Family Reunion Quilt

I made another "scrappy star" quilt! I know, I get on these binges (remember the Twister of last year? Still love the Twister tools!), but This is really fun to me.

And this is a commissioned quilt. Or a volunteered quilt. I made it for my husband's family's reunion this year. We have a great group that organizes the reunion each year and several years ago they started finding a charitable organization we could feature each year. It is such a great way to share our blessings. Well, this year's theme is a celebration of our family members who have served in the Armed Forces. I volunteered to make this quilt. We are raffling it off to the family at our reunion. All our proceeds this year are going to our local VFW to support their Flag Ceremonies that they perform at the funerals of all Veterans. They do this free of charge for the families and pay their own expenses. We want to help them out with that. 

My husband and son have already committed to buying 20 chances each!

I collected red, blue and white fat quarters. There were also some yard cuts I was given.

I FMQ'ed it in a loose, all-over meander, so it has great drape. The quilting thread is variegated shades of blue.

67" square

Some crafting going on!

I bought 2 pillow case kits that match my "Lark" quilt. These will go with the quilt as a gift. Love to make these!

I am quilting on a patriotic-themed quilt. (Yes, I will post it when I

am finished)

 My son made a bracelet for his girlfriend, and a matching watchband for himself. We are just so crafty!

 

Lark

Friday night I finished sewing the binding on my newest quilt, "Lark".

The pattern is called "Pave the Way" by Karen Gray and it was featured in the Spring/Summer 2011 Quilt Sampler magazine accompanying a delightful article about Karen's awesome shop!

The pattern was so well written and easy to follow. I will be making another!

The fabrics I used are by Amy Butler, her "Lark" collection. I love that name so I kept it for the quilt.The white is Kona Snow (my favorite white). I do not usually buy an entire collection, but Karen hat a fat eighth bundle and the colors are so bright. I do love the scrappy!

This quilt measures 71" by 52" before washing. I FMQ-ed it in my doodling style, stitching a mixture of meandering, spirals, feathers and fans. I used 2 entire spools of YLI Natural thread in the quilting, so yes, it has a lot of stitching!

A new barn quilt

On my commute through rural North Carolina, the spring shows such beauty. Nature is waking up, new green crops, redbud trees, daffodils. And this week, a new barn quilt!

Start of quilt for this year's Wood reunion

Start of quilt for this year's Wood reunion, originally uploaded by kheli.

My husband's side of the family has a theme and a charitable organization to sponsor for our reunion each year. It is a great way to share our blessings, and theme's always make parties better, right? Well, this year we are saluting all our family members who have served in the Armed Forces and our financial gift will go to our VFW. I am making this quilt for us to raffle for that. I have been wanting to make another patriotic quilt, so I am really enjoying this!

Quilting inspirations from Forsyth Piecers and Quilters 2012 show

Quilting inspirations from Forsyth Piecers and Quilters 2012 show, originally uploaded by kheli.

My mom and I attended the Forsyth Piecers and Quilters show yesterday. It was AWESOME. Best part for me? 2 of my FMQ students won ribbons, 1 of them won 3! I took these detail shots of several different quilts as inspiration for my quilting stitches. Quilt shows are great places for ideas! And they usually have a great vendors area too!

Via Flickr:
Detail pictures of beautiful quilting I saw at the 2012 FPQ show. I took all these pictures as inspiration for my quilting.

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

quilt related

I have some travel for work for a few weeks. I did an up-&-back to our NYC office yesterday for a meeting. It made for a very long day, but the meeting went very well and I had time to get by The City Quilter.

Got these goodies for our TMQG upcoming summer block swap!

I so love my iPhone and its camera!!!

Tshirt quilt completed

This t-shirt quilt is for the brother of the young lady I made this one for in January.

61" wide by 76" tall

I sashed it with a great animal print batik, along with a tobacco solid by Free-Spirit and Kona Black.

I FMQed it using a variegated beige thread (30 wt Affinity thread, 90/14 Inspira Topstitch needle) in a meandering block.

The back I bought from the Fat Quarter Shop and I love how it works with the front and looks like lichen growing in the woods.

Recent eye candy

I have really been having fun with the photo aps on my phone:

 My little "curiosities" at work

 My beautiful dogs in sepia

Self-portrait 

Flowers at work

March Free Motion Challenge

I sort of feel like I am cheating on this month's Free Motion Challenge. I am a fan of this month's teacher, Ann Fahl, and have a well-used copy of her book, Dancing with Thread (it is one of my very favorite books on free-motion quilting) . I also believe the way my free-motion quilting has developed is much like hers. I have really enjoyed this challenge!

Ann provided a great tutorial covering her method for basting, quilting, keeping a sketchbook and various threads. She really encourages experimentation with thread and stresses the need for practice. 

I read through the lesson, announced my retreat to my studio, and sat down to play!

I warmed up with a scrap quilt sandwich, then moved on to the exercise.

I love the loops, swirls and free-form motifs. This was just what I needed to relax tonight.

I used muslin fabric, 18" x 22" with wool batting and YLI variegated top thread and bobbin thread. This free-form stitching makes me smile :o).

Thank you, Ann Fahl and thank you, sewcalgal for a fabulous tutorial!

so true....

From pinterest:

Source: Uploaded by user via Cindy on Pinterest