MACHINE QUILTING

I've been busy working on a quilt for my sister-in-law.  A few years ago, I helped her make some "stack-n-whack" star blocks.  She made a quilt top, but recently decided that she wanted the quilt for her king-size bed.  More borders were added, but then it sat for a while, as she had difficulty working on such a large quilt. She gave me the fabric for the backing, but wants to put the binding on when it is returned.
I brought it south with me for the winter, and just before Christmas DH and I pin-basted the quilt. 

I started, as always, to stabilize the quilt, stitching in the ditch with Superior Thread's MonoPoly and Bottom Line in the bobbin.  Then I auditioned various thread for the top.  I used a light blue twist thread on the yellow border and sashing.

 I stitched hooked feathers on the wide border, and alternating swirls on the sashing.

Next, I use a lemon yellow thread to stitch square and triangular flowers in the solid fabric in each of the 30 blocks.

I still haven't stitched inside the stars, and I also have 2 more borders to quilt, with one in the solid fabric, and the other in the original print fabric used in the stars.  I need to ponder what type of machine quilting to use in each of the areas.

I've also been working on the two mystery quilts that my group is working on.  I made step-out samples for the first block units of the paper pieced wall hanging, and today I worked on the sewing the first step of the pieced lap/twin quilt.

MY WEDNESDAY QUILTING GROUP

At this time of year, we start to see some finishes my members of my quilting group.  I'd thought I'd share some candid shots of some of the projects.

This wonderful applique quilt was made by a fairly new quilter, who said that when she began the project, she didn't know enough about quilting to understand how long it would take to complete.  All the appliques were made with the freezer paper method, with turned under seam allowances and then machine satin stitched.  She had it professionally quilted - a work of art!

A close-up picture that shows the quilting better.  I wish I had taken this without the flash, but I was using our old camera, and I didn't remember how to turn it off!

Another fairly new quilter finished this lovely batik log cabin quilt.  She just received it back from the quilter, and was hand stitching the binding.





She chose a quilting design with a dragonfly to echo one of the the fabrics in the top.  Once again my flash washed out the color of the backing fabric. 




This black and white quilt top was having borders added... 

Here is a completed pinwheel stripe table runner, followed by one in progress.

There were many more projects in various states of completion, but since I was helping everyone with their questions, I was unable to photograph them all.