Fire & Ice Broken Star Double-Sided Quilt...

"Fire & Ice"

This broken star pattern is by Cheryl Malkowski.  It is from her "Blocks to Diamonds" book.  I used batiks for the star pieces on the front and the black is from Faye Burgos.  

I did the quilting on this quilt.  It measures 71" square.

I have a lot of scraps in these colors, so I put them together to make the back!  The zig-zaggy parts were leftover from the edge on the Zig Zag Quilt.  Took me two years to use them!

Bali Wedding Star Quilt Completed...

"Bali Wedding Star" 

pattern is by Judy Niemeyer.  I picked the colors myself - I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  The double wedding ring (not this pattern) was the very first quilt I ever attempted and I never finished that first quilt.  I actually ended up throwing it away!  So I'm happy to have crossed a Wedding Ring quilt off my bucket list.  

In continuing my theme of photographing my quilts at my favorite places, here is the quilt at the Everett Arboretum.  It's a lovely garden in North Everett close to Jetty Island.  

The rings are batik fabric and the black is my favorite black from Faye Burgos that I also used in Lollypop Trees.  I did do the quilting myself.  

Also sharing, because I think people might get a kick out of it, that this is how I photograph my quilts.  I have no walls big enough to do it inside.  It measures 83" x 85".

My Wild Lone Star Quilt Completed...

Forest Park in Mukilteo, Washington, will always have a special place in my heart.  Victoria and I did our first Mommy & Me swim class there and spent many happy hours on that playground.  We still love the park but don't get there as often.  Miss Madeline kindly climbed this tree for me so I could get another "favorite" spot in for the quilt picture.

Word of note - you might already know this - with blogspot if you click on a picture it opens up the picture viewer and you can scroll right or left through that blogs photos.  Alternatively (and better, I think!) is you can right-click a picture and open in a new tab.  You can then click that photo and get a giant picture if you want to see better detail. 

My Wild Lone Star

This pattern is from "Scrappy Firework Quilts" by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.  Her instructions are impeccable and I really enjoyed making this quilt.  I also have her "Friendship Strips" book from which I plan on making a couple pieces. 

It is machine pieced, hand appliqued, and I machine quilted it.  My favorite applique memory was working on it at the reptile museum with friends.  It measures 73" square.

I am so happy that the points match!  It also lays flat!  This is a BIG DEAL because I wasn't sure it would lay flat.  :)

It might be hard to see the color but I quilted the background with a darker grey thread and a flower pattern.  I thought of it as night flowers.

The background and binding fabric are from Phillip Jacobs, called Brocade Peony.  It's a little less bright than in this picture, might be my monitor.  I love the print.

Some comments from facebook:

Sarah Page This is wonderful. Bright, happy, alive.

Anne Andersen A really gorgeous quilt Summer. 

Jillian Grant Lovely work, beautiful quilt!

Susanne Holst A piece of art - stunning work and detail.

Shilpa Singh Gour 3D Gorgeous !

Trish Bloomfield are you doing the happy dance? I would be .

MaryJean Cummings Bower Breathtaking ...beautiful colors!

Glenna Quigley wow , love it

Mary Julia Skwar LOVE how the applique works with that quilt! Beautiful work!

Evelyn Bylemeer I just started this quilt on Monday, love the pattern!

Barbara Falb Fine Wow that is spectacular - Bravo!

Cathy Good Stunning!!

Betty Eberle Very Pretty Love the colors

Sharon Dallman Summer I clicked on your photo to see more of the quilt and it is just beautiful! I really love the fabrics you used for your appliqued flowers! heart emoticon

Kathy Fey Stunning!

Cathedral Windows - Hubble #1

I love it!

People have been asking me how much time this has taken me to stitch.  I don't usually keep track of how much time I work on something because I enjoy the process more than the end product (hence the piles of finished quilts and bins of finished needlework around here) so it is hard for me to give a true answer.  I did start this project in January of this year, although the planning for it started last year.  It took me about six weeks of solid stitching to get 1/6 the way through.  

I then had a series of short breaks where I made a double-sided quilt for Brad, did the actual quilt work on the Home Sweet Home quilt #1, spent a week on the backing and quilted the Dresden Plates quilt, and lastly finished the top of Home Sweet Home quilt #2, which hasn't been photographed yet because I need to make a backing.  Also in there was my long trip up to Kelowna where I finished up UFO's (unfinished objects that have been around for a long, long time) but then I spent hours and hours and hours working on this.  The quilt is 58" square and each little square is 3" across.  

All worth it, in my opinion.  It is hand folded, hand pieced, hand appliqued, and hand bound.  Each little prairie point was place by hand (my how I hate math).  I stopped counting the yards of black fabric and just bought two yards more each time I went in.  All of the black fabrics were designed by Faye Burgos from Marcus Brothers.  The colored fabrics are 99% Kaffe Fassett fabrics, some leftover from Lollypop Trees and many bought specifically for this quilt to get the right shade of fabric.  

My inspiration for this quilt was the images coming from the Hubble telescope.  It's amazing to me that with our eyes, we see so little.  When you layer images of stars that the Hubble can see, it's layers and layers of color.  Each star is a different color based on the age of the star.  Truly breathtaking.  

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/gallery/2009/may/06/hubble-space-telescope-images

Some comments from facebook:

Kamila Vm Kamila It´s breathtaking !

Anna Margrét Árnadóttir Summer!!! This is one of the all time most wonderful quilts ever 

I have seen . . . thought first that all you fabrics were batiks . . but up close I saw that "Hubble #1" had found all the best fabrics in the Universe ♥ Congratulations on a magnificent quilt!

Anne Andersen Really beautiful. Must have taken you forever. :-))

Chantal Lynch Absolutely wonderful! Love the inspiration.

Margaret Jackson Graeff That is incredible! Just gorgeous!

Christina Belding Awesome!!

Sandra Howell Wow! Breathtaking is an understatement. I'm not a fan of creating a Cwindow quilt, but my hat's off to those you make them.

Bettina Trapp This is amazing!

Cathy Hurst Just had a look at an enlarged photo. Your quilt is absolutely gorgeous and a massive amount of work. Well done!