Over the Fence

Hi, it's been a while, but I have been quilting up a storm!  I have lots to show you today also.  First, I finished quilting the Bunny and Dog quilt. Those blue things are the little wire fence they were looking over, but I think the fact that I have to keep explaining what that is,, means that I should just call the quilt "Over the Fence".

The quilt is about 19 x 27 inches.  I decided to face it after watching this: Terry Aske facing a quilt.  

Here are close-ups of the animals:

The bunny is Sweetie.  I quilted her whiskers with Perle cotton.   It went right into the needle that I had on my machine, no tension adjustments or anything.  Worked like a dream!

This is Rusty.  I used several colors from Hollis Chatelain's Living Colors Threads from Superior Threads - a must-have thread collection for portrait quilters.

And on to other projects:

 Here are my two cuties, Sheldon and Kona (the black poodle mix), both rescues, sitting on some dog beds that I made.  I save my really small scraps and batting pieces to make these beds for shelter dogs.  My friends know about this and are always bringing me scraps.  So I have made quite a few.  Kona and Sheldon think they have to break them all in first!

But this is what my sweet Kona did last week when I was out.  She's 7 yrs old, so not a puppy thing... I think she was scratching out a sleeping area.  That is wool batting, VERY expensive, arggghhh!

So I have been doing some quilt samples for free motion quilting classes that I teach at Gromes Sewing Machine shop. 

 This is a panel from Angela Walters Textures collection.  I used my beginner quilting designs on this panel as a demo of the skills we learn.  I know, I know, it's way over-quilted for a beginner, but I want to inspire and show students the possibilities.  

I teach this class this Saturday..  I think we'll have fun!

In a more advanced free motion quilting class, we are working on these wholecloth feather wreath quilts.  I am working on the outer borders now using a design similar to one I have seen on several quilts before.  I used longarm rulers, specifically, Linda Hrcka's curved ruler set.  This is quilted using gold Glide thread.  

Quote for today:

If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person. It's how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.

William J. Clinton

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