December's Quilts

Yay!  I'm finally announcing my latest quilt pattern.  It is entitled "Ligthning Bolt" and can be purchased through my etsy store.  It's a fast and easy quilt featuring the Marmalade Layer Cake by Bonnie & Camille for Moda Fabrics.  The pattern also includes a scrap fabric and yardage layout.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/118907832/lightning-bolt-pdf-quilt-patterns

Here are some photos of my daughter's Smocked Christmas dress.  I chose not to do a tutorial on this one because I was both pressed for time and it was a very difficult project due to the types of fabrics involved.

The dress was made from polyester crepe with a polyester organza overlay.  FYI, polyester fabrics don't hold pleats very well which made this dress particularly difficult to smock.  For this reason, I chose to leave in the pleating threads.  The beads on the organza caused the pleater needles to break so I had to hand gather about half of the bodice.  At least it turned out and my little one was thrilled with her Christmas dress!

It has also been a busy quilting month as well.  Here are some picts of my favorite customer's quilts.

This was an antique top from the 1960's or 70's they found stashed away in an attic in excellent condition.  For Christmas, the customer simply wanted Grandma's top quilted.  We agreed on continuous curve to mimic the traditional 1/4 inch hand quilting and a feathered longarm border as it was a motif the customer recognized from Grandma's tops.  It was special--and challenging since the fabrics--true to the time era--were from clothing and not quilting cotton fabrics.  The corderoy left a lot of extra  bulk at the seam intersections which required extra care.

This is a stunning lonestar quilt top--I love them.  The free-motion windblown motifs in the black background added a lot of movement to this beautifully pieced top.

As always, I love heirloom samplers.  This top was pieced from Maywood fabrics and was a block of the month quilt from Mormon Handicraft.

This is my favorite quilted block from the quilt top.  It was fun to create a minature feather wreath in the center square with swirls accentuating the outer square.  The leaf-vine sashing sets all of hte blocks beautifully.