Rainbow Feathered Star Is Quilted!!!

Hello Everyone,

I am sooooo excited!! My Rainbow Feathered Star is quilted!!!!  I was able to finish it the day before I got sick.  Thank goodness too, because I don't think it would be finished now if hadn't finished it then.

As far as the quilting, I am in LOVE with it!!!  Let's check it out....

Lots of glorious feathers.  I used mostly Superior's Magnifico for the thread.  Although, I did switch a couple to a variegated poly.  Love the sheen on these thread.

Flame like stitching in the spikes.  The quilt as you can see is heavily quilted.

More gorgeous feathers!  Swoon!!

Here you can see the flames a little better.  I did change the colors out with every spike.  I wanted the threads to "blend" with the fabrics.  The effect that I wanted was achieved.

Can't say much more, but... 

This has got to be my most favorite quilt that I have made.

I will be teaching this class as a retreat at Olde City Quilts in Burlington, NJ in April, 2014.  You can find out all the information here... Just scroll down.

If you can't make the retreat here are the stats on this quilt and how you can make it yourself.

1.  Queen Size Feathered Star 96" X 96" ~ Pattern can be found here.

2.  Rainbow Feathered Star Quilt Kit can be found here.

3. All batiks were used in this quilt.

4.  Black batting was used.

5.  Superior Threads were used to quilt this quilt.

6.  Digitized pattern from Quiltworx was used and can be found here.

Until Next Time...

Rainbow Feathered Star Is Quilted!!!

Feathered Star Workshop

Hello Everyone,

On Sunday, I had such a great time with a great group of ladies.  I taught a workshop at The Quilt Basket in Wappinger's Falls, NY.  

I was teaching the Feathered Star.  Each student had a choice... they could pick a pattern.  They could choose between the Queen Size, the Wall Hanging, or the Tree Skirt.  

There are students in the class making such a variety!  I can't wait to see them all complete.  But first let me show you some of the first day of class.

Diane's first unit almost done.  Love the pretty purple!

Everyone was very hard at work!

Loved seeing Kathy's Mariner's Compass all complete!  This was from the class that I taught in the fall.

A finish of the first unit!  Beautiful!

Kathy with my Queen Size Feathered Star hanging behind her.

Another happy student and beautiful unit complete.

Susan was very excited about her unit!!

I posted a bunch more photos that you can see here.  Stay tuned for next month's class, they have homework!

Until Next Time...

Feathered Star Workshop

Cactus Flower Workshop

Hello Everyone

I had a busy weekend!! I taught two workshops.  The first was in Massachusetts with a wonderful group of ladies from the Linsey Woolsey Quilt Guild.  They were awesome!

Here are a few photos of the workshop.

These were the samples.

Two finishes!!  I love them!!

Two more lovely finishes.

And two more... Don't you love all the wonderful fabric combos?

This one reminds me of salsa!

The lovely ladies with their tiaras!!

To see more photos from the workshop, click here to check them out!

I had an awesome day.  Tomorrow, I will show you more from the second workshop.

Until Next Time...

Happy Quilting Jackie!!

Cactus Flower Workshop

All Together Now

Hello Everyone,

As promised, I was able to finish my Feathered Star Quilt.  Isn't it funny that every time you have a finish it instantly becomes you new favorite quilt??  Does that happen to you??

It took be the better part of the day yesterday to finish the second half and join it so it became a whole.

Love the center and the burst of color.  I like to take close ups so that you can see the beautiful fabrics, but the perfect floating, spikey points that you achieve with paper piecing.

In this quilt like in many of my other quilts, I use a combination of batiks with Kaffe Fassett.  Sometimes you need to go "outside the box" to find that right color combination.

In this quilt the center purple star has alternating Kaffe Aboriginal dot and a purple batik.  Then the very light purple batik that is the background for that middle feather.  Moving to the second feather layer, their are pink Kaffe with a light green batik background.  And the last batik that I used is the magenta in the inner border of the quilt.  

And I love the Rambling Rose Kaffe that I used for the main background.  It worked really well and I am pleased.

Spikey points make beautiful feathers and....

One really happy quilter with a finished quilt top!!

Now to quilt it...

Here are the quilt stats:

60" X 60"

1.  Pattern Feathered Star can be found here.

2.  Kaffe Fassett fabrics can be found here.

3.  Batiks can be be found here.

Until Next Time...

All Together Now

Half Of A Whole

Hello Everyone,

I am finally starting to feel a little better.  Being sick though does explain my absence of blogging.  I hope to really get back to some semblance of normal soon.  

Anyway, my Mom has been concerned about me because she hasn't seen any blog posts from me except for Tuesday's.  So Mom, this one is for YOU!!

Yesterday, I started to piece the units together to make my feathered star a WHOLE quilt top.  One of the things that I enjoy the most about piecing the top is finally seeing it come together as one.

The above photo shows the units all pieced together as one.  Yes there are quite a few "Y" seams, but they are a breeze.  If you have never done one, you really need to try it, they aren't that difficult and the more you do it the better you get.  Remember practice make perfect.

So I got a half of the whole pieced together yesterday.  Here is what that half looks like.  You can see the top portion still needs some sewing.  I plan on working on that today.  

Maybe tomorrow, I will be able to show you a completed top?!  That is my goal anyway.  I really, really LOVE this top and can't wait to make it a quilt.  

Stay tuned!

How'd I do Mom??  By the way, if all is as I suspect, I am feeling better today... ;)

Until Next Time....

Half Of A Whole

I Was Down for the Count....

Hello Everyone,

Have you ever been so sick you just couldn't do anything, I mean anything for days??  That is what I have been up to for the past week... a lot of nothing.  I got sick and just couldn't do a thing.  I missed sewing so much, had to cancel a trunk show and reschedule a class.  I laid like a slug in the living room snuggled under a quilt with my cats laying all over me.

As of yesterday, I began to feel slightly human again and decided to go into my home studio and sew a little.  This was the best therapy for me.  Even though my sense of smell, hearing, and taste are still off, because of my slight congestion that is still lingering, it was wonderful being back in the saddle again!

Here is what I was up to...

Remember my Feathered Star Wall Hanging?  I had pieced each unit, but they still needed to be pieced together.

So I got started... I have eight "V's" now.  They go smack dab in the middle of the quilt.

One of the best things about ALL of Judy Niemeyer patterns is that the points ALL float.  By that, I mean, the points never touch the seam allowance.  Therefore you never, ever cut off that point by sewing it into the seam.  Cool, right?

Then I made eight of these, by joining three units together.

Eight border units together, by joining three smaller units together.  Note the floating points!

Here it is back on the wall.  Today, I hope to have the entire thing pieced together into a top!  If all things go as planned.  I had a minor slow down yesterday and had to stop sewing.  Hopefully today, I can "press" on!

Until Next Time...

I Was Down for the Count....

Trunk Show

Hello Everyone,

I have kind of been off the grid for  a few days.  Part of the reason being, I was working around the clock to finish my Queen Size Feathered Star quilting!  Guess what it is DONE!  So stay tuned for photos of that.  

But I also traveled to Attleboro, MA to the Linsey Woolsey Quilt Guild. What a great group of ladies!  I return there in 2 weeks to do a workshop for them too.  Looking forward to that.

Here are a few photos from that night.

This is the Cactus Flower Table Runner, done in 3 ways!  This is also the workshop that I will be doing for this guild.

This was the crowd settling in... 

One of my published designs... Fresh Palette.

Flowers for My Wedding Ring.

And the Bali Bed Runner.

This group was so welcoming and very much fun!!  Remember, if you ever would like a trunk show or workshop, just drop me an e-mail and we can talk about scheduling something.

Until Next Time...

Trunk Show

Getting The Quilting Done

Hello Everyone,

The past few days, I have been working on completing the quilting on my Queen Size Feathered Star.  It is slow going, but is well worth the effort!  I am really liking how it is turning out.  

Yesterday, I was able to set in the very center star. I used a variegated poly thread.  One of the things I like best about it is the shimmer.  In fact throughout the entire quilt I am using various poly threads because of that reason.

You really can't see the sheen in the photos, but you can see the stitching and it is making my heart sing.

The feathers and flames work so well together, don't you think?  

Curly and loving it!  Cross your fingers, that I will get most of the rest done today.  But more realistically it will happen sometime over the weekend.

Stay tuned for more updates on the progress and the BIG reveal!!

Until Next Time...

Getting The Quilting Done