Seems as if the Fall of each year is always a very busy time. In the ministry in which I serve, we have our annual Fall Program as well as our annual Old Paths Conference! Busy and blessed times they are!
I’m also keeping busy finishing up customer quilts, preparing for and attending the Madison Quilt Show, and Lecturing at Quilt Guilds. In August, I was in Iowa; in September I was in Madison; in October, (this week) Lodi & (next week) Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, the Quilt Show in DeKalb, Illinois is coming up; and finally in November I’ll be in McHenry, Illinois.
My husband drove me to Lodi, Wisconsin on Monday evening and helped me get set up for that Lecture/ Trunk Show. In return, I treated him to supper at The Cracker Barrel! Scott took the photo [shown above] of me at the beginning of my lecture. Then he headed out to wash the car while I spoke! To his credit, he has already sat through this particular lecture of mine, so I was just fine with him scooting out for awhile! I was thankful that he was there to set up the laptop, projector and screen and get the technology part of my lecture ready to go!
The Lodi Valley Quilt Guild chose My Favorite 3-D’s Lecture which is about 3 of my favorite templates which I use for quilting…1) the Diamond, 2) the Dresden Plate, 3) and the Drunkard’s Path. There was a very large group of ladies at Lodi…well over 100.in attendance. They have an even larger membership…a great group of talented women. (Click here to see the other Lectures/Trunk Shows and Workshops that I offer to Guilds.)
Customer quilts have certainly been keeping me busy as well over the last few months. A dear friend of mine, Carol, asked me to quilt a quilt top which she had started many, many years ago when her mother was still alive. In fact she and her mother each made the same quilt of different fabrics. I did some ruler work, as well as custom free motion quilting, on the quilt top. It is a seasonal sampler which Carol pieced in mostly reds, whites and blues with a bit of green (stems & trees) and gold flowers!.
I neglected to get a photo of her quilt once I got it off the quilt frame. I’ll have to check with Carol to see if she can send me a photo of it once she binds the quilt.
In the photos above, you can see that I’ve used ruler work to quilt the top, as well as free motion feathers, swirls and paisleys.
Most quilt backings that I receive from customers have been pieced together to fit the entire quilt. Piecing a quilt backing works out perfectly fine as long as the selvages are all removed properly before seaming the backing together..
However, it is so nice to quilt a quilt-top with 108″ quilt backing! There are no seams on the back of the quilt to interfere with the quilting process! Carol chose a gorgeous red printed 108″ backing for her quilt.
In the photo at the left, you can see the underside of the backing that is rolled up onto the take-up bars of the frame. I wish I had a photo of the front side of the backing…it was such a beautiful red print and a perfect match for her quilt! I’m not sure where she found the backing! Good choice, Carol!
Over the last 7 years, a dentist has asked me to create a quilt for family members as well as for each of his grandchildren as they are born. He collects T-shirts that have significance to the family and I create T-shirt quilts for them. Here is the latest for his newest grandchild, Elizabeth!
He had photos from his daughter’s wedding printed onto t-shirts so that I could include them. In this quilt, I chose to make all the t-shirt squares the same size. This did involve embroidering photos onto left-over t-shirt pieces to obtain matching sized blocks! I sashed the blocks with light blue and red, then added a fun print border and and ‘girly’ quilt backing! The family can finish writing information about the baby on the quilt label. I also used a flange binding on the quilt. (See my tutorial on how to create a faux flange binding here (Click here.)
Here is a gallery of just a couple of the 30+ Quilts that are part of My Favorite 3-D’s Trunk Show:
Enjoy and Happy Quilting! Lori Dickman
