It's not about me ...

It's all about the customers today ...

First up, I'm just quilting on a few baby quilts for a friend, and I really wanted to share this cute border - isn't it sweet? I think I shall file this one away for a future project - very cute indeed. I love the combination of the red dots and the fruits. Very sweet.

And last for today - a surprise from a few days back - a customer came into the shop to share a little show and tell. She'd made up one of my quilts - Purple Hearts. It's always so nice to see grandbabies come back to visit. I figure they're babies of my quilts, and therefore grandbabies :-)

Still quilting busily - I've done four quilts over the past five days, so I'm really starting to catch up now.

Have I shown you?

** Late edit - I found in my archives that I have shown this quilt before ... so for those of you experienceing de-ja vu, it's not you, it's me being flaky :-) **

For all my talk, I've actually achieved very little this weekend that I can share with you. I have managed to finish up the directions and most of the bits and pieces to send off to the magazine tomorrow. And yesterday I quilted up a quilt for a customer, and got a start on a second one. So I guess there has been some crafty stuff going on. But I do know I've been doing a lot of aimless stuff. Like viewing all our pictures on Picasa last night ... and watching a lot of TV ... But anyways, looking at the pictures I saw some pictures I may or may not have shared with you.

I know I have shared you the miniature baby sister of this quilt, but have I shown you the larger one? Maybe I have. This is one of my favourite quilts, and it's named Purple Hearts. It was my second ever quilt to be published. I just loved the purple fabrics, and had a lot of fun putting the quilt together. This was made back when I hand quilted everything. I was actually scared to machine quilt, and it wasn't that long ago - 2004.

I didn't realise until looking thru the pictures that I had one of the quilting close up - so here it is. I quilted it with a purple thread - some considered it a brave choice, but I loved how it was so contrasty in the lighter areas of the quilt.

The quilt is currently spending time at the quilt store, as some ladies purchased kits and are working on the quilt. I think other than my Christmas patterns, this is one of my most popular. I'm thrilled, cuz I just love it :-)

Purple Hearts

Today I'm sharing the big sister of the miniature quilt from the other day. I made this one first, and I think I managed to lay out the applique better on the small one. You can see I've used more of 'that purple' fabric. It's almost embarrasing how many of my quilts feature log cabin blocks. This quilt was featured in an Express Publications book in 2004, it was my second quilt to be published. It's a lap size, I think around 48" x 60". I have only just brought it home this week, it has spent a lot of time at the quilt store selling patterns of itself. Nothing like putting the quilts to work!

My favourite part of this quilt is the hand quilting. I've taken a close up picture and hopefully you can see it. I decided to be brave and quilted it in purple thread. When I took the first picture I forgot to take the flash off, and I ended up with this huge white photo. I'm learning more about photography every day! Hand quilting is my favourite part of the whole process, but I'm machine quilting more and more each day. It's just so much faster to do, and many of the quilts I make are to be 'used' and don't really warrant hand quilting.

Today is a small anniversary of sorts. This is my 100th post. Who ever would have guessed I'd be able to keep it up for so long. Thank you all for stopping by, and for leaving comments, and for becoming my friends. It's been super fun! Bring on 200 posts!

And the year before last's miniature

On this year's miniature, I've completed six blocks as of last night, and today I'll add some sashing strips, and get started on another block. It's a slow process working on the tiny applique, and I'm making myself take the time so I do it right. I'm really looking forward to the quilting on the miniature. hand quilting is one of my favourite parts of the whole process.

Tomorrow I should have a picture to show you of where I'm at with the current miniature, but for today's eye candy, I'm showing you the miniature I made in 2004. I think this one is my favourite of all because of the colours. Until Amy declared purple as one of her favourite colours, I hadn't really worked with it at all.

When Amy was small I made her a 'fairy' quilt which I showed on here some time ago. For that quilt I ordered some bali batik fabric in the 'amethyst' colourway for two blocks. I must have been in a fog while I was ordering, because for some reason I ordered two yards! Well, that amethyst fabric appeared in many quilts for the next few years (including the dolphin quilts that both Renee and I made), and this little quilt used the very last of the fabric.

This miniature quilt is 12" x 15". Each log cabin block is 3" wide. This quilt was actually the same as a larger quilt I made which was featured in an Express Publications book in 2004.

Well, that's it for today, I have to go get ready to take my parents to the airport. They're heading to Italy for three weeks. It's a tough life, but someone has to live it!