What has been happening.

Well It has certainly been a very long time since I posted anything on my blog. I have had many things happening this year. My daughter, Stephanie and her husband, Bob welcomed a baby girl on Feb.9th and named her Adeline. Adeline was born 11 weeks premature but it doing fantastic now. She is home and shows no signs of her early arrival other than her petite size but that won’t last long either.So now there are two granddaughters and one grandson. I still can’t believe any of my kids are old enough to have babies. I guess now I know how my mom felt. So with these new family members has come renewed interest in other areas of sewing. I have been making items for Adeline’s nursery . For  Demi I have discovered smocking that is done with the embroidery machine. If you are interested in giving this a try here is the website www.elizabethsembroideries.com

I have done hand smocking for years and just love to make the smocked outfits. I stumbled across this website for the smocking that is done using your embroidery machine and I was intrigued and had to give it a try. I was very impressed with how similar to hand smocking this actually looks.  It is very easy and once you make one smocked piece you will want to make more. This dress was my first attempt and I have since done a farm scene that I will make into a pillow for Adeline’s nursery which is farm themed. Now this pillow has not been stitched together and what I am showing you in this photo is the smocked piece which still has the stabilizer on it and the fabric is only laying above and below the smocked piece so that you can see what it will look like  when it is stitched together.

Custom Made Labels

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I am in the process of making  labels with my embroidery machine and I would like to share  photos of some of them with you.  This label is for a customer to use to cover a guest book from a baby shower. Woodland … Continue reading →

Quilt Show

This past weekend I went to the quilt show in New Bern, North Carolina.This quilt show was put together by the members of Twin Rivers Quilt Guild. When I lived in New Bern I was a member of this guild and I enjoyed going to the meetings and learning about quilting from the members of the guild.  I had a wonderful time visiting family, seeing  friends and looking at beautiful quilts. I entered three quilts in the show and won one third place ribbon. Here is a photo of the Medallion quilt hanging at the show. Now that the show is over I would like to sell this quilt so if anyone is interested in purchasing this quilt please contact me at brownbirdquilts@gmail.com  or visit  my etsy store, brown bird quilts, to purchase it. Below is a photo of another quilt that I entered in the show. The bright colors  used in this quilt are something new for me but I love how it turned out it. It made me feel good just working on it and I have it hanging in my studio now. The pattern came from a old quilting magazine that I have had for years. I had torn this pattern out and saved it . This quilt  is a version of a cathedral window that is done on the machine. This quilt won third place.

Machine Embroidery

I purchased a Brother pr650e embroidery machine last October and I am having lots of fun  making items from kitchen towels to quilt labels. Below I am posting a grouping of photos of some of these items. If you are interested in purchasing any of these or having some custom embroidery done please contact me at brownbirdquilts@gmail.com I also have an Etsy store where some things are made ready to purchase. I purchased all of these designs for these projects except for the bunny faces. Designers are Designs by JuJu, Urban Threads and Embroidery Library.

All of these items, except for the bunny baskets are  available made to order. Some fabrics may vary based on availability. I also offer custom machine embroidery. I can embroider monograms, business logos, hats, socks and the list goes on.

Boy, has it been a while since I posted last. What I have been working on.

I am shocked at just how long it has been since I posted anything on my blog. Time just flies by. I hope you have all been well and working on some great projects that you can share with me.  I thought I would share some photos of the quilt I have been working on.

Here is a photo of the quilt that I am finishing to enter into a quilt show in North Carolina. I still have the label to make and attach as well as the hanging sleeve. This pattern came from American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine  issue 69.  It was originally designed by Hubert Ver Mehren in the early 1930s and he called it Golden Dahlia Medallion Quilt.  I really like the geometric border which really adds the look of the 1930s to it.

Let me know what you think of this quilt. I have a second quilt that I will post photos of later this week.

Flower of the month quilt made by Joyce Hershman

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Well I still have not completed my flower of the month quilt but one of the ladies that I started the class with has finished hers. This quilt was pieced by Joyce Hershman of Monterey, Virginia. She did a wonderful … Continue reading →

Wow, where has the time gone?

Well here it is, just a few more days til Christmas and I am still trying to figure out where all of my time went. I guess the same place all those projects are that I had planned to have completed by now.

As many can see I have fallen behind on posting to my blog. I guess I can only say that work has been good.

I will start posting again the week after Christmas and I am looking forward to sharing what I have been working on with all of you.

I just want to take a few minutes to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

Blue Ribbon

I entered one of my own quilts into the Highland County Fair, Virginia and I won a blue ribbon. This photo is of the quilt on display at the fair. This quilt is made from a pattern called Four Patch Posie and it is cut out in much the same way that a stack and whack quilt is done.

I used a mixture of fabrics that all have a gold metallic thread in them and when I machine quilted it I used gold metallic thread on the top and in the bobbin.

The way the fabric is cut for the four patch posie blocks each block creates a completely different design when they are stitched together. It was so much fun to see what design would be created when stitched together. Below is a large view of the quilt before quilting. This quilt is difficult to get detailed photos of the quilting so that is why there are not any close up photos of the quilt after the machine quilting.

 

Flower of the month quilt project

I started going to a class this past September with a group of ladies from the Highland Quilt Guild in Monterey Virginia. I had great expectations of making a block each month, but as usual for me I fell behind as the Christmas season approached and the demand for machine quilting increased and now I am making these blocks on my own. I do get to see the blocks that have been made by others in the group during show and tell at the guild meeting.  I find this to be very encouraging and inspirational.

 This class is being  taught from a group of  patterns by Pam Bono and each block is rotary cut and pieced, no paper piecing. The blocks have lots of pieces, I mean like 200 pieces which sometimes feel like even more. The cutting out process requires lots of time and ziplock bags to keep all those pieces organized. 

 

This is the first block

 

 

This is the first block and it is the morning glory flower. I still have to complete the stem as it creates a circle in the center of the block..

Second block

 

 

This is the second block and it is called eternal bloom. It took as long to cut this out as it did to sew it together. Some of the pieces are  a one inch sqaure before seam allowances. But I love how it turned out.

third block

 

 

 

 I am now working on the third block which is the tulip block. Here is a photo of it still in progress

 

 

Did I mention this quilt is a year long block of the month project that should be completed in September ( of this year).  I am hoping that  blogging about this project  will help me to  make at least one block each month.  Please check back to see each block, center section and borders as I complete them.

 

For those of you that are interested this block of the month pattern is called Out of The Darkness by Pam Bono Designs. There is also another variation on this called A New Beginning by Pam Bono Designs. Here is her website www.pambonodesigns.com

Tulip Quilt

These are photos of the second quilt that Tom entered into the West Virginia State Fair. This quilt also won a blue ribbon.  When Tom asked me to machine quilt the Tulip quilt I knew immediately that I wanted to use feathering and cross hatching. The tulips are machine embroidered. I hope you enjoy the photos of this quilt.