NEEDLEWORK PAGE PART III - QUILTS

August 3, 2012 - As simple as this quilt looks, it took me some time to get it finished and on the bed. Getting the mattress fixed up was probably the most aggravating part. I love making the quilt tops, but from then on - the backing, the binding, dressing the bed, I have to really take my time with all that. But here it is and I have to say, it is one of my favorites. I just totally love the colors!

The picture on the left shows the paper that inspired the colors and if I had room to display one, I think I'd have to make a bedroom roombox just to use the paper and quilt together. But since I don't it will go in my Etsy shop and we'll see what happens to it.  I have a few of the block strips left and am planning to use them on another project soon.

December 4, 2011 - I had made this mini stocking quite a while ago and recently put it in my Etsy .  A woman contacted me to see if I could make two more for her for her Betsy McCall dolls' Christmas room.  I had really had a hard time with the first one and figured it would be a OOAK, but  here was a challenge so I took it on.  I didn't have nearly as much trouble with the second two and she has since received them and was quite pleased with them.  And we had quite friendly conversations during the process and that was nice too. The picture has the wording because I wanted to make it look nice for posting in my shop.

 September  20, 2011 - Here's my latest quilt - just finished this evening.I used a panel print and then quilted it by adding embroidery embellishments.  I outlined some of the vines, the door mullions and a bit in the pumpkin, used French knots on some of the red berries, a long and short straight stitch on the broom handle, with a satin stitch banding the bristles which are long stitches that I cut after the broom was finished.  I did all the embroidery through to a backing, then added the burnt orange border, and added a new backing that I brought around to the top to make the second border.  I'm happy with the way it turned out, but my favorite bit is the broom. :)

My very first foundation pieced quilt was made up of this pine tree pattern in multiple 1" blocks.  I decided it would be fun to make a Christmas quilt and this is it.  You can see that it is decorated with various beads, sequins, cording, etc.  That was the "quilting" part - I don't really quilt the whole quilt the way real life ones are done.  Some miniature quiltmakers are able to do that but I can't make my stitches that tiny.

I guess this could be called a "cheater" quilt.  The little cabins are printed on the dark blue fabric so I pieced those squares with the tiny, tiny flag and stars blocks and "quilted" it with the knots at each corner.  I made this one shortly after 9/11 when it was a common syndrome to need to "make a statement".

I really enjoyed this quilt because I used so many different fabrics.  It's basically the fan pattern and the quilting here is done with the tiny buttons in the polka dot squares.  I took a bed-dressing class to try and learn how to dress beds so I could show my quilts to better advantage at shows, but it was a one-on-one class and we enjoyed chatting with each other so much, I didn't get finished - no bed skirt.  I made one after I got home, but didn't like it so took it off.

Speaking of bedskirts, making these new pages and taking pictures of everything inspired me to finally make bedskirts for the cabin quilt and the fan quilt and I'm so happy to finally have them on a bed that looks Hopefully, I'll get the rest of the ones I still have onto beds before too long and then, who knows, I may just have to take a table at a miniature show next year...

A heart patterned quilt that I quilted with the lazy daisy embroidery in the solid color squares.  (And the colors here are fairly hideous - but the main color is a pretty kind of corally pink.

The rest of the quilts below I've either sold or given as gifts:

This one was probably my most ambitious one to date - a flying geese quilt which took quite a while to get finished.  This one I didn't quilt at all because the piecing itself gave the impression of being quilted.  Each one of the columns of "geese" has 42 pieces of fabric sewn in!

The pine tree pattern was the first pattern I tried when I began foundation piecing, so it got a work out!  Above is another Christmas tree on the right, again decorated with gold cording and bead ornaments, and the one on the left is a "winter tree" which I stitched after I found the neat chenille cording to use as a snow-y garland.  The dark blue background has a silver sprinkle to it and then I added white French knots as my quilting.  The one below is when I finally decided to bite the bullet and make a quilt with pieced blocks instead of one big tree.  But it's still the tree pattern!  Someone must have liked it because it's the only thing I've ever had stolen off my table at a show.

If I made one like this again, I would know to make the bars and columns thinner - they kind of overpower the trees..

This type of quilt is sometimes called a cheater quilt because the only piecing I did here were the borders.  The fairy center panel is printed fabric and then I made the two coordinating borders.  I wish the picture showed how I embellished this quilt.  I used iridescent beads here and there for dew drops, did some outlining in the flower centers, used iridescent thread to stitch some of the veins in the wings and also to sew the twisty quilting stitches in the borders.

And this last quilt was also fun.  I found fabric that had kimonos printed on it but they were too big to use as is.  And I had a pattern for a foundation pieced kimono so I cut the different pieces out of the kimonos in the fabric. 

I quilted all around the kimono with gold thread and did some quilting in the corner pieces with black French knots.

And that is all the quilts to date!