Wizards and Dragons - Carla's quilt

Alas, I have no picture of this quilt finished.

A co-worker, Carla, hand embroidered the blocks with wizards and dragons for her son.

She asked me to put it together and have it quilted. These are pictures of the construction.

The back is a fire breathing Chinese dragon print. Her son and

his girlfriend loved it

Beginner Link - great information

I received permission from Gloria Massard to post a link to her site for quilting for beginners. She has great information there, for supplies, making a quilt and picking/matching colors.

I recommend it, not just for beginners, but for those of us who have been quilting for awhile and still have our quandries.

Her information is to the point, clear and her instructions were great. Check it out!
http://www.sewaquilt.com/index.html

Labor Day Weekend with the 'Quilting Family'

Labor Day weekend activities included a wonderful visit with family from Oklahoma, among them two neices who also quilt.
The quilting nieces and I got together in the sewing room at different times over the weekend and 'played'. One of them wanted to learn to make the 'lone star', so we went through the stash cabinet and picked out fabric, cut, pieced and made one point of the star. Of course, I sent the rest of the fabric home with her so she can work on the 'practice piece', before starting her final project.
The other neice wanted to play with the embroidery machine. She made a small picture for a family friend, then embroidered her grandsons names on fabric to use in a project that she is planning after she goes home.
We made a trip to the home of the family who does long arm quilting for me, to see their work. They had several quilts that will be in a local quilt show for us to look at. It is always a treat to go there! There are 5 quilters in that family, and they do lovely work with patchwork and machine embroidery besides their business of long arm quilting.
DD3 came Monday evening and worked on her 'patriotic block' for the guild meeting.

DD3 - yet another quilter!

One more daughter, one more quilter.
DD3, Danielle just made her first pieced top. A crib size for her 7 month old daughter.
She started piecing it from my stash on Saturday Aug 11, and showed it at quilt guild on Aug. 13. Now she is trying to decide on the backing and finishing techniques she wants to use.
She has started her own quilting blog, there 's a link on this page.
Danni is a mother of 4, 3 boys and baby girl, so stays very busy.
I am glad she is finding time to quilt and hope she enjoys it as much as I do.

These two bordered panel quilts belong to grandson Randy.

The Indian panel was for his 16th birthday. It stays on his bed!

The wolves panel is his 18th birthday gift by request.

Randy is color-blind, but went shopping with me to pick out the co-ordinates for this quilt. It is a queen/king size and will

be a keepsake for him and his future family. (At least I hope)

More inspiration - another daughter takes up quilting

This quilt was made for DD1, Chrysta. It graces the back of her couch.

She helped pick out the fabrics and I made it at a class at Melear's, taught by Emma Troyer, using Eleanor Burns 'Log Cabin in a Day' book in 2006.

It was machine quilted with a leaf pattern that goes well with the 'forest' motif of the fabrics.

Chrysta works full time and home schools her 2 sons, so has limited spare time and just recently has taken up quilt making.

About a month ago she got a sewing machine and her 'starter' supplies for quiltmaking.

She and son Brett are working on a bargello pattern top.

Hand Piecing - practice in patience

Mother's star throw

It took most of the summer of 2006 to make 9 of these star blocks. I had decided to hand piece these blocks.

I took them with me on camping trips and stitched away while DH fished.

My hand sewing skills were pretty rusty when I started and some of the blocks were pretty skewed by the time I had redone them once or twice.

After some practice, however, the blocks began to look better. At first, it was frustrating, but after a while as I got more proficient, I began to relax and enjoy what I was doing.

I used the best 5 to make this throw for my mother. The lilac floral fabric made me think of her while I was working on the blocks.

It also has a folded bias border and is free hand machine quilted.