Wedding Signature Quilt

 The Cabell's decided to have their guests sign fabric instead of a guest book. 

 I am honored that they chose me to make their wedding quilt!   

 For the quilting in the white open areas, I chose a version of paisleys but with hearts.  

 Here is the quilt after all the quilting is finished, before binding

 And what an absolutely PERFECT day (and time) for photographing this quilt!   Right before sunset!

 I added some FF Triangles to the back of the quilt for hanging.   I feel like the triangles don't add the bulk like a sleeve does.   But the triangles are only strong enough if the quilt doesn't weigh too much.

 Aren't the shadows spectacular?!  

 Here's a closeup of one of the signature blocks.   I did the same thing for MY wedding. . . hopefully I will make mine by the time our 10th anniversary rolls around ;c)  

some more closeups. 

Thanks for stopping by!  
For all the latest photos please "like" my facebook page: Facebook.com/KatiesQuiltsAndCrafts

Oliver's Heart Quilt.

This quilt was inspired by this mini quilt -  I'm not sure who the original artist was but a google search brought me to THIS WEBSITE.  

Melissa wanted these two sleepers to be the "focus" of the quilt.  But since the logos are right next to the zippers, we decided that the best thing to do would be to make each onesie into a "half" heart, and then put them together side-by-side to make up a whole heart.     I took out 3 rows of stitches to try to get more room for the heart shape.    

 It still didn't look quite right. . I think because it was the biggest heart and right in the middle.   So then we decided to make them into two separate hearts.  

After some wiggling around,   we came up with THIS design -  I also added some more color, reduced the size of most of the hearts, and used the booties from the sleepers to add depth and more color.    -  much better!  

The top was complete, but I felt it really needed "something". . . so I decided to try to do a Mock Trapunto technique.    I used a thick polyester batting, and densely quilted in the background area and in and around all the hearts and applique shapes.  

I used stippling in the large open areas and pebbling inside the smaller areas inside the heart and around the text.    
Starting from the outside edges first and going around the edges.    I stippled first, and then once I got to the inside of the hearts, I started pebbling.    This pushes all the batting down, and into the open areas.    Then I outlined around each heart, and they magically POOF UP, making it look like you took a long time stuffing each heart or adding extra batting.  

 I didn't have quite enough of the fabric and they were sold out, so I pieced the backing and made it into a double-sided quilt.   

 Here you can see how poofy the applique shapes are - and also the quilting on the back.

Franki's Baby Quilt

I made this quilt for my friend Franki, who is having a baby next month:  "Mia." 

She wanted Pink and Green, so I dug through my pinnk and green scraps.  The piecing for the front and back I kept relatively simple, but I went crazy with the quilting.   my favorite part ;c)

Here is the front and back before sandwiching. 

 I divided the quilt up in diamonds and wanted a 1/2' puffy line between each quilting motif.  In the above photo I had just finished the trapunto for Mia's name, the pebbling in the 1st section, and half the feathers in the 2nd section.

Here I had just finished all the quilting.  

Before trimming and binding.  

Closeup of the quilting. 

 andddd. . front and back finished!

All of the quilting was done with NEW Aurifil polyester longarm thread.  The pastel variegated thread looked perfect against the pink and green fabrics.   . . used in the top AND bobbin.

Adoption Quilt!

Introducing:  The Adoption Quilt.
I finished this amazing project just last night.  So here's the idea - This quilt is for a lady who adopted a child (Nathanael) and whom lives in West Virginia. Her baby shower is this Saturday!    The center block, is the state of West Virginia and represents Nathanael.  
Also represented in this quilt, is her 6 other "sponsered" children.  
3 of those kids are from Indonesia:  Gilbert, Jeniati, and Jonardo.
1 is from Haiti - Augustin
1 is from Uganda - Joseph
and 1 is from Ecuador - Mavelin.

The 4 outer corners are globes.  

All of these blocks were raw-edge fusible appliqued.   I attached the pieces with a narrow zig-zag in dark brown thread.   The names of each child were machine-embroidered on each block.

 I'm mostly proud of this block:  Indonesia - The other countries were easy to applique  . but Indonesia is a series of small islands.   I marked the islands with a thin pencil, and then went over them with my machine, and a darning foot!  I put stabilizer behind the fabric, and used a free-motion embroidery technique!

 Haiti - and Augustin

 West Virginia - and Nathanael

 Indonesia - and Gilbert, Jeniati, and Jonardo

 Ecuador - and Mavelin (LOVE that name!)

 Uganda - and Joseph

 Here's a closeup of one of the corner globes.   I quilted the globe backgrounds with a heart stitch, and the "water" part of the globes with a paisley stitch.  
This quilt also was the first time trying these little squigglies for the sashing. .   This stitch has totally changed my quilting life forever!! They are so versatile easy, and fast. . and sOOO cute!!  (But I'll go more into this in another blog post )

Here's the finished back of the quilt!  I used fabrics from the front of the quilt on the back too!  
Let me know what you think!

Project Quilting #2 Making Music

Here it is. . TADA. . my "Project Quilting" challenge entry.

The song I chose for this project is "The Music Never Stopped." The original artist is John Barlow but the version I like best is when Bobby Weir sings it from the Grateful Dead.

This is a Reversible Quilted Tote.

I used my grated hand-dyed fabrics for this tote and quilted it with my new machine using variegated metalic thread.

Here are some shots before the tote was assembled:

For the red contrasting pocket I quilted a "hearts" motif. - one of my favorite stitches.

I quilted a large feather on this side

The blue contrasting pocket holds a treble clef, and stippled background

For the musical notes I used Steam-a-Seam II light. The fabric is a fuzzy fabric I hand-dyed brown. . I used a raw-edge applique stitch to secure.

After I had assembled the sides, straps I was ready to turn it RIGHT-SIDE OUT. Since I used batting on both the lining AND the outside . . to make it reversible and have both parts quilted. . it was a bit of trouble getting it turned. This part reminded me of the old "Popples" dolls. tee hee.

Alright. . all done!

I'm not certain which side is the correct "outside" and "inside" . . But here is the RED sides:

and here is the blue sides:

Closeup of the treble clef pocket

You have until Sunday at Noon to join in the "Project Quilting" Challenge over at Kim's Crafty Apple!

Oh and BTW, go HERE to my previous post to WIN a "jelly roll" of these exact hand dyes. Leave me a comment on that post by Friday for a chance to win.