Quilt Storm Dead Ahead

I've been quilting up a storm lately!  I hung this wall hanging in my bathroom to cut down on the glow from my insane aqua paint.  It's Tisket A Tasket by Bunny Hill Designs.  It was one of the very first applique projects I ever did by hand.  I think #2, in fact.  But, I never quilted it properly because I hadn't tackled that particular skill yet.  So, having it in my throne room... made me realize it was past time to finish it properly.

 

I did flowers and loops in the outer border, fat loops in the inner border, ribbons for the sashing, hearts for the setting squares and swirls in the main block background.

 

I really enjoyed revisiting this old friend.  At the same time it was nice to see how far I've come in my applique skills.  Not that I'm admitting to anything but, dang, some of it's pretty rustic.

 Weekend before last, I was at our Mascoutah retreat again.  Always a good time!  My focus was to finish Bethany's graduation quilt Shoe Shop Girl.  And, I did it!  I'm either 2 years late for high school graduation or I'm 2 years early for college graduation.  You decide, I know which one I'm claiming...There were still 3 blocks to make, then assemble and add borders on the first day.

 Then, I took it home and stayed up all night to quilt it.  I tried to do a different pattern for each of the different blocks.  I also ended up using several different threads.  I had LOTS of breakage until I came to accept that my machine just really prefers Aurifil 50 thread for free motion.

 Ballet slippers because she was a dancer for so many years.

 Ribbon flip flops.

 I used applique paper to do the turned under applique by machine.  It seamed like a good idea at the time... not so much.  There are some really tiny pieces that a sane woman would have just done with Steam a Seam.

 I designed the Go-Go boots myself.  We weren't crazy about the fur-lined boots that the original pattern had.  I tried to make each shoe something that Bethany would actually wear.

 No, she wouldn't actually wear these Grandma pumps but I was out of ideas.  I may add shoe laces to the orange striped tennis shoes.  They don't seem quite done.

 For the inner border, I did loops and daisies, the outer is just loops.

 I'm pretty happy with the end result.  You can find the pattern at AJPadilla.com.  It's a fairly small lap but a good size for my tiny Bethany.  This will be my first entry for my guilds UFO challenge!  I didn't pick my UFO's very smartly.  I chose 5 which is the max number, but I only have until November to get them done.  One quilt a month?  Come on Heather, reality break.  Some are NO WHERE NEAR being finished.  Well, at least I got one done.  Then, when my card gets pulled, I'll win all my money back... heavy eye roll.

 

I also made a money belt for my vendor booth.  Didn't think to take a picture.  I'll try to get one later, maybe.  Talk to you soon!