word that two of my quilts will make their big debut at the AQS show in Phoenix, February 2014.  I'm excited and pleased.  If you're at the Phoenix show, I'd love a photo or two.

A-Round with My Friends--worked on this for 7 years.  Hand applique'd and hand quilted
2011 Best of Show at my guild

Red and White--By the Numbers
2013 Best of Show at my guild



Details of the magnificent quilting by Pam Dransfeldt



Pam's Website--see more of her work here.  She is Joyful Quilter on Facebook--that's how I found her 5 years ago.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara