Author: tidalcreekquilts

I found a pattern for a sweet applique quilt that I really wanted to do.  It seemed like a lot of work, but what the heck, it was work I loved to do.

This quilt is machine pieced and hand appliqued.  Here are closeups of the center detail.  All the applique pieces are outline quilted and veins are quilted in the leaves.  In the background, I quilted a simple grid.

I quilted a straight line through the center of the pieced blocks and a small heart swag in the longer side pieces.  In the plain squares, I quilted a feather wreath, my favorite quilt design.

In the inner blue triangles, I quilted a feather swag and in the outer blue borders, I quilted a meandering feather vine.

On the inner applique border, I outline quilted around the flowers and then quilted straight lines about 1″ apart in the background.

This is a Black Mountain Quilts pattern from a book called Buttermilk Farm.  Here’s a copy of the book and the pattern page.

This quilt won a red ribbon and Best Hand Quilting ribbon at the 2007 Lake Norman Quilters show.

I had a piece of really cute Debbie Mumm Christmas fabric that I kept coming across as I searched my stash for fabric for other quilts and decided the time had come to do something with it.  I’m not big into making seasonal or holiday quilts but it seemed as if I should have at least one Christmas quilt.

So here it is.  I like row quilts and decided that was what I would make.  The Debbie Mumm fabric is used in all the outer borders and in between the rows.  It’s primarily Santas, stockings and gingerbread men.  I designed all the rows that don’t use the inspiration fabric.  These rows are Ho Ho Ho,

gold stars, Christmas train (I love the train row and spent a lot of time drawing the toys and piecing the train), presents and tree lights.  I used a lot of different fabrics, trying to pick ones that complemented the Debbie Mumm fabric.

Once I had the quilt top done (before the borders), I set it aside because I couldn’t decide how I wanted to border it.  Sometimes it really helps to just step away from a project.  When I finally pulled it out again, the idea of using stars in the corners seemed obvious, and I did that finishing the rest of the borders with the fabric I had left.

I machine quilted this quilt.  In the borders, I outline quilted the figures and meandered in the background.

The appliques on the Ho Ho Ho row are buttonhole stitched down.  I outline quilted around the Ho’s and quilted spirals in the background.  The stars are pieced.  I meander quilted in the background and quilted a design in the center of the stars to accent them.

All the train cars and pieced and the wheels and toys are satin stitch appliqued.  This row is echo quilted around the appliques and train cars.  The presents are buttonhole stitched and their ribbons are satin stitched down.  I outline quilted around the presents and then meander quilted in the background using loops and starbursts.

The Christmas tree lights are satin stitched down.  I used all six strands of an embroidery floss to embroider the “wire”.  I only outline quilted on that row.

This was a fun quilt to make.  I use and enjoy it every Christmas!

Another great niece – how exciting!  I had recently finished making the Sugar and Spice quilt and loved the look of the flowers in the hearts.  I decided to make a quilt placing the hearts in vertical rows with a flower in each one.  I found a lovely floral fabric for the borders and used the colors in it for the flowers.  Each row of hearts was bordered with a narrow strip of black and white striped fabric cut across the stripes, and that fabric was also used for the binding.  Here is my great niece holding her quilt.

This quilt is entirely hand appliqued and hand quilted.  I quilted around the flower and heart appliques, around the borders and did a grid in the outside border.

Here is the backing fabric which I fell in love with and seemed right for this quilt because of all the colors and hearts.

We were expecting a new great niece.  As I was searching for the perfect quilt, I came across a Bareroots pattern that I loved.  It was so girly and sweet.

This quilt is hand appliqued and hand quilted with some embroidery.  I mainly outline quilted around the applique pieces to emphasize them and I also quilted some wavy lines on the green “grassy” area under the bunny.  “Sugar and Spice and everything nice” is embroidered in the green area.  “Little One” is embroidered on the blocks.

Here is a detail of the sugar and spice area.

This is the Bareroots pattern.  There is also a design that is suitable for a boy (which I haven’t made).

Another great nephew was on the way.  I had come across an adorable rocking horse quilt pattern in an issue of Patchwork and Stitching magazine and knew it was what I wanted to make for this occasion.

The appliques on this quilt are fused and then buttonhole stitched down.  There is some embroidery on the rocking horse for the mane, reins and stirrups, plus some for the bird’s wing and legs.  Here’s a closeup of the center design.

This quilt is primarily machine quilted using a stipple meander on the background.  I hand quilted a straight line through the colored squares on the nine patches and to outline the hearts.

 

My quilt guild, Lake Norman Quilters, was fortunate enough to have Carol Doak come and do a program and class.  Carol Doak is well known for her paper piecing.  At the time, I was not a big fan of paper piecing, but, it was a big event so I signed up for the class.

Was I ever glad I did.  After the class was over, I loved paper piecing.  For me, it took a little bit of time to adjust my brain to a different way of piecing, but the effects are striking and perfect and easy.  And besides, the class was a lot of fun.

This quilt is entirely paper or foundation pieced, of course.  It’s a scrappy quilt in that the greens and reds are all different but of a similar value.  The background is a cream with an ivy vining on it.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to border the quilt but found the perfect stripe fabric at a local quilt shop.  Then I used a fourth of each large block for the corners.

This quilt is machine quilted.  I did a stipple meander in the background, squiggly loops in the gold and a curvy line on the inside edge of the red flowers.

I quilted leaf veins on the green in red thread because I had used red thread on the flowers (that was a little outside my comfort zone) and was tickled with the outcome.

This quilt won a first place ribbon in its category at the 2007 Lake Norman Quilters show.

I came across a Bareroots pattern for a tote bag and it was so cute I had to make it.  The background is strip pieced.  It has a double embroidered pocket on the front and an embroidered handle.

Here’s a close up of the embroidered design on the front pockets.

It’s a cute quilt shop with a flower border that says, I Love Quilting.  I machine quilted the tote in an overall loop meander.  It goes with me to every quilt guild meeting.

Here’s a picture of the pattern.

I liked this tote bag so much that I made it again when I got into doing red work.  This time I machine quilted the tote by stitching in the ditch along the seam of each strip of fabric.  I did the double pocket again using the same flowered embroidery on the outside of the first pocket.  For the second pocket, I did a red work embroidery design of a lady encountering a cat.

Here’s a closeup of the pocket embroidery.

 

 

A new great nephew was on the way.  His nursery was being decorated in sheep and I found the perfect pattern in a book called “Baby Quilts” by Ursula Michael.

I was fortunate to find the perfect soft shades of blue and green.  I followed the pattern putting the sheep in a snow ball block and alternating these with nine patch blocks.  The sheep are fused onto the background squares and then satin stitched down.  The quilt is machine quilted.

I found a beautiful line of fabrics in pinks and greens, my favorite color combination, and looked for a pattern to showcase them.  I decided on the cake plate block.  I set the blocks on point and alternated them with solid blocks of the pink and green floral print.  This is a queen size quilt.

There are three borders on this quilt, a solid green inner border, a pink tone on tone border, and then a wider border of the green floral.  I decided to put the wide outer border on the sides and bottom only.

This quilt is hand quilted.  I outline quilted and did a leaf design in the cake plate blocks.  In the triangles framing the quilt center, I quilted a spider web design.

I quilted a tulip and heart design in the center of each green and pink floral square which is difficult to see.  Here’s a picture of the design on the quilt back  where you can see the it a little better.  This is a good example of why it’s best to do your intricate quilting on plainer fabric if you want all your hard work to show.  The tulip is also quilted in the center of each cake plate.

        

On the dark green outer border, I quilted a simple curve, and on the pink outer border I quilted a Greek key design.  On the wide green and pink outer border, I quilted a wavy design about 2″ apart.

                  

Sugar Buzz won a Best Hand Quilting ribbon and a second place ribbon in its category at the 2004 Mooresville Centerpiece Quilters Guild show.  Here I am with Sugar Buzz at the show.

I had a pattern for a triangle quilt that I looked at over and over.  It was fascinating to see how the pattern repeated itself all over the quilt, creating larger and smaller triangles and a lot of movement.  I decided to make the quilt in blues and browns and creams with some pink/mauve thrown in.  All the dark triangles point up and the light triangles point down.

This wasn’t difficult to piece, but the trick was to press the seams in the correct direction so they didn’t get lost.  Pressing the seams open would probably solve the problem.  I quilted this by machine in an overall loop design.  The curve of the quilting complemented the straight lines of the triangles.