ohhhhhh I'm soo excited to be quilting again!! I spent the first two days of this week quilting Christmas gifts!! *any fam that's reading this, get your quilt love going!!* Anyway, I am sooo thrilled to share an AHA moment that I had this week, thanks to my dear sweet baby girlie, Cora! But first, before I share that (with eye candy pics) I want to share some of the fun quilts I saw at the International Quilt Festival…Please take into consideration that these pics are from my Envy Touch cell phone. I inadvertantly forgot to put the memory card back in my fun point and shoot before I went down to the convention center. I think you'll still like the quilting inspiration! *click on the pics to see a bigger view!!*
wow!! look at all of the details in this one!! I loved all of the charms attached to it. That's my kind of quilting!
I loved this one because it looked like one I could actually emulate! a quote, some shapes and a tree…LOVE that!!
This quilt is sooooo amazing…full of emotion…gut-wrenching emotion. It is called Exodus and shows the mass of people leaving Somalia. I was initially drawn to this because I love white on white quilts. This particular one is actually dye-painted within the quilting which creates the picture!! WOW!!!
this quilt won $5000 and was handsewn and quilted by a lady who would work all day and come home and work on this quilt for two hours a night. She picked the them of Santa delivering his gifts on Christmas Eve because her 4yo loves santa. She said when she was done with all of the fun tours and acclaim that she is getting, she hopes her daughter will love it on her bed! wow!!! That is an awesome mom for ya!! 🙂
and I just have to say, this next quilt is my fave…
The colors and the patterns and the fact that I could possibly make a quilt sorta like this all just endeared this quilt to me!! 🙂
Sooooo, after spending a day with my cousin and her friend at the quilt show (hi Maureen and Sheri!!), i was duly inspired to quilt!! I had already made a date with my friend, Dixie to go over and bind a bunch of quilts. (at least sew the binding on…i love handsewing the rest of the binding on after you get it on the quilt, and that, of course, takes some time!!) So I have a deadline, i have my quilt tops, and i have my awesome Janome 6500.
But here's where it got tricky for me on Tuesday night. I had already quilted one quilt…straight Stitch in the Ditch quilting. I pulled out this other quilt that i have seriously been procrastinating on. It's a Christmas quilt that I created using a fun charm pack of Moda fabrics. (sally=addicted to anything moda!). I had even emboidered on this fun little lap quilt. So I stitched in the ditch and then put a couple of 'X's in the middle squares, and i got to looking at the border. hiI turned to Cora, who was hanging in the craft room with me. I said, I just don't want to ruin my quilt! But I want to do some free motion quilting. I dont' know if i can do it! Cora turned to me and said, "Mom, you have to do it!! One day, your great-great grandaughter will be sitting underneath your quilt tracing the patterns in the quilt, thinking about you and all of a sudden she thinks up a story and so she writes it down. It becomes a best-seller and she makes millions and millions of dollars!! Mom, you have to do it for your great-great grandchildren!!"
This was an AHA moment for me! I mean, yeah…i'm not really quilting so my descendants can get rich, but i am leaving a legacy. And for my sweet sweet daughter to even say something and then she jumped up and got her quilt that her great-great grandmother made for cora's daddy and showed me what a powerful legacy a quilt is, i knew I had to jump in with both feet and try it out!!
so to make a long story even longer, I did it!! I free-motion quilted!! and here are the results!
a close up of the Xs…
and my free motion quilting!! (like scribbling with thread…love love love it!!)
and the embroidery…i did this about 4 years ago…using a font by Tia Bennett, a digi designer at 2Peas in a Bucket!
and the unbound quilt on my comfy chair in my craft room!! ohhh I am sooo blessed!!! 🙂
stay tuned…I'm gonna share more and more and more quilting here on this fun blog!! Along with my latest digital LOs and creations!! *sigh* isn't creating fun????
