Black Dahlia Holiday Quilt

I wasn't sure which way to word the title of this blog, It's a black quilt with a holiday dahlia -- not a black dahlia!  Anyway, this was a "practice" quilt for me.  I've never done a giant dahlia pattern, ribbon border, or a black quilt.  I wanted to make something pretty for the holidays, just in case it turned out ok!

The dahlia pattern was a bit of a challenge, once I got the hang of it, it was much easier.  There is a way to make a secondary pattern so that you see  the "petals" that I want to try next time -- hint:  light, medium, dark one direction, single colors the other direction.  Can you figure it out?

The ribbon border was fun and easy, and sewing with black thread on black fabric wasn't as hard to see as I feared!  The detail is hard to see here, but I did circles on either side of the ribbon, then straight lines 1/4" apart in the rest of the border.  The lighter black towards the center has a meandering feather pattern in it, and for the dahlia, each colored row was sewn in a long feather.

Bright Swatch Quilt

I have definitely made the shift to more modern/contemporary quilts.  They are such fun to make!

A while back, I ordered fabric and several  charm packs  from Connecting Threads.  I really love their Quilter's Candy Basic fabrics (several are on sale now), and I used a snip of each fabric to make a swatch book, so I'd know exactly what the colors are.  But, I couldn't decide what to do with all those leftover charms!  I blogged about the swatch book and my first quilt attempt here.

There were SO many different colors.  I tried sewing the squares randomly together, and that didn't work, so I tried the disappearing nine patch and liked the result.  This Bright Swatch Quilt is 40" x 45", has grey binding and backing, and  is quilted in a nested oval design that I have no idea the name of!

This will probably be a donation quilt. I make quilts for the Quilts For Kids charity organization, I love the idea that a child in the hospital will get this cheerful quilt!  I belong to the McGee's Crossroads group.

Mary

Day in Downtown Arts & Crafts Festival Oct 26

If you are going to be in the Fuquay-Varina, NC area, stop by the "Day in Downtown" An Arts & Crafts Festival on Main Street

My quilts and other items will be for sale at Torrey Hill Inc, Handmade Arts & Crafts at 216 S Main Street.

Here are a few of my items you may see there.

Day in Downtown

Saturday, October 26th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Main Street in Historic Downtown Fuquay, NC.  

If you can't come to the festival, please visit my Etsy shop!

Mary

Wedding Dress Quilt Finished!

The Donna Miller Wedding Dress Quilt is finished. It was such fun to make, and I love the way it turned out.

After de-constructing the dress and designing the quilt, I drew out the quilting pattern for the large center panel, using the mirror technique I blogged about here.

Then I sewed the top without the outer ruffle, and loaded it on my frame.  I machine quilted the pattern in white, off-white, tan/gold, light pink, and dusty pink threads.  Lots of "scribbling" made the feathers really stand out.  After quilting, I attached the ruffle and binding (on the back).

These quilts are never the same, it's so interesting to see the dresses, and make this special quilt for the bride! These next pictures show more of the detail and quilting