There has been some serious family illness to contend with as well as gymnastic championship meets and trying to catch up non my quilting backlog. Dont gt me wrong, I know all of this is part of life and not anything more than most people encounter during their middle years. Fortunately I found out several things about myself that I am willing to share.
1). I am great at dealing with emergency situations, as I do not panic but have the amazing ability to remain calm and think clearly.
2). I am fortunate to be surrounded by friends, family and customers that genuinely care about us and are willing to help if needed at the drop of a hat.
3). I am smart enough to know that I cannot and should not quilt customers quilts when life throws me a monkey wrench.
4). I am not good to customer follow up when I know I am going to miss a deadline. I need to work on this.
Here are some of the more recent quilts I have had the pleasure of finishing.
I call this one Doodlebirds.
It was a vintage quilt top, actually I think it was a vintage tablecloth that I picked up in Paducah KY many years ago. I freehand quilted it with a beige thread and used colored threads on the birds to quilt their faces and feathers. I put a similar aged (60's calico) fabric in orange on the back and binding. The birds are all hand embroidered with embroidery silks and they have these wild eyed look to them. Its a very folk artsy quilt, unlike anything I've ever finished. It was mindless to work on in between runs to the hospital. Eventually I will throw it back on the machine and add some more detail quilting to it, but customer quilts are always a priority to finish over my own. This quilt just helped me get through a rough patch.
This one I finished quilting over the weekend. The top is beautiful batik fabrics and was made by Kathy Mitchell. I quilted it with a variegated thread on top and a deep olive thread on the back. The quilting pattern I used is called Haiku. It worked really well with this quilt.
Lastly, here is a beautiful fun and lovely quilt made by Michelle Reiter. There are some lovely Kaffe Fassett fabrics in it. It was a joy to quilt. I used a wool batting and quilted it with a swirly pattern to give it movement. The wool batting has more loft than the cotton battings, but it quilts down nicely and will work well as a quilt to sleep under in chilly Vermont, where I understand it will end up.
So these were the 'easy quilts to finish'. Pantos are much easier to do than custom quilting. I have 4 custom quilt jobs next in the queue and I look forward to being able to take my time and give each of them the attention they demand in order to get the results my customers expect and hope for by allowing me to quilt for them.
Stay tuned there will be more quilts and pictures soon to see!
Keep on stitching--Diane
#doodlebirdsquilt #freeformquilting #kaffefassetfabrics #batikmapleleaves
