I love this quilt, and the instructions look do-able.
http://weddingdressblue.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/tutorial-fading-charms-quilt/

I never got this far doing freemotion on my machine, but this is inspiring~
http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-2012-fmq-challenge-tutorial.html

I love these houses!

Embroidered quilt for Mary

These are pictures of a quilt top my Mother embroidered by hand at least 15 years ago. I quilted it for Mary's
24th birthday. Block designs by One Song, border is Abundant feathers by Three Sisters. Hobbs 80/20

batting underneath, Dream wool on top.

Finished 2 customer quilts

I quilted these both this week. My first T shirt quilt, used Hobbs 80/20, she had a flannel twin size sheet for the backing. The design is blowing wind by Kim Diamond.

This one was made by my husband's cousin, for her daughter to take with her to college. I loved looking at all the prints, and especially liked the tiny mice. I outlined all the cats, and put mice in the borders.

Relay for life dragonfly quilt

A friend at work asked me to make a quilt for the Relay for Life Auction this weekend. She paid me for the supplies, I donated my time and the batting. She asked for green and purple and dragonflies. I used the Trip Around the World instructions found at Quiltville. http://www.quiltville.com/
Click on the picture to go to the rest of the pics in Picasa

Sneak Peek

This triple irish chain quilt was a group project at work, other departments made the center blocks, I had help with piecing the alternate ones and I quilted and bound it. We gave it to our Chief Nursing Officer for Hospital Week.
Click on the picture to go to the album in Picasa

Quilting philosophy and my Grandmother

When I moved my Mother here to live with us, we went through all the stuff in her house, and I found a bunch of quilts from my Grandmother and one from her sister, my Great Aunt. I never knew either of them, and Mother did all kinds of hand work except she never really quilted. In my Grandmothers things were a cut out newspaper ad for a quilt pattern for 10 cents and the brown paper grocery bag she used to draft her own pattern like the ad. I still don’t know if she didn’t have 10 cents, or didn’t want to wait that long for it to come in the mail. I have a bunch of her quilts, drapery fabric, men’s shirts, 2 of all mens wool suits, some places she pieced the fabric to make the quilt piece. They are hand quilted with big galloping quilting stitches using what looks like crochet thread. I have a picture of one of her quilts with my parents when they were on a date and they were sitting on it and having a picnic. I think she loved the process, and got them finished fast so she could make another one. None of them are perfect by a long shot. But they are happy, and they make me smile. And they are beautiful in their own way. I can’t wait to meet my Grandmother in heaven and talk to her about it.

My great Aunt’s quilt, there is only one. The same two blue and white fabrics in the whole thing, tiny pieces with sharp corners and tiny even quilting stitches. Perfect. It has been folded up in a cedar chest for nearly 100 years.

I decided I liked my Grandmother’s style a lot better, her sister seems like kind of a fussbudget. I made myself a promise I would from then on just enjoy the process, make quilts for people to use up and wear out, and not look for it to be perfect. I think what I enjoy about this quilting machine is really the ability to get something finished, so it can be used and loved. Out of the box, and finished is better than perfect.

sashing genius

http://blog.maryquilts.com/2011/03/24/sashing-quilts

Help with choosing colors

http://incolororder.blogspot.com/p/art-of-choosing.html
http://www.redpepperquilts.com/2011/02/color-in-quilting.html

And my all time best reference is the help in the front of the Little Quilts book, magic fabrics... bubblegum pink, anything plaid, touch of yellow, black...