Finished Pieces

          The Piecemakers had their show last Sunday.   Now we are on break until the fall.   We had a great end of  the year meeting to decide projects for next year for ourselves and for our community give a way.   I'm torn about that because often times I just want to do what I want to do and not what the group wants.  Still I enjoy seeing the things the group does, but I'm just not one for doing the same block 30 times for a full size quilt.  Well we'll see what the new season brings later.

The Pineapple trial kit

the final finished  quilted
fabric photo, 

TWO deer stopped by to eat flowers and pose in yard/

My friend' Sandee's " Birthday Card.

It always feels good to finish up a piece, no matter what.

Piecemakers annual quilt show

     The Huntington WV Piecemakers had their annual show on May 22, 2011.   To see some lovely quilts, go to  Huntington WV Piecemakers  and enjoy.   It was a rainy day, but we had a wonderful turn-out, good food, and joy and appreciation by all.

Amy's Creative Bloggers' Online Quilt Festival:: Spring 2011

Hellooooo Amy's followers.

Below you will find my entry into this year's Bloggers Online Quilt Festival. Since this is my first entry, I am very excited.

The quilt is titled Mountain Mama's Garden. I've done several quilts focused on the hills of West Virginia; the earlier ones were wall hanging sizes, but I've wanted to do a big quilt using this theme for quite some time. Last fall, I took a class in crazy quilting and decided to try a crazy quilt landscape. And VOILA!

The Process

I love the effect of light caught in facets of space that is created by the crazy block form and the mix of color values. I enjoyed making this quilt. Piecing the blocks was exciting and I couldn't wait to finish that part. A few weeks before I began this quilt, I'd purchased some gold and silver thread at a yard sale that seemed perfect for hand quilting the sun and a few rays.

A closer view.

My sun center rather resembles a bird.  Hmmmm, maybe a phoenix.

 I debated back and forth between hand quilting and machine quilting. I have a fairly new Handi-quilter 16 and decided quilting this piece would give me more practice in using it. So I machine appliqued a few clouds in the sky and  echo quilted around them. Then, I quilted the hills, and lastly the flowers. The machine quilting went well until I got to the hills and changed threads. It seems the tension went haywire. It didn't return to normal  even stitching until after I'd finished that section and changed treads again.  I learned that I need the same kind of thread on the spool as in the bobbin for smooth quilting.   Each time I use my handi-quilter, I learn new things. My handi-quilter is the sit down model, with the table, so all quilting is hand guided.  As I am still learning to machine quilt, tips and suggestions are very welcome.

Mountain Mama's flower garden.

I am so happy blogger is back up and I can participate in this spring's Blogger's Online Quilt Festival.