Angels Abound

Wow... I can't believe it's been a whole year since I've written a blog post!  I guess I could come up with a bunch of reasons and excuses for that, but I won't bother.  The last year has been difficult for everyone for so many reasons... a pandemic, politics, quarantine, etc.  My focus was just on other things (including a new position at work, in a brand new organization!).  I'll try not to overload y'all with pictures trying to catch up!

First and foremost, and my inspiration for writing a new post... we FINALLY updated the pattern set for The Angel Quilt and added it to our website for purchase.  Woohoo!  We've gotten so very many requests for that pattern and I challenged myself to carve out some time to get it done.  Yippee!  It really is a cute quilt, and one that I've thought about recreating for myself many times.

The Angel Quilt by Sue Garman

Next up... I have a couple of learning moments.  For all of you longarmers out there, I'm sure you've heard quilters talk about making sure that the quilting density is fairly even across a quilt.  Maybe you've even experienced what happens when it's not.  That's what happened to me!  I quilting this cute quilt for a friend, to be used as a baby quilt for a boy, and she wanted fireworks in the quilting.  I found a couple of patterns, and she picked one that was very dense in some places and also had wide areas of no quilting.  I'm not blaming her at all.  I totally should have warned her against it, or even just not showed the pattern to her as a choice.  It ended up looking fairly lumpy.  After a bit, she brought it back to me and I re-loaded the quilt and just added another big meander pattern over the top.  MUCH better!  

Overall view of the original quilting, with just the fireworks pattern.

Close up view of the original quilting.  See the lumpiness and open spaces?

Overview of the quilt with the added overall meander.  Much better!

Second lesson actually turned out to create a beautiful quilt, and one that I'm very proud of having quilted.  This is a patriotic quilt that my same friend, Becky, had and asked me to quilt.  The blocks were each made by different women, and she put the top together.  The two tall blocks, Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam, were made by Mom!  I knew I wanted to do crosshatching in the background, and I also knew that Becky isn't a fan of really have quilting, so I planned to do big, 1-inch or so, squares.  So, I started marking off 1-inch marks across the quilt.  Oh goodness... I really am much smarter than that, and I am really good with math!  What did I do "wrong"?  Measuring 1-inch from point to point instead of side to side on a square makes a HUGE difference in the size of the square.  Thankfully, she loved the job anyway!

Overall view of the quilt.  I just love it!

Close up view of the top.

Overall view of the back of the quilt.  I just love the patriotic fabric she found for the center!

Next up, I have just a really nice quilt that I quilted for my guild's next auction (I think sometime later this year).  The top was donated for the auction, again by Becky (she keeps me busy), and I wanted to make it special so it will hopefully bring in some good money for the guild!

Overall view of the quilted top.

Close up view of the top.  Love the feathers and crosshatch!

Overall view of the back of the quilt.

Last thing for this month... I'll save some for next month maybe... I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I sometimes buy things at big quilt shows, like the International Quilt Festival here in Houston, that don't always get made right away... or ever.  Well, I made a purchase a few Festivals ago that led my quilting friends to say that I needed "supervision" when shopping.  HA!  They tried to supervise me, which immediately led to another purchase that they thought would just sit on a shelf untouched.  The first purchase was the throw rug below, purchased from Primitive Gatherings.  It is comprised of hundreds of tiny charm squares folded and pressed twice into tiny triangle, and then sewn onto a muslin base.  It took forever, but I finally got it done!  It will not be stepped on, for sure... it's a table topper for the moment.  

So much fabric!  And it took so much time, I can't imagine ever actually putting it on a floor.

The second item is a leather rose kit that I bought from Gypsy Wood Leathers.  Another friend of mine, Cynthia, bought the same kit... and we actually finished the roses a few months after purchase!  Trust me when I say that these were an all day project.  You start with a piece of plain leather and some patterns... dye, cut, shape, finish... it's a lot of work.  But, they really are pretty!

Both sets of unfinished leather roses.

My three finished roses.

That's all I'm going to throw at you this month.  I've got plenty more to post about next time!  Until then, keep on quilting!

Jenny