Monday, June 8, 2009

"Leaves Changing to What?"

This was a quilt I worked on recently. It was huge and I was in a big time crunch. I did the machine quilting in one day. The quilter wanted to take it with her on a trip to work on the binding.

Don't you love this beautiful collection of batiks? The woman who pieced this said she made it from a kit. That's how I would have done it. I don't think I could have coordinated the colors so beautifully on my own! To take a picture of the quilt, I hung it over a balcony in my home. And I still couldn't get all of it in the picture!

But who do you think had to get in the shot? Yes, the Purse Dog of course!Now let's look at the leaves on this quilt. The woman who made it fused the leaves on and I embellished them for her.

I used a lovely variegated thread throughout.
Thread of choice? Signature Variegated Cotton in Tie Dye. Remember I only use the threads my longarm machine likes!
As I quilted the leaves of this quilt I was reminded of something my kids said to me when they were little. "Leaves changing to what?" I was visiting Washington DC with my sister. It was the fall of 1993. The fall season was beautiful in Washington DC. I had some free time one afternoon and told my kids on the phone, "Today, Mommy's going to drive around and take pictures of the leaves changing." They asked...
"Leaves changing to what?"

You see, my kids were raised in Orange County, California. The land of palm trees and beaches. Land of Disneyland and orange groves. (ok, there aren't many of those left anymore!) They didn't know that leaves changed color! Now my kids are all grown up. How I miss those times when they were little and asked me funny questions!
Now to change the subject a bit....
Remember the "Montana" quilt I wrote about in my last blog post? Well here it is in a local quilt show held last weekend.
Didn't win any ribbons but is sure is cute, isn't it?
And as I walked around the quilt show I stopped at this quilt and thought it looked familiar. Why?
Because I quilted it! I know this sounds awful but I quilt so many I honestly can't keep track of all of them.
Here's my name on the sign. I went, "Oh yeah, I quilted that!" More and more the quilt shows are recognizing the machine quilter. Years ago it wasn't like that at all.
I've been quilting for almost 9 years and the older I get, I'm finding it harder and harder to remember all the quilts!
Now get back to work, Vivian!

10 comments:

Shannon said...

I still can't believe you didn't win anything!

I saw the quilt kit at my lqs for the "leaves" quilt. It was gorgeous with all those hand-dyed fabs and pretty reasonably priced at $140 because it included backing, too. I never buy kits, but this one was very tempting!

Material Mary said...

Beautiful quilt. I just love how you show us pictures of what you quilted. It not only gives me ideas for my quilts in progress, but I like to see what other people do and how they interpret the pattern. Thanks again.
Mary

Sherri said...

I love the first quilt...gorgeous!!! I also can't believe you didn't receive an award for the quilting on the others!

Gari in AL said...

Congratulations on being recognized as the quilter. I was at a show last weekend and there was no recognition of the quilters on any of the quilts. I couldn't believe my eyes as I read the labels by the quilts.

QuiltSue said...

Huh, well it should have won an award. I love how your choice of quilting pattern always complements the quilts so beautifully.

Summerset said...

LOL. Leaves changing to what? Love it.

Yes, almost all the forms for shows these days ask who quilted the quilt. There's usually something in the rules about giving credit to the quilter, and sharing the prizes, too. Some shows even give an additional ribbon to the quilter because their work is part of the overall prize winning quilt.

Helen said...

Stunning colours in the batik quilt. I love the swirly quilting, perfect.

Meredith said...

I have a Trip Around the World variation on the batik/leaves quilt waiting to be finished (it's a kit by Kathleen Starr, who makes gorgeous hand-died fabrics), so it was nice to see what you did with that quilt - your quilting is just perfect!

Like the others, I love to see the pictures of your work.

SJ said...

Love your swirly quilting. The variation looks great on the leaves. The idea of quilting that big quilt and then hauling it around to take pictures makes my back hurt.

NazaPatch said...

your blog is real good. Loved it. You are a great quilter. I can see you are LDS as well. Thanks for sharing such great things. Have a nice week