Frieda Anderson Class

At the Minnesota Quilters Show last summer (I'll be teaching there in 2019!) I took this class from Freida Anderson.  She's a great teacher and ti was such fun.  I finally got around to quilting it this weekend.  The quilting was done in Superior Fantastic Poly variegated threads.

I had fun quilting lines on the roofs.

Water needs waves.

This is my favorite part of the while quilt!  The border was quilting in these spirals and since it variagated as well as the thread it provided such an interesting texture and visual.

Now to put on it's binding.  If I can find the fabric...

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

AQS Interview and Island Batiks Rain Ripples Part 1

Hah!  New skills!  I've learned how to put in video on the blog!  Hmm......ideas for later.  Here is my video with Bonnie Browning about my quilt from AQS Paducah last week!  

Since it's April, Island Batik's challenge for it's Ambassadors is April Showers.  We got a list of all sorts of different "spring" images to pick from to use in our quilts.  I was going to do a bug wearing rain boots.  I even made the drawings, but decided it wasn't quite what I wanted in the end.  The modern quilt movement bug has bitten me and I knew raindrops would make an interesting modern quilt.

So then I started thinking about raindrops and the shapes they make when they hit a puddle of water.  I decided to use a rainbow of colors because rain always make me hope for rainbows.  Two of the fabrics are from Island Batik's Fire Island line, two are from their basic batiks, and two are from their Florida Oranges line.  

I cut out a bunch of raindrops and laid them out in a rainbow.  Then the fun part: quilting it!  I decided to call the quilt Rain Ripples since that is what I'm trying to emulate.  

I was lucky enough to receive some wonderful variegated Fantastico thread from Superior Threads as part of being an Island Batik Ambassador.  One thing I absolutely love about Superior's variegated threads is how often they change color.  It's about every inch or two.  Many variegated threads only change every 8-12 inches.  This is one reason I find Superior's variegated threads to be well, Superior!  I also really like that the labels on the threads tell you which needle will work best.  What a fantastic idea that makes it easy for quilters to remember.

Here are the colors I used to quilt Rain Ripples:

Purple done!  I decided that instead of overlapping the ripples like would actually happen in real life, I would simply have the rings stop when they hit each other.  You can see this clearly in the picture below.

Once I'd started quilting the ripples in my beautiful varigated thread, I had to think about what I was going to do with the background.  Originally I was going to use a white thread, but changed my mind and decided on a light gray thread I also received as an Ambassador, Superior's Masterpiece Thread.  This thread is a 50 weight 3-ply cotton that is great for quilting and piecing.  I've never used it before and found it fantastic and easy to work with.  I also liked that the ripples have a sheen (polyester thread) and the background quilting won't (cotton thread).  It's a nice contrast.

Ready for background quilting.  One thing I'm enjoying about working on small projects for my blog is using all sorts of different combinations of batting to see what I like the best and might want to use in my competition pieces.  For this quilt I used two layers of Hobbs Wool batting.  It was REALLY fluffy, almost too much.  I love puff, but this quilt had so much that quilting those pebbles was a challenge because the fabric was so puffy it sometimes left puckers or tucks in the top if I wasn't spreading it apart really tightly with my hands while quilting.

Here's the quilting all finished except for the binding.  I have something special planned for that.  Come back Saturday to check it out!  And don't forget to join my Machine Applique Adventures Facebook group!

Happy Quilting!

Suzy

AQS Paducah 2016

Last Sunday I got an email informing me that I'd won a ribbon at the American Quilter's Society Paducah show this year.  They don't tell you what you've won, just that you have.  There was a new feature this year, the live streamed the awards ceremony on YouTube.  So, Tuesday evening from the comfort of my own couch I was able find out that my quilt Harmony's Loop placed third in it's small wall quilt-home machine quilted category.  It was quite thrilling.

Winning an award in Paducah is something I've thought about and strived towards for many years.  It's a dream come true.  Some day, I'd love to win Best of Show (you have to keep dreaming big dreams after all), or one of the other larger awards, but what a moment this win was.

So thrilling in fact we bought tickets and my mom and I flew to St. Louis late Friday night after work, stayed overnight, rented a car and drove to Paducah for the day on Saturday.  We then returned to St. Louis and flew out VERY early Sunday morning.  It was a whirlwind, but way worth the trip!

One amazing thing AQS does for winners is interview in front of your quilt about your quilt.  I did this Saturday morning with Bonnie Browning.  It's not up yet on their YouTube channel, but Marilyn Badger's (she won Best of Show) is and it's amazing.  Click here to watch it.  I'll be sure to share the link when mine is available!

I was also able to have fabulous chats with lovely ladies from Hobbs batting, Superior Threads, and the always amazing Ricky Tims.

Mom and I shopped until we dropped (including the fabulous Hancock's of Paducah).  I bought lots of Island Batiks (of course) and some other fabric as well as some Superior Threads needles and Aurifil thread.

There were many amazing moments and I'll be sharing all the pictures I took over in my Machine Applique Adventures Facebook group because I took TONS.  Be sure to join us!

Here are a few of my favorites:

I love the symmetry of this quilt and the quilting is absolutely fabulous.  

Here you can see the quilting behind the applique and the symmetry at the edges.  Symmetry always makes my heart sing.

I've seen this quilt before in magazines, but the photo's didn't do it justice.  It is absolutely fabulous in person and so creative!  I love all the different quilting motifs and colors.

I love this close up of one of the flowers.  Of course, I love the flowers!

Another stunning flower.  I like how she quilted it to enhance the design.

Okay, yes, I know this picture is sideways, but I couldn't make it rotate. Someday I will figure out how to fix it, but since it's symmetrical (are you detecting a theme yet?), it looks excellent sideways too.  This is a wholecloth quilt.  All the stitching that is in color was done with turquoise thread.

 

As you can see, the threadwork is just spectacular!

Now that I'm home with a million ideas of what to start quilting next, I have to go to work tomorrow.  Back to reality I suppose, but with plenty of quilting after bedtime!

Happy Quilting!
Suzy

Island Batik Ambassador and Paducah Finalist!

It's been an amazing few days!  The first exciting news is that I got my amazing box of fabric from Island Batiks!  I'm an Island Batik Ambassador for the next year!  I am super excited to get started.  I also received some wonderful thread from Superior Threads: Fantastico and Masterpiece!  I have used Masterpiece for applique, but have never tried either of them for machine applique or quilting.  There is definitely some fun to be had in my future.

Our first project as ambassadors is to create a miniature quilt.  Time to get creating!

On another exciting front I got word today that two of my quilts have been juried into the American Quilter's Society Show in Paducah in April!

The quilts are Harmony's Loop and Pulse.

It's been an amazing week :)
Suzy