Running with Eagles Wings {A Finish}

I've been neglecting my blog for much too long! But, while I've been gone I have managed to accomplish quite a bit. We moved out of our house and into a hotel for 35 days while we waited for closing day to arrive on our new home.  Tried really hard to not let the cramped quarters of the hotel keep me from sewing and quilting, but in the end the hotel won as I wasn't able to make the quilt sandwich to be able to finish a custom T-Shirt quilt (so that had to wait until we were in our new home).  So, while I wasn't able to finish the quilt I wanted to I finished up a couple of other Works in Projects. 

This piece started as the center of a quilt, but I'm making a substitution and thought this would make a great wall hanging.  The vines are all free-motion quilting.

I made this little embellishment with small yo-yo's and seed beads.

 The other Work-in-Progress I was able to almost finish was this hand embroidery piece. 

I found the pattern at www.dreamalittlebigger.com 

Once the embroidery work was finished I used it to practice my free-motion quilting. 

I love the texture accomplished when combining quilting motifs!

Eventually this will become either a pillow top or a framed piece of quilt art. 

Alas, closing day/move in day finally arrived and after a few days of unpacking essentials I was able to make the needed quilt sandwich. Once that quilt sandwich was put together it was just a matter of days to complete the quilting.

It is completely free-motion quilted with no markings whatsoever.
I chose specific areas of each design to outline and then between the blocks I stitched a small to medium meander stitch. This size stitch gives the quilt more stability while allowing the hand of the quilt to remain soft.

To create the label I cut a piece of freezer paper to the size of a regular sheet of paper (8 1/2 x 11) then ironed it to a piece of white muslin and trimmed away the extra fabric to match the freezer paper exactly. This makes the fabric stiff enough to be run through an ink jet printer.  I used Print Shop for Mac to layout the wording and logo. After printing the label on the fabric, I removed the freezer paper and pressed the label to heat set the ink. To further set the ink I ran it under cold water, blotted it dry with a white towel and then finished pressing it dry with an iron. This process will permanently set the ink so that it  won't run and makes it washable the same as the quilt. Once it is set I press under the edges, cut a piece of light weight Wonder Under fit just short of the edges of the label. Peel off the paper and press the label to the quilt, then to keep it in place I do a tiny slip stitch completely around the  label attaching it to the quilt. 

A note on the quilt itself:

Tiffany is a runner and had many T-shirts from the races she has participated in over the years.  Her desire was to have a quilt created that reminded her of the most meaningful races and family moments.
Among all the stories of the many blocks the Green Apple Block is my personal favorite, it is the shirt  from the race where her husband proposed to her at the end of the race. How very romantic!!
When I asked her if there something special or meaningful that she would like to name her quilt she said that, "Running with Eagles Wings" would be the most meaningful to her, as Isaiah 40:31 is their family verse.  It is a verse they have looked to during times of difficulty for courage and strength, it is a verse that reminds them that it is the Lord that cares for them in all things.

Thank you for stopping by and catching up with me!

God Bless & Happy Stitching!
Marcia

Nancy's Quilt {Finished} & A New WIP

No, I didn't drop off the face of the planet though it may have seemed like it. I've just been working myself to death every day. We went absolutely crazy and decided to save some $$$$ by packing our entire house ourselves and then loading it all into two16 foot pods with help from some great friends! 

In the midst of packing we were blessed to find a new house with some acreage that I desired. Then just after starting that process we drove to Missouri for a College Reunion, Nancy's Quilt Delivery, to do some major work on our sweet little house in Independence and put it on the market.

As far as I was concerned the best part of the trip was being able to personally deliver Nancy's quilt to her. I absolutely LOVE being able to see a persons reaction to their finished quilt. Since Nancy has become such a good friend it was an extra special quilt to be able to deliver. 

Pieced by Nancy and Quilted by Marcia

Here are some other shots of Nancy's finished quilt, with some closeups of the quilting.
All of the quilting is free-motion quilting done on my domestic sewing machine, with a few guidelines on a couple of the blocks. Yes, even the Stitch-in-the-Ditch on every seam and the triangles in the outer border are all completely free-motion stitched.
 I used 23 different colors of 50 wt. Aurifil  thread throughout the quilt. Aurifil has such a great selection of thread colors it was easy to find colors that blended well with these beautiful batiks!

Inner Border Swirls and outer border Triangles

Flowers in the Corners

Flying Geese Block with pebbling. Outer border stitched with random continuous squares.

Random Squares

Pinwheels with micro-stippling. Out border stitched with swirls.

Hourglasses stitched with paisley and pebbles.

Applique double outlines and stipples

Small Stippling in center block and Orange Peel in outer portion (I used a 1/2" grid as a guide for the orange peel).

Closer view of the orange peel

Square in a Square, Swirl in the very center and stippling in the neutral pieces

Feathers in the Border

Star block with Stipple stitch inside and outer border with swirls and pebbles.

Pebbles and Bishop Fans

Closer view of Bishop Fans

Applique flower outlined and stipple stitched to make it pop.
Outer border McTavishing that mimics the fabric print

Stipple stitch and McTavishing

McTavishing

Swirls of Wind in the Trees

Pebbling in the yellow border is among my favorite parts of this quilt.

The back is a piece of art all its own!

 There is a wonderful story behind the creation of this quilt and why it is such a special quilt to Nancy. Stop by her blog, "Cool Beans" and read the rest of the story.

_________________________________________________________________

The sale of our home in Virginia was a huge blessing, but the timing of closing on our new home didn't line up at all with closing on the one we just sold. Which has put us in a wonderful little hotel room. Thankfully Candlewood Suites was been a great temporary home! Sadly for all our fabric it has been relegated to boxes in the corner of our hotel room, until someone gives it a new home.

A second blessing with the room is that the table provided is big enough for both a cutting area and a sewing area!

The living room/kitchen/sewing studio and fabric shop aka our hotel suite

I'm not letting the cramped quarters stop me from quilting. The floor has become the design wall and is working well, that is until someone wants to go through one of the doors.

Custom T-Shirt Quilt

Thanks for stopping by! As always I've enjoyed sharing my latest projects with you.
Be sure to stop by the shop www.littlepinkrose.com and set some of our beautiful fabric free.

Happy Quilting & Many Blessings,
Marcia

Bloglovin'

I greatly enjoy sharing with each of you who stop by from time to time to share in the projects and posts that I share with you!  If you're enjoying the posts and receive my posts through Google Fiend Connection, I would like to invite you to follow my blog through bloglovin'. 

It's easy to do, just click on the bloglovin' icon to the right and follow me through the bloglovin' feed.

I received notice recently that google friend will be going away completely within the next week or so.

We don't want you to loose out on your favorite blogs!

I've chosen to use bloglovin' as my personal blog feed and offer it on my blog because it is easy to use!  You can even add blogs to your personal blog-feed that haven't connected themselves to bloglovin'. It's all Easy Peasy!!!!! 

On the quilting side of things: 

Here's a look at my most recently finished block. The vines/feathers kind of mirror the vines in the print found in the center part of the block.

In other news: 

Actually rather amazingly and miraculously we sold our home. Put it on the market Saturday morning and signed the contract Monday night. What a whirlwind!! 

So now we're in search mode, hoping to find what we're looking for this weekend. Praying for more miracles and trusting the Lord God to provide!

Happy Quilting & Many Blessings!
Marcia 

Nancy's Quilt {Progress}

If you've been keeping up with my quilting progress of this quilt on facebook you already know that I'm having a great time with all the quilting!  It seems that every block I finish becomes my new favorite of the quilt.  

On most of the blocks I've chosen to do a tiny stipple stitch to make the center star or applique pop up and be the star of the show. To help with this I'm stitching in the ditch along every seam using matching threads.

I was recently watching one of Leah Day's tutorials where she explained that she doesn't use her walking foot to stitch-in-the-ditch, but instead she uses her darning foot and does a true free-motion stitch-in-the-ditch. She explained that for 1 it saves a whole lot of time to not have to keep switch feet, the walking-foot limits movement as it can only go in one direction and that your (my) free-motion quilting will not improve if I rely on the walking foot. All valid points. 

Since I've had been having issues when using the walking foot along seams and having to rip out stitching when the needle jumps to the top fabric and stitches where I really don't want it, I thought Leah's method was at least worth a try.

After 5 blocks worth of stitch-in-the-ditch, I'm really enjoying the freedom of being able to stitch straight lines in any direction I want without having to completely turn the quilt or having to take time to change feet! I'm lovin' it!

 As I was working on the yellow pebbling on this block it was quickly becoming my new favorite of all the finished blocks. Once finished it was absolutely stunning and in person even more so and at the moment anyway it is my favorite block.

This tree block had been my favorite, with the swirls of wind blowing around the trees. Love it!

I'm not even sure what to call the filler in this border....kind of reminds me of a worm hole tunnel that you might see in a movie as you travel through outer space. 

 To keep the fabric front and center I used a dark gray Aurifil thread that just melted into the fabric, if you very close you'll find that the pattern is a mixture of swirls, paisleys and pebbles.

On this border is my version of "McTavishing" with the quilting creating wave patterns that sort of mirrors the pattern on the fabric. 

 With 5 of 12 blocks finished I've now used 16 different Aurifil thread colors.

On to the next block, I'm considering some orange peel, or maybe........
We'll see what speaks to me. 

Happy Quilting & Many Blessings,

Marcia 

Quilting Away {Truly an Honor}

I've had this gorgeous quilt hanging on my design wall for several weeks now.

I didn't make this quilt. A missionary friend of ours made it and I'm feeling so humbled and honored that she choose me to do the quilting on this beautiful piece of art!

 From my Aurifil selection {my absolute favorite thread for both piecing and quilting!} I pulled together several coordinating solids and variegated spools that I thought would compliment the fabric. 

 

 The goal is to do the quilting in a way that the fabric is center stage and the quilting motifs compliment the fabric.

 So far, I like how it's coming together.

I absolutely love the beautiful bright colors in this quilt. So fun to work with!! 

Happy Quilting & Many Blessings,
Marcia