My Gift to You. . and Miami Trip

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

I'm leaving in a few hours to go to Miami for a Mother/Daughter weekend so it will be quiet around these parts. There are 5 of us ladies going this weekend and the 5 of us are all different generations. We have 1 in her teens, 1 in her 20s, 1(me) in her 30s, 1 in her 40s, and 1 in her 50s. AND we're all crazy so it will be blast I'm sure!

Now for my gift to you:

One of the tools that I absolutely could NOT live without is my graph paper. Not just any graph paper, it has to be the PERFECT graph paper.

The graph paper I use has 70x100 squares and they're divided by 5s for easy counting.

I use graph paper for EVERY SINGLE QUILT I create. Every T-shirt quilt, every memory quilt. . everything. . HAS to be sketched out precisely on graph paper. The end result is a quilt that is the exact size I planned for.

I have a hard time finding good graph paper locally . . or even online! So the graph paper I use is from a printed file. that way I can use it repeatedly.

Today I would like to share this file with all of you, my lovely blog readers and friends. All you need to do is click the photo and save it for your own use. Be sure to save the photo as a .bmp file (24-bit bitmap.) This way, you can open the graph up in PAINT and color in the squares if you so wish. If you save it as a .jpg or other file, the colors will all mush together.

Once you have the file saved, open it up in PAINT. Go to page setup and tell it to fit to 1 x 1 pages. Also set it to print as landscape. Now when you print it will fill out the whole page and you'll have as much graph paper as you need.

This is the first step to designing your own quilts! (without expensive programs)

I hope you enjoy this and I'm off to Miami to get some sunshine!

Rachel's T-shirt Quilt

Another Finish for the GWHS girls!

60" x 70"

Photo of the back.

Closeup of the back

Here's a closeup of the photo T-shirt they had made for this quilt. This is the 2nd time I've worked with this and I really like it! Typically I cannot sew through the logos on T-shirts. The screenprinting or whatever is just too thick. My needle gets jammed up and my thread will break every 2 or 3 stitches. So I quilt throughout the shirts and leave the logo areas blank.

She had her photos screenprinted on T-shirts at walmart. . and from what she has told me it is not too expensive. I can quilt through these photo shirts perfectly! The screenprinting has no different texture. . it just feels like the white areas of the shirt. I'm really befuddled as to how it's done actually!!! Another plus about these shirts is that they are completely colorfast/washproof. When I make my photo memory quilts I ask the recipients to NOT wash them in the washer. . Because even though I use the BEST printer, ink, and treated photo fabric. . . they ink is NOT dye. . and they DO fade eventually.

As usual, I free-motion embroidered the name with a wide, zig-zag stitch and echo quilted around it. . . I love this . . . such amazing textures! I tried a few new stitches for this quilt. . I think the one in the orange area is called "checkerboard" from Leah Day's designs.

Pebbles in the blue areas. . . some little swirlies in the orange areas. . . different sized stippling every where else.

I think this turned out really well!

Quilters

T-shirt Quilt for Police Officer

For the latest headlines on this story go here: http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/BREAKING_NEWS_Pedestrian_Hit_in_Kanawha_County_134468968.html

This Quilt was a commission quilt made for a friend of the Nitro, WV Police Officer who was hit by a car

Around the borders I machine embroidered (free-motion) the text from their wedding. I used Wonderfil's "Spaghetti" thread (12wt) and an embroidery needle.

I stippled/meander quilted most of this quilt. I ripped out the seams of a few police uniforms and used the uniform material for a few of the blocks. On other blocks, I just took off the badges and appliqued them onto t-shirt material.

The backing is WVU colors and the hanging sleeve is in the same color.

Finished size 40" x 50"

Vote for my quilt!

http://quiltinggallery.com/2012/02/10/commemorative-quilts/

Click this link to vote for my quilt. . "Ruby Red Anniversary Quilt" PLEASE!!!

I entered this quilt into the contest because the theme is "commemorative quilts."

I made this for my friends Mark and Kristen's parents on their 40th wedding anniversary.

I put alot into this quilt and it is one of my proudest quilts to date. This family is very special to me.

Versatile Blogger

The Versatile Blogger

I feel SOOO Special that Sue Dario recognized ME for a "Versatile Blogger" award.

I just had to play along!

Here are the rules:

1. Add the award to YOUR blog.

2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.

3. Mention 7 random things about yourself.

4. List the Rules.

5. Award to 15 other bloggers.

6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven random things about ME:

1. I hate cheese

2. I love bluegrass

3. I have a piebald dachshund named Louie

4. I quilt with my feed dogs UP and don't change the stitch length ever

5. I started quilting because I love to dye fabric

6. I was a contestant on the Price is Right

7. I love dill pickles.

Okay hmmm. . time to pick 15 amazing bloggers!!!

Lets see lets seee. . . .

1. For my number one I will have to choose my dear friend Jonua Besnard from France. She makes beautiful jewelry and I just love her to pieces!!!

2. Vic and her Park Hill Farm blog - I love following along on her quilting adventures!

3. I would like to award one to Susan's Texas Adventures. .because she hosted an awesome giveaway and I WON! ;c)

4. The Bitchy Stitcher - because of her 8-step HSTs and . . well. . gotta love her blog name! LOL

5. my Friend Summer's blog "Crazy Days of Summer" . . I love following her crazy mommy adventures!

6. Jaime McCumbers just started a new blog "Welcome to MommyLand" and her stories of mommyhood are hilarious!

7. Summer's Sister Holly also has a crazy Mommy blog "Welcome to My Life"

8. A fellow WVian and quilter - "At Home in the Heavenly Hills of WV"

9. I've been a follower of "Beth's Blog" for awhile. . always full of beautiful photos of nature and quilts and her dyed pretties.

10. Almost forgot about my Husband's Blog- all about the grateful dead lyrics, music, etc.,

11. Visit Kat at Scrapbox Quilts to check out her latest projects!

12. I have to list Sue Dario in here too. . . I love reading her blog!!

13. My Aunt LINDA's slacking on her blogging and I miss it!

14. CHARITY's also been slacking on the blog job ;c)

15. I haven't heard much out of JESSICA in a while. . she needs to get back at it!

So if you've made the cut. . try to play along!!! Or visit these other lovely bloggers for some eye candy or a laugh.

Adrian's T-Quilt

Adrian's T-Shirt Quilt finished!! I love the Reds and Tie-dyed shirts. . I love having at least one tie-dye in a Tquilt . . it really brightens up the whole thing.

Here's a closeup. . Hearts in the burgundy areas, I quilted some little pebbles in a few of the narrow strips, outlines in some of the black areas and ecchos in the white areas.

Even closer Closeup:

I eccho quilted around Adrian's embroidered name this time. . . I really like how it turned out.

I did extra small stippling in this white area. . . curvy lines in between each row of text. Pebbles in that one "Poca" logo. Paisleys in the grey areas. . . hearts in the burgundy areas. For this quilt's Year/Date I used burgundy T-shirt material and I LOVE HOw it turned out. The last couple quilts I used regular quilting fabric. . but the t-shirt material gives that fun raw-edge look to it.

Paisleys in the grey areas.

Squiggles in the tie-dye areas in Red thread and hearts in the burgundy areas.

I almost forgot to quilt this little white strip! So I pulled the quilt down and decided to do a small bit of Mc Tavishing. . . oh does it show up nicely on the t-shirt material!!

I quilted a feather in one block for each girl.

Here's the back - we used Red this time because the majority of her shirts were red (Poca High School) I was having some tension issues with this backing material. I'm not sure why. The first thing I did was applique the year "2012" on there and it was really giving me problems. I decided to do the whole thing with matching threads from the front. I used same color thread in the bobbin and in the top. So the back is a quilt in itself. . showing off the quilting stitches even more!

Here's a closeup of the back and all the fun stitches

Jonua's having a contest!!

My good friend Jonua from France is hosting a giveaway/referral contest over on her BLOG and FACEBOOK page!!! Be sure to hop over there and check it out. You have the chance to win some amazing hand-made jewelry from France!!!

Not into contests? You can at least check out her etsy shops.

FRENGLISH

~or~

J RACHEL BESNARD DESIGNS

Again here's the link to her blog -> CLICK HERE

=cD

I changed my blog - what do you think?

My blog has been a sickly yellow/orange color for several years now. I'm ready for a change.

I love plum! So plums, pinks, and greys are going to be my color for awhile. I also changed my header photo. That tie-dyed quilt was very old.

Thanks for stopping by!