Recently in Process Category

I dropped in on Judy yesterday. The first thing I did was check out her pin holder over on her longarm quilting machine. It is exciting, isn't it? There are pins here from the quilts of Kaffe Fassett and Freddy Moran, two of my favorite quilters. This bowl is magnetic and sits on one of the braces of her machine...it is about 6" in diameter. Judy said she bought hers at an auto supply store...I think I have to have one.

There is always inspiration in Judy's studio..she was considering what color of thread to use on a quilt...

There were quilts on her design wall. This one is her friend Dana's work....

This is Judy's...

And this is me quilting on a current project...

I dropped in on Judy yesterday. The first thing I did was check out her pin holder over on her longarm quilting machine. It is exciting, isn't it? There are pins here from the quilts of Kaffe Fassett and Freddy Moran, two of my favorite quilters. This bowl is magnetic and sits on one of the braces of her machine...it is about 6" in diameter. Judy said she bought hers at an auto supply store...I think I have to have one.

There is always inspiration in Judy's studio..she was considering what color of thread to use on a quilt...

There were quilts on her design wall. This one is her friend Dana's work....

This is Judy's...

And this is me quilting on a current project...

Amy and I send a lot of stuff back and forth through the mail. On its way south is a box with bits and pieces of projects we are working on. One baggie in that big box has these two jelly rolls. If you visit fabric stores, you are familiar with jelly rolls. These are my jelly rolls. The mostly black and white one is a collection of 2" strips I cut from fabrics we are working with, and the orange one is a collection of 30 pieced strips I made which will be joined with Amy's strips to become a beautiful quilted piece.

When this quilt top arrived in the mail from Amy, I knew it would be fun to quilt. This is just a peek at the palette Amy used, one of our favorites. It is ready now to have the binding stitched on.

The machine is my industrial strength Juki 98E...the Janome is in for much needed service. If you have ever sewn with the Juki, you know that it is the race car of sewing machines...It takes my undivided concentration to keep the path of the quilting line ahead of the needle. The automatic thread cutter on the foot pedal is the best!

After two weeks away on vacation, I couldn't wait to get back in my studio. This quilt makes me smile. The sweet bird sketches from our journals are framed in lush greens and blues...and the quilting lines add a bit of whimsy and texture to the pieces. My Janome 6600 is being serviced. So I'm using my industrial strength Juki 98E...it is so fast...using it is like playing chess...I have to think two or three moves ahead of the needle...But I love how it moves on the fabric. And, that foot pedal thread cutter is amazing...

This is one of our latest projects which I quilted yesterday. Using our pattern, A's Cranes, with a pirate theme, we created a happy kid's quilt. Choosing the perfect color for the binding is next.

A peek at a sweet baby quilt which we have been working on and is now almost finished. The quilt was commissioned, and Amy and I both wondered about the color palette, but in the end, we are quite pleased with the look of it.

I've tried something new this week...well, new for me. I am working on three quilting projects ..multi-tasking. This small quilt is in pink and orange and black and white, a palette we love to work with, Amy designed the quilt and made most of the rows. One row features a strip of her sketched birds. You can see a bit of them in the photo. I did the quilting. I think it turned out perfectly.

This is an original quilted wall hanging we call "Green A's" based on stripped triangles in greens. We each made blocks, and Amy designed and made the border out of the trimmings and remnants from our piecing. It is now ready for binding.

The third project is not far enough along to show you, but I'll say that it is an Asian theme panel which is being heavily stitched in thread play...The borders showcase flowers, circles, vines and leaves which meander around the edges. I can't wait to do more on it tomorrow.

Pink and orange is definitely a favorite portion of the spectrum for us. This is the next in a series of collaborative pieces finished in recent weeks. This one features bird sketches by each of us.

This is one of two "on the machine" shots Opal sent me this week which means, yes, two more quilts in final stages. We still haven't shown full-on shots of much of what has been finished this spring. But, I find myself enamoured with this collection of "in process" shots and love how they (as a series) will beautifully chronicle a season of work.

Several of the new pieces will be on display next week at a show in Opal's area.