Celtic Knot

This is a class sample for my LQS, the CraZy 9 Patch, in Ramona, CA. Debbie is an exceptional piecer so I really wanted to do some special stuff in the quilt. I knew that I wanted to quilt it to define the over-under of the knots. And I knew that I would be using a ruler for most of it. Lots of ditch work. I did a double-line inside the black and then SID the entire knot. I strated using Superior MonoPoly but it kept breaking on me. I was using a new Gammill wide expanded base which gives lots of room for ruler work. but the nut connecting it bumps into the carriage. That would not normally be a problem but I just added Edgerider wheels to my mahcine which are the tiniest bit smaller than the old Gammill wheels. I just had to be carfule during diagonal ruler work.






I found a new Keryn Emmerson border design that was continuous. I also used Helen Squire design for the long heart shaped pieces of blue. I double-lined the black border also.




I used two battings, Warm & White on the bottom and Quilter's Dream Puff on the top to give the Celtic Knot some definition. I used Superior So Fine black thread and turquoise PermaCore.







I dropped it off at the LQS this afternoon. It was a hit.

St Bernard Rescue Quilt

Allison has a small ranch in Julian. She is passionate about St Bernard Rescue. She has one of her own. Allison decided to make a quilt to raffle and donate the proceeds to the rescue group.. Allison gathered red fabrics of all kinds, flannel, cotton, homesppun and lots of plaid. She also had a small piece of fabric with Saints on it that she fussy cut into blocks. Then using ultrasuede, she appliqued a St. Bernard dog sleeping.







I trapuntod the dog and did a medium stipple throughout the quilt in Superior So Fine black thread.

This is My Space - Get out ! Peeve In Perpetuity

Some folks blog about peeves or things that bother them. I love to read these blogs and frequently get a chuckle out of them. Often, things that bother them also rile me up. So continuing in that tradition, I will start a Peeve In Perpetuity - in other words, the things that are timeless, eternal and will likely bother me the rest of my life.

So let's start with the one that fired me up this morning as I was driving to work. I think most people are on auto-pilot for the morning commute. You stumble out of bed, coffee, get in the car and go. I think that most commuters are courteous and like-minded - we share a bond - we are all going to work and if we have basic navigation skills mixed with some courtesy, the drive to work will be uneventful.

And then there's those yobos who think that they are the only ones on the road. They think nothing of cutting you off so you have to slam on your brakes. They will jump into a line of cars that have been waiting for the same light for which the yobo thinks he is too good to wait. But I will save those irritations for another time. Traffic fodder, I have lots of angst about that.

Today's peeve are the other guy's headlights - they invade the space in my car - flood my car with too much light. It's not just the bright lights that blind you whether they are driving toward you or boring a hole in your retina via your rearview mirror, it's those new brighter than bright, intense xenon lights that most trucks come equipped with today. It's bad enough that truck headlights are at the same level as a sedan's rear window. Tough beans if you drive a sedan and a truck pulls in behind you.

But when that yobo has those new xenon lights and puts himself in position behind you that keeps those lights in your mirror, it is impossible to drive without covering the mirror or leaning forward to avoid the glare. Safe? No, but neither are flashbulbs in my eyes while I am trying to drive. I usually just pull over and let the yobo go by. But that is not what I want to do.

I want to push a James Bond dashboard button that lifts a large mirror off my trunk so it faces the guy behind me. "Yeah, have some of this, Bright Eyes."

So tell me, what peeves you today?

Two Half Log Cabins - Different Quilts

My friend Martha, the shop owner of the CraZy 9 Patch and Kimmie, on staff at C9P decided to use up the last of a few purple to lilac fabrics making half log cabins. The quilts look the same on front.

Kimmie chose pink flannel back and wanted bamboo batting. She also wanted hearts. I drew up three wonky concentric freemotion hearts (continuous, thank you very much) and quilted it on the quilt along with a a Debbi Treusch offset of a Deloa Jones sashing, SID and my longarm feathers with echo.









Martha used a purple backing and wanted Hobbs Heirloom batting. Martha liked the Tree of Life design that I drew up and used on my son's Jacob's Ladder. So I did that inside the field of her half log cabin. I SID the border and used freemotion to quilt an open leage and curl pattern similar to one of the fabrics in the the quilt.





The back shows the budding stems of the tree. No flash used for this so the color is distorted.



You can't see the quilting on this photo but the color is correct.

So these two fabric-atistas (hey, if Starbucks can make up a name for their coffee guys, I can make up a name for the people who work at quilt shops) had two very different quilts.

Outside My Comfort Zone

This quilt is for a customer's son and she said that he really liked the fabric in the center. It is a bit edgy. So I did Circle Lord ZigZag with a variation in the center. I used Camel thread throughout most of it. Warm & Natural batting.



There are a few borders. This is where I decided to try a few things. I dragged out my white board and tried to come up with an edgy design that would fit with the fabric and be a bit edgy.



The outer border is what I came up with. I like it though it reminds me of a G with a rhinosaurus horn. LOL.

Then I used the Circle Lord to do some perfect circles on the corners and the centers of all sides. I drew a thorny design in the corners and used Pepper Cory's spinning cross in the middle circles. I used my channel locks to make the straight lines. That was a bit difficult. The quilt is perfectly square. The rails on my machine are absolutely straight. So why did one of my lines start at 1 inch past the black border but then ended 1.5 inches from the black border? Canvas stretch on a 1 and a half year old machine is not likely. But since I float all my quilts, if I was off even a smidge when pinning, that gets magnified as you go across the quilt. I had to play with it. The lines were too long for a ruler without taking the chance of a wobble that would show.



The pieced black and purple piano key borders were done with continuous curve with two thorns sticking out of each line. I have seen this in a book or online but cannot remember whose design it is in order to give proper credit. I decided to changed thread to So Fine Silver just for this CC and I am pleased with the way it came out.



The greenish gold border is also alternating small and large thorns. I made the large thrns curve enough at the top to grab a couple of threads of the next border just to keep it in line. I thought it looked fine with out stitch in the ditch. The other borders needed the ditch work.

I used the Circle Lord Zigzag templates to make a crosshatch with an extra diamond. I love that Circle Lord.

The customer picked it up at the LQS and called me last night to tell me that she loved it. I love happy endings, don't you.