Sea Turtles

This all-batik quilt was huge, built for a California kingsize bed. It was 112 inches wide and 108 inches top to bottom. I used 3 different battings. I put Warm and White on the bottom.



Then I windowed in a piece of Soft & Bright inside the inner border. I used some QD puff trapunto on the two big turtles and the orange fish. I also used Jodi Beamish Waterworld as filler inside the turtle area. Michelle Wyman’s Simply Seashells seemed like the perfect complement ot he turtles so that is what I put in the 20” borders.




I used PermaCore Brazilian Blue thread top and bobbin.

Going Around in Circles

OK, I cannot tell a lie, this one was a wooly booger to get quilted. The quilt was 2 inches bigger through the center than it was on the top and bottom.



I double-batted it (Soft & Bright and QD Puff) to help fill in some of the mountains. I used King Tut’s Oasis thread and quilted swirls very tightly to nail down any puckers who showed their heads. Even I was surprised at how well it turned out.

Night and Day

Update: The book is out now and the one I quilted is on page 93. It is a thrill to see my name in print. Silly really, but just fun.

I also wanted to post a photo that I got in October 2008 after this post was written on Sep 10th, 2008. Eleanor Burns is a local celebrity. Her retreat is in Julian which is right up the road from our little town of Ramona. Now Eleanor has her own fabric store, Quilt in a Day, over in San Marcos which is about 35 miles from the retreat center. People attending her retreat have to pass through our town to go to the retreat plus our LQS, the CraZy 9 Patch, is the closest fabric store to the retreat center. Occasionally, Eleanor drops in to see what fabrics The CraZy 9 Patch has in stock. That way she can advise her students. Eleanor tries to fly below the radar when she does these LQS visits. She is on a particular mission.

I was in the produce department at our local supermarket once and chatted with her, not realizing who she was, at first until I saw her signature red fingernail polish and then she smiled and her smile is unmistakable. She really is a sweet person.

I quilted this quilt for Lorna and she let me display it in my longarm booth at the Ramona Quilt show in October 2008. Eleanor usually stops by our show every year. You can tell when she is there because people stop talking and start whispering "Is that Eleanor Burns?" LOL. I was disappointed that I had not seen her during our 2-day quilt show. Then 10 minutes before the show was over, I heard the hush and knew she was there. She apparently knew that Lorna's quilt was hanging in my booth because she made a beeline to my booth. And I got this wonderful photo with Eleanor.


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I just finished this beauty. It is called Night and Day and will be in Eleanor Burn’s book of the same name coming out soon.



I did lots of ruler work in and around the stars. The Circle Lord 12-inch Spiral template was the perfect tools in the octogons and the Cable template in the borders made a clean border.

I wish I had Eleanor’s talent or talent pool. She keeps coming up with challenging and beautiful quilt patterns.