As you can see in the previous post, the colors in these daisy quilts match the colors in the pinwheel quilts. Carol made the pinwheel quilts bed size with the matching daisy quilts as accents. They turned out beautiful for her granddaughters. I'm sure they will be very special quilts to those little girls. My favorite quilt is still the one my mom made me. I sleep under it every night. 
I always look forward to quilting Carol's quilts. She does a beautiful job assembling them, making my job easy, and always uses rich color combinations. I recently finished these two for her. The whimsey with leaves & swirls seemed like the appropriate design to quilt the pastel, flower garden strip quilt. I had never used that design on any of Carol's quilts and she liked it very much. The pinwheel quilt took a little more time to come up with a design for. I had various ideas that would work, but knew I still hadn't found the perfect one. Carol also requested that I make sure the quilting was not too dense to ensure that the quilts would have good drape. They will be used on her granddaughter's beds. I finally decided on ribbons and used the ditches of the rows as my guide. The ribbons worked out well! Carol loved how they looked on the quilt. They added a lot of movement to the quilt, setting the pinwheels in motion. And they had wonderful drape!
I was so excited when I saw a package in the mail earlier this month from Sweden. I couldn't wait until Christmas to open it. Gudrun sent me the cutest little tea cup shaped pouch. She did an amazing job stitching it together and adding wonderful beading and embellishments. AND she picked bright colors....my favorite. The best part was when I un-zipped the pouch. The pungent aroma of strawberry tea immediately filled the air. Gudrun is a very smart lady because she also included an additional hand-crafted pouch full of chocolate Santas. Mmm, mmm...they quickly vanished.
These last 2 photos of the goodies she sent me for my birthday this past fall. I love the necklace she gave me, and I have the post card taped up on the bookshelf next to my bed. The postcard is a snapshot of her beautiful Island of Hono.
Lana did a great job with the color choices for this fabulous "Figgy Pudding" pattern. She told me to quilt it at my discretion. I LOVE hearing those words! It took a long time to plan and rehearse the many stitch designs that I sewed in the trees and blocks. At first my creative juices were not kicking in. But after I had quilted the first pass I was ready to ROCK N' ROLL!!! AND...this quilt was the perfect way to "decorate" my blog for Christmas.
Don't know why this one posted sideways! Oh well...
For some of the trees, I used the motiff in the pattern of the fabric. This tree had a fabulous 3D texture after I quilted around the peppermints. 
Here are the promised photos. I just happened to be taking pictures of this one as the sun was setting. Perfect! Enjoy! *See previous post for more info. about this quilt*
See what I mean??? (read the last post if you haven't already...) My friend and long time customer Kris did a fabulous job with her hand-stitched redwork and overall quilt design. I wanted so badly to go skipping down by the seashore after quilting this beauty. Once again my Mermaid Hair background filler added pizazz and movement without stealing the show. This stitch motif has become one of my favorites. It brings things to life. The crab, for example, was an elegant, yet "flat" redwork pattern. After breaking up all that white background with some Mermaid Hair action...Mr. Crab there looks likes he's gonna' crawl right off the quilt. I can't wait to share more snapshots of this one, like the light house and star fish blocks. MORE PHOTOS COMING soon....so stay tuned people as I take you down by the seashore....
I'm thinking beach right now.... Yes in the middle of winter! The thought of strolling along the edge of the sea with soft, warm sand cushioning every step, sunshine on my cheeks and that soothing sound of waves rolling in & out is very appealing to me right now. And speaking of the seashore, two of the quilts I have recently done have a thing or 2 to do with the ocean. Wait and see....photos coming very soon. Wait til you see how they turned out...
Sharon put together a stunning combination of fabrics. For the quilting she requested feathers in the corners. I decided to try a new kind of feather that curled in on itself. I worked and practiced for a long, looooong time. Several sketches later, I felt ready to tackle the quilt. I couldn't have been more excited about how well the feathers turned out. I always feel like I'm free-falling off a cliff when I begin taking the first stitches of a new design. Even though I've been sewing feathers for a while now, these were tricky because of how tightly they curled in on themselves and because of the fact that they had to fit into the corner squares and set-in triangles.
Here's another of Robin's quilts. The artsy, funky feel of her quilt lent itself to a variety of stitch design possibilities. I had lots of fun quilting swooshing feathers in the wide purple sashing and in the borders. Robin not only hand dyed many of her fabrics as in her other quilt here but she also used a variety of corduroys, cottons, linens, satin, and more. The purple feathers shimmered because of their wavy design and the shiny, silky purple fabric. The pumpkin, gold thread was complimentary as well.
