I just have to brag a little…I won the Project Quilting challenge this week!

First, I won the public vote, with 31 out of 115 votes, yeah! Thank you to all my friends and fellow quilters who voted for my entry!

Then I won the Judges Vote too!!

“First Place Winner is QUILTIES with her Firework’s quilt and an average score of 8.83!

Here’s what the judges had to say:

Judge 1: I love the choice of the batik fabric for the background and the thread and paint work turned out beautifully. The skyline is a wonderful addition as well. I would love to see this in person. The design is well balanced also.

Judge 2: Nice use of mixed techniques to make a simple, but very effective project. The beads and sequins and star charms add an extra sparkle.

Judge 3: I just plain liked this one best. I think it shows that she has an artist’s “eye” to pick a great fabric, as well as great choice of techniques and embellishments to maximize the fireworks effect. The silhouette at the bottom “weights” the bottom edge – I like it.

Judge 4: I love Fireworks and I love this piece.  Your son is so lucky to have this in his room.  The silhouette is unbelievable.  This piece is my favorite of the week AND I feel this week’s entries are the best yet!  Keep up the great work.”

For all the other entries, go to the Flickr Project Quilting Group.

I just completed another Project Quilting entry that I’m quite proud of. The theme is “Stars over America” and that was really the only guideline. The only other rule was that you could use red, white and blue, but you had to use at least one other color (and that you didn’t have to use red, white and blue).

My interpretation the fireworks that were blazing over America everywhere on July 4th (or 5th in Urbandale due to rain!) My boys had the best time with the fireworks this year and I am giving this to my three year old, Brennan, who saw fireworks for this first time this year. The background is a deep blueish, rainbow batik that looked just like the night sky to me, and has big flowerbursts that look like fireworks. Then I used metallic silver and pink paintsticks to do some of the fireworks and threadplay to do the rest. I used shiny rayon threads, that really sparkle and added a little more sparkle with beads and sequins. The silhouette on the bottom symbolizes with America with its trees and houses.

Close-ups to show the paintstik portions, I did with hand-cut freezer paper stencils and quilted fireworks of just thread. I added sequins and beads to a few of the starbursts, and a couple of silver star charms to go with the theme.

That’s the happy boy who gets this “beeeeauooootiful” quilt!

If you’d like to see any of the other beautiful entries, go to the flickr pool.

And pretty soon you will be able to vote at Kim’s Crafty Apple, but I don’t think it’s up yet tonight.

I took a class a while back from Joann Belling hosted by the Des Moines Area Quilter’s Guild about a slick way to make Flying Geese units and another block she calls “A Brave New World.” Her teaching was so engaging and fun, she included many tips and tricks for doing things as efficiently as possible. Clipping the corners as you clip the thread, rotary cutting without a ruler when a straight cut isn’t critical and chain piecing are just a few of the time-saving tenants she preached.

Well, Connecting Threads just posted a great tutorial that is just like Joann’s method for doing the geese…so you better go check it out if you don’t know how to do it yet!

Here’s some photos of my first blocks made with her technique. I just used some scraps I had ready in time for class. Then later I found the beautiful floral center fabric coordinated very well! Such luck!

So, I recently lost a quilt…sounds like something I did, but no, it was stolen from us by the burglar who stole our computers this summer. It was the quilt that I made for my husband for his birthday just last year.

Here’s an in progress photo.

He was not ready to say goodbye to it!! So, I’m already working on the replacement. I hope to make it even better than the last one and it’s really fun to work on. I love the fun Halloween prints and this sugar bowl block is a fun one.

While I don’t really believe that we will ever get the lost quilt back, it was pretty cool to find out that there’s a website out there dedicated to doing just that. LostQuilt.com has a catalog of lost quilts and an archive of quilts that have been found. There are some cool stories and some sad ones. Here’s the page decdicated to Dave’s quilt: www.lostquilt.com/HalloweenMoon.php

I got some pretty new fabric and promptly started another quiltie!

I hope the embroidery stands up to the border fabric, though. I’ll have to make sure to quilt it right so that it stands out!

Now that the holidays are over, I’m thinking up new themes for quilties…and new products!! My great idea last night was for these fabric postcards. They’re not the timtex versions from the popular book, I’ve just zigzagged my quiltie right to a paper postcard! They feel really nice and sturdy, will be easy to write on and go through the mail well!! I’m very excited about the possibilities this opens up.

The peace dove is a stamped image, made with blue and green fabric markers.

I printed a nice vintage postcard design on the back of the second one.

So, what do you think of my new product??

I had originally drawn this little birdie for a holiday quiltie! Don’t ask me why, because only one setting I’ve put him in has turned out very holiday…the rest are, well, not. Like this one! Don’t let the evergreen bow fool you!




And there’s another light blue one that will definitely have to wait for spring for it’s debut!

Here’s the holiday version.

So, is there one right setting for this bird?! I guess he’s an all-weather friend!

In progress: this abstract rose quilt is a slightly modified version of a quilt in the Quilt Pink magazine (Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection 2007).


Anyway, I chose fun and funky pinks, peaches and lavendars for the flowers and backgrounds. I backed it with a peach polar fleece, so I had to modify the process a little. I put together the backgrounds first, then sandwiched and pin-basted it. Then I quilted stitch-in-the-ditch method to hold it all in place. Then I layered on the roses. I pinned them on loosely, then stitched around the edges 1/4 inch in. The directions said to use a smaller stitch length because the edges will fray. After I get the binding on, I will wash it and it will have the fluffy, chabby chic look from the frayed edges. I can’t wait to see it that way!! I think I will loosely stipple quilt the border though, so there are a few more steps before washing.

Click on this picture, so you can see it bigger…it shows my process.

I’m in the Christmas spirit with my sewing!!

As promised, I’m sharing my completed thistle quilt. This was really just a practice piece to learn the paintstick technique, but that didn’t stop me from making it into a pretty quilt! I entered this in the Des Moines Area Quilter’s Guild Show in October.

See my March 2008 post for more details about the paint technique and design inspiration.