IQA Raffle Quilt

Back in May of 2010 my very good friend and fellow HQ Educator Linda recommended me to a friend of hers to quilt the IQA Raffle quilt.  The friend is Martha Norstrand who had been asked to design the IQA raffle quilt for 2012. 
 Martha is amazing with stitching and hand applique and has designed many patterns over the years.  Also involved in the project was Stevii Graves who has been involved in the quilting world for many years.  She has been a juror and judge for many quilt shows in the U.S.  She is also president this year for the IQA (International Quilt Association).  She is also a very talented quilter herself. 
So I was asked by Martha if I would be interested in quilting the 2012 IQA raffle quilt!!!  Wow!  I was very interested and at the same time VERY terrified!  The quilt arrived at my house around May of 2011.  I had to have it quilted before we moved out of the country at the end of August.  It took me weeks to even load it onto my machine, because I was so terrified.  Once I got started on it I started to relax and away I went.  It took me about 80 hours to quilt it and there are over 1 million stitches in it (thanks to my handy stitch counter on my HQ Fusion).  I'm a freak about stats on quilts that i work on :)
When it was done and shipped off to Stevii who squared it up and stitched on the binding.  It looked awesome all done!  The IQA decided that they would enter it into The Road to California show and if it won any money it would also go towards the raffle ticket pot.  It ended up getting Honorable Mention, I was thrilled.  Then in the March edition of Machine Quilting Unlimited it was put in an article about balance in a quilt.  It was sooooo cool to see it in a magazine!
So this year the quilt "The Yellow Rose of Texas" will be travelling to the International quilt shows in the States and they will be selling raffle tickets on it.  It will then be raffled off to a lucky winner at the Houston Quilt Show in November. 
So that is the story of how I got to quilt this amazing quilt and be involved in the project.  What a great experience!

Flower Power

Well I've embarked on yet another project!  In the April/May edition of Quilters Newsletter there is a quilt called Flower Power by Jane Zillmer.  They are doing it as 7 part project...I just couldn't resist!  It will be the most intense applique project that I've probably ever done.  Jane Zillmer had machine appliqued hers but I've decided to hand applique mine.  It is taking me quite some time to do each block, probably about 3-4 days per block.  There are 13 blocks in total and the border has a least a gazillion leaves and vines to applique.  I'm hoping to keep on top of the blocks as they come.  Because I started late I'm hoping to have the 1st 5 blocks done before the August edition comes out??  We will see :)

Block One

Block Two

"Convoy" by Buggy Barn

So over the last couple of days I've dug into my bin of projects and pulled out a few to work on.  One of them is this Buggy Barn quilt called "Convoy".  I've always wanted to try a Buggy Barn quilt but have been daunted by the process.  Well I'm 11 blocks into it and it's not bad at all. 

Here is the process:

Trace the design onto the paper side of freezer paper.

Layer 9 fat quarters...then iron the freezer paper design onto the top of the pile.

Cut apart all the pieces and keep them in order.

Rotate the pieces how the pattern tells you to.  Some piles I had to put the top piece onto the bottom .  Some piles I had to put the top 2 pieces onto the bottom of the pile.

Then sew all the pieces back together and bada bing bada boom!

I takes me about 20 minutes to sew the blocks together.  Shouldn't take me too long to get the top together.

Considering it's a rainy miserable day outside, I might just have it done today :)



The Hexagon Project

My "little" project that I started a few years ago....

Start with a few thousand hexagons (only 550 shown in color)

Sew them together in diamonds...

Make 39 diamonds....

And start sewing them all together with a few thousand cream hexagons to make a quilt.

Not sure what I was thinking when I decided to embark on this journey??!  Maybe should have done a little table topper.

Felt a little card creative today....

Got the bug this afternoon to make a few birthday cards.

Feather Sampler

The sampler is about 40" square...was done with a layer of cotton batting and a layer of wool.  I used a polyester thread from Superior threads called Nature colors on the top and on the bottom I used Isacord thread.  I'm teaching this class at Central Sewing in Edmonton on Feb.23 from 9-noon.

Lucy couldn't resist a photo opp :)

The back of the sampler

Photos of the Grinch quilt

Well here it is, finally got around to posting some photos.  Nathan was quite happy with it.  I gave it to him the week before Christmas.