A Little Crazy! IQA Donation Quilt

Some of you may know that crazy quilts are not my favorite thing to make. In fact, they are way down near the bottom of my list of favorite things to make! I like symmetry, especially radial symmetry. And I like to make things from a picture in my head; I know what it’s going to look like before I make it. But with crazy quilts, things are a little random. You add one piece, then another, then another, and it’s impossible to predict exactly how it will end up.

Soooo… I decided to make a little lace crazy patch quilt for my donation to the Celebrity Quilt Auction at Houston Quilt Festival, which benefits the IQA. Why? I had been working on a crazy patch segment for a series of articles I was writing, and I had pulled out LOTS of lace and ribbons and pretty things. I had a stack of ivory and light blue, which I used for the article. But I had a stack of ivory and burgundy, too, that I really liked, so I thought I’d make two lace crazy patch squares simultaneously, with the idea that I’d finish the burgundy one into this donation quilt. Kinda crazy!

It is 23 inches square. I don’t have any process photos, just photos of the finished project. The way I made this was to assemble and stitch the lace crazy patch block on water-soluble stabilizer, soak the stabilizer away, stitch the lace block to the base fabric, embroider the motifs in the corners, layer and quilt it, bind it, and then add beads, buttons and a little hand embroidery.

Many of the pieces are vintage. This little Swiss embroidered motif has been in my stash for perhaps 20 years. I shaped 3/8 inch insertion around it, then stitched that to a small piece of batiste and cut away the batiste from behind the lace. The paisley fabric at the top right is a piece of necktie silk.

A gorgeous French jacquard ribbon, some vintage laces, pearl buttons, and little beads.

The edging I used looks like it has tiny spider webs near the outer edge, so my crazy patch has the traditional spider webs (although no spiders!) You can also see the hand feather stitch with doubled metallic embroidery thread (ugh!) that I did in several places after the quilting was finished.

This is a wide, light peachy-colored galloon lace, to which I added a very small ivory Swiss embroidered motif, and of course beads.

More gorgeous jacquard ribbon, more necktie fabric, more beads.

This was a small crocheted doily, which, except for the very edge, is secured only with beads. I also added a few small machine embroidered free-standing lace motifs in various places.

The embroidery designs in the corners are from John Deer Adorable Designs. I added little shank pearl buttons in different colors to the designs.

The base fabric is a red/tan shot Thai silk. I tried to get a photo that showed the dimension that gives the quilting. It’s hard to show in a photo!

I used tiny ivory cotton rickrack instead of piping. The binding is less than 1/4 inch wide, and is a burgundy cotton. Quilting threads are Superior Monopoly, Kimono silk, and Bottom Line. Batting is Hobbs wool over 80/20, and the backing is cotton.

So this is my (drove me) crazy quilt! 🙂 I named it “Bits and Pieces,” because that’s what it’s made from. If you happen to be at Quilt Festival, think about bidding on this baby!

 

 

 

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Another Friendly Challenge

I haven’t written a blog post in ages, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy with lots of different projects! Let me get you caught up with this particular one.

My sweet friend Kimberly Einmo and I have been working on a Friendly Challenge, in which we both make “parts” of a quilt with the same Cherrywood fabric pack, then exchange “parts” and finish the quilt. It really is a challenge, because we have very different styles, and it stretches both of us. But it’s fun! We don’t have deadlines, and the “rules” are pretty simple – start out with the same pack of fat quarters from Cherrywood; choose two extra fabrics, and some accent fabrics, if desired; make our agreed-upon part; exchange parts, and finish the quilt to 54″ square.

You can read about our first exchange here. I think the resulting quilts are pretty fantastic!

Next, we decided to forego the 54″ size and make quilts for last year’s Cherrywood  Lion King challenge. You can read about those quilts here and here.

Now we get to our most recent challenge. It was my turn to choose the fabric pack, and the purple-y blues in this pack called to me.

Unfortunately, I seem to have missed seeing the taupe-y tans and grays also in the pack. And the actual fabrics are more gray and less purple than this photo. Not my favorite colors! Not Kim’s favorite colors, either! Now this was a challenge! We had decided to each make a 24″ block for our exchange. I pulled some fabrics, and fortunately had this lovely print that worked beautifully with the hand-dyed fabric. I also added an ivory almost-solid, and a couple more Cherrywoods (in the end, I did not use the marigold-colored Cherrywood, replacing it with a rose-colored fabric.) I had a Zundt lily embroidery design that I knew would work well with the print fabric, so chose machine embroidery threads, as well.

I had never drafted nor sewn a mariner’s compass before, but had wanted to try my hand at one for a while. This was the perfect opportunity! So I got out my protractor and compass and freezer paper, and drew my first mariner’s compass! The points are paper-pieced. The center blue circle is machine-appliqued, as are the rose and blue bias strips near the outer edge. I was very pleased with how it turned out!

Next, I embroidered the lily in the center. Because the petals of the embroidery flow over the piecing, the embroidery must be done after the entire piece is put together. There is no room for error in placement or embroidery!

If you read the post about our first challenge, you’ve seen a photo of the quilt up to this point, as well as Kimberly’s Lone Star center block. We were so happy to be able to make this exchange in person!

I took Kimberly’s Lone Star home, and she took my mariner’s compass. I had an idea fairly soon, and it involved making some partial Lone Star blocks. I left lots of open space in the quilt top for embroidery, of course!

The acid green swirls (stitched to hide some of those yucky gray-tans!) are from Lindee Goodall, and the rest of the swirl embroideries are from emblibrary. (Please don’t ask me the design names and numbers – I just don’t remember!)

Here is the quilt after quilting!

I had to add some Zundt machine-embroidered lace to the edge, of course.

My quilt has been done for a while, but Kimberly (who is a VERY busy, and much-loved quilt teacher) was stuck on those grays. You can read about her challenges with this quilt on her blog.

A few days ago, she sent me a photo of her finished quilt top! Isn’t it fantastic?!

I can’t wait to see it quilted!

The colors for our next set of quilts has been chosen, and I’ve been trying to find just the right color of light green… And the challenge goes on!

Blue Plate Special

Blue Plate Special is at her final show! Most major shows require that quilts entered into competition be no more than two years old, and BPS will be aged out in a couple of weeks. But it’s been a good ride! Let me tell you about this quilt…

BPS was really made almost entirely from leftovers! It all started with the narrow blue border stripe. This was left over from a quilt I cut out for my Mom to make a few years ago. I liked the colors, so I saved the strips. You can see the print here.

I had some Cherrywood hand-dyed fabric left over from years ago that just happened to be in the same range of blues and turquoise. The white sateen background fabric was left over from a big custom job I was considering, but fortunately declined. Some of the threads were left over (but of course I ended up having to order more! I always have to order more thread.) Even the free-standing lace border design was left over – it’s a Zundt design that I’ve used many times over the years.

The first competition in which I entered BPS was Houston in 2015. Master Award for Thread Artistry! Not a bad way to start!

(You can read about my Red Dress here and here!)

Then I entered it into the full line-up of AQS shows for 2016. Here it is at Paducah, with and Honorable Mention

and at Daytona Beach, with a category 1st place.

Here is some of the bling she has won!

At AQS shows, she got a total of three firsts, one third, and two honorable mentions.

And now, at her final show at Machine Quilters’ Expo in Manchester, NH, there are another three ribbons to add to my bulletin board: 2nd in the Solo Artist Category, the winner of Embroidery At Its Best, and Best Machine Quilting – Sit Down (instead of a cash award, the prize for this is a Janome sewing machine!) That show is still going on, so I don’t yet have the ribbons to show you.

Update: Cricket Lomicka just sent me a photo! Thanks!

Except for that blue print fabric strip, all of the color is machine embroidery. The designs in the interior of the quilt are from the Contour Applique collection by OESD. The large swirls in the outer border are from the Yukata Art Set by Zundt, and the lace border is Lace Set 10, also by Zundt.

I used Hobbs 80/20 bleached, because I needed a white-white batting so as not to get a yellowish cast from my favorite wool batting. The back is white sateen, just like the front. All of the quilting is hand-guided free-motion, without a stitch regulator. Here are a few close-ups:

Blue Plate Special has had a busy couple of years. I hope she enjoys retirement!

 

 

The Making of a Miniature

In the summer of 2013, I decided to try making a miniature quilt. “Distraction II” was the result.

It is 16″ x 16″ and made from white silk/cotton Radiance fabric. The feathers are from 1/8″ to 3/8″ long. The parallel background lines were not done with a ruler, and ended up about 14 per inch. While I was making it I took a photo with a dime for reference!

You might recognize the embroidery design if you’ve been reading my blog for long. It’s a Zundt design that I’ve used on a number of things, including this dress. This little quilt ended up winning first place in the Miniature category at Houston in 2013!

I liked the miniature I entered in the contest so much that I decided to make another, using the center design and similar quilting, for my donation quilt for the Houston IQA auction. With yellow Texas roses, of course!

Days 1 – 5: Make a really cute little quilt, only to realize that the black and white dotted fabric I used for the backing shadows through  ( I had checked, and even used an underlining to prevent shadowing and to keep the cream-colored wool batt from making the white fabric look ivory instead of bright white. Didn’t work. Live and learn!

On to Day 6: Embroider a second piece of white silk/cotton Radiance fabric, soak to remove water-soluble stabilizer, press, and mark for quilting.

Day 7: Sammy helps with quilting. I have quilted-in-the-ditch of every bit of the embroidery with YLI monofilament, and am trying to quilt the flowers with bright yellow Superior Threads Kimono silk thread.

PS – Cats are no longer allowed in my sewing room. Not long after I made this, Stella, an older kitty, got a hand sewing needle lodged under her tongue and nearly died before the vet discovered the problem!

Day 8: Completed the quilting, all the rest of which was done with white Kimono silk thread. Soak to remove the blue marks, and lay out to dry overnight.

 

Day 9: I always like seeing a project with all the blue marks removed! Here is a ruler to show you the scale. I discovered that I really like making teeny, tiny feathers! The straight parallel lines are about 16 per inch.

I wanted to make tiny double piping to bring out the colors of the embroidery. I covered gimp cord to make the piping. Gimp is about 1mm in diameter! I stitched on the piping and binding, then soaked again to remove more blue marks and glue, then dried overnight.

Day 10: I added a hanging sleeve and label to the back.

Before I show you the finished quilt, here is the “dotty” one. You can see the black dots shadowing through.

Here it is! “Yellow Roses.” Just about the only thing I did differently for this quilt (besides using white cotton sateen backing – solid white!) was adding a row of yellow echo quilting around the flowers to bring out the color just a bit more. The size is just 12-3/4″ x 12-3/4″

Heirloom Dreams

I followed quilting for years before I actually tried it. I was a subscriber to Quilters Newsletter Magazine for decades, and enjoyed the artistry of Caryl Fallert and the detailed precision of Diane Gaudynski. In about 2000, I visited the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY for the first time, and was blown away! Wow! Yet for a number of years after that, I said that I couldn’t start quilting in earnest because I wouldn’t have time to do anything else. Oh, I had done several special quilts (see Our Whole Life, My Texas Star, and David’s 21st Birthday Quilt, plus a few others) so I wasn’t starting from scratch. Finally, though, the idea of making a quilt for competition grew irresistible to me. And Heirloom Dreams was born!

56” x 55” 2004

I had seen those quilts in the museum, and later, had attended the AQS show in Paducah, so I knew what kind of quality was required to be competitive. Because I had spent many years working for Martha Pullen Co., heirloom techniques were in my blood, and I also knew this was something different that had not been brought into the world of quilts in a big way. So I got out my batiste and lace and my thinking cap! 🙂

I wanted a quilt that would have the overall look of delicate lace. It is actually four layers – a backing, batting, and two top layers of fabric. The top is white Swiss batiste, embellished with shaped French Val lace, shaped lace/rickrack bridging, shaped puffing, shaped bias linen strips, pinstitching, entredeux stitching, and machine embroidery from an old Husqvarna Viking embroidery card. The outer edge is a shaped linen applique. This was layered over light blue Swiss batiste to create the quilt top.

Making a great top is only half (or even less!) of making a good quilt. The quilting is what brings it to life, what transforms it from a flat, two-dimensional piece of fabric into a sculpted, three-dimensional work. And quilting was the challenge (and still continues to be.) I free-motion quilted around every bit of embellishment with monofilament thread – the lace, the applique, the embroidery. This is still the first step of quilting for every quilt I make. I created trapunto floral designs in opposite corners around the center medallion that repeat the machine embroidery shapes. The 3/8″ crosshatch was done with the feed dogs up… lots of tie-offs, and lots of turning! Shell-stitched piping outlines the scalloped bound edges.

So, my quilt was finished and photographed. Instead of starting with a small, local show, what did I do? I entered it in the World of Beauty contest at the Houston International Quilt Festival 2004! I was delighted when it won first place in the Computer-Aided Machine Embroidery category, was juried into American Quilter’s Society judged show in 2005, and was featured in Jenny Haskins Creative Expressions magazine, Issue 7.

It’s hard to believe that this was over 16 years ago! I still like many of the same things. I often use soft colors, and lean toward analogous color schemes. I still love fine details, and I regularly use medallion settings. Almost every quilt I make includes lace, either the fine cotton kind, or machine-embroidered free-standing lace that I make. I like symmetry. Intricate edges are interesting. And, I’ve learned a lot about quilting since then. Here are some of the things I’ve learned…

• Quilts have to be visually appealing from a distance as well as close up. With heirloom garments, almost everything is about the tiny details. But quilts need to pack a “wow” from across the room as well as from a foot away.
• The difference between expensive Swiss batiste and much less expensive cotton batiste is significant in a Christening gown; it makes much less difference in a quilt. Now, I’m not saying you should not use quality fabrics, but in this particular comparison, Swiss batiste is not worth the cost.
• Those tiny stitches we love in heirloom sewing – pinstitch and entredeux – just don’t show up in the finished quilt. The little “holes” get lost in the texture. If you’re going to add lace to a quilt, a zigzag is just fine, and takes far less time.
• As important as I knew quilting was, it’s even more important than I thought! It doesn’t have to be done on a longarm. All of my quilts were quilted on sit-down machines. This one was done on a regular domestic. The only way to be good at it is to do a lot of it!

Go ahead and try your hand at something you’ve wanted to do for a long time. Who knows where it might take you!?

Updating an Heirloom Dress

I made this dress for a 2002 issue of Sew Beautiful magazine.

It was made of pale pink handkerchief linen, Swiss cotton organdy, and yards and yards of French lace.

The technique for the article was the organdy “windows,” embellished in this dress with machine embroidery in the palest of colors. (The embroidery designs were from Pfaff embroidery cards which I am almost sure are no longer available.)

I wanted to demonstrate this technique in Heirloom Sewing More Classic Techniques, my most recent Craftsy class. If you’d like to see in detail how I made these transparent reverse applique windows, and get 50% off my class, click on the class icon on the right side of my blog home page.

I like to have lots of samples, and this dress was still in my sample closet. The problem was that the dress was pretty dated by now. It was probably a girl’s size 12, with a dropped “V” waist, giant puffy sleeves, and a huge collar. Still pretty, but very out of date. So I saved the time-intensive parts and re-made it!

I cut off the skirt and underskirt and took apart the bodice. I used the bodice and sleeves for fabric to cut the sleeveless bodice from my “Baby’s Breath” pattern in a size 4. Extra bits of fabric were used to cover the piping at the waistline seam and for the neck binding, and I removed some of the lace from the original collar for the neckline. You can’t see it, but I used the folded back facings with buttons and buttonholes from the original for the back button opening. I even salvaged the original’s back button tab, stitching it into the back darts of the new version!

Because the original skirt was very wide, made from 56″ wide fabric, it was too bulky to gather into the new, smaller waistline. So I cut out a section of the skirt and underskirt, going right through two of the little diamond-shaped windows, then sewing a new seam and carefully matching the embroidery motifs. I placed this at the center back. This moved the original side seams away from the bodice side seams and into the back, but the skirt is still so full, no one will ever notice or care. I shortened the skirt and batiste underskirt, made a new placket in the skirt at the top of the center back seam, and lined the bodice with batiste. That batiste lining is the only thing not from the original!

Here are a few more photos of the new version.

Stay tuned, I’ll post later about some of my other heirloom re-makes!

 

“The Lion King” Challenge, part 2

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the Cherrywood fabrics challenge quilt I made with Kimberly Einmo (King of the Backyard Jungle.) I said I would show you our other quilt when Kimberly posted a photo of it. Well, here it is!

For this quilt, Kimberly made the center block

(sorry about the color on this – the finished quilt shows the correct colors), and I added the borders.

The giraffes and crown are machine embroidered, and the symbols are appliqued. The symbols don’t mean anything, I just thought they looked right with the rest of the quilt! I sent the top back to her, and she quilted it. She used a Sashiko machine for most of the quilting, and it looks awesome! Kimberly also used a decorative stitch to embellish the narrow sashing and the binding. This quilt was accepted into the exhibit! Yay!

 

Win $1000 for your Favorite Craft-Based Charity!

March is National Craft Month! I’m pretty sure every single person reading this blog is involved in crafting – most of you in sewing or quilting, but I’ll bet many of you do other things as well. Or would like to learn. Now is a great chance to learn, and also to have the chance to help others learn. How exciting would it be to be able to win $1000 to donate to the craft-based charity of your choice?! (Any art or craft focused charity or nonprofit (501(c)) will qualify.)

From Feb. 29 through March 13, use these links to shop my online Craftsy classes (with 50% off) Heirloom Sewing Essential Techniques and The Machine Embroidery Inspired Quilt. Purchase any class, and you’ll be automatically entered to win $1000 for the craft-focused charity of your choice. And you don’t have to buy just my classes through these links – any class you purchase through those links will count as your entry in the drawing. Just remember, it’s important to click the links provided in this email, because that’s how you’ll be entered to win!

Besides having this chance to win, what are the benefits of taking a Craftsy class? You get to learn from top teachers in very well-produced online classes, for a very reasonable price. You can watch the classes whenever you want, as often as you want (even in your pajamas!) You can ask questions and interact with the instructor and other students. Craftsy will even refund you in full if you don’t enjoy the class! What could be better than that?

You wouldn’t think that machine embroidered quilts and upholstery would have much to do with each other. But instructor Cynthia Bleskachek and I have been working on a fun collaboration.

I made this, using the embroidery designs and quilting tips from my machine embroidery class

Cynthia found this beauty at a thrift shop!

A new seat…

…and a new coat of paint equals a vanity chair fit for a princess!

You can learn Cynthia’s easy techniques for re-upholstering your own chair seats in Getting Started With Upholstery with my affiliate link!

Maybe you’d like to try your hand at cake decorating with The Perfect Birthday Cake

Maybe you’d like to improve your garment-making skills with Janet Pray’s Sew Better, Sew Faster Advanced Industry Techniques

Or maybe you’d like to quilt up some of those quilt tops, and don’t want to do free-motion quilting – try Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot

When you purchase a class through one of my links, I get a percentage of the class fee. Thank you for helping me make money to buy more fabric! 😉

Happy Leap Day!

McCall’s 6513

McCall’s 6513 is a knit top pattern that I have made three times over the past few years.

It’s comfortable, it goes together well, and those diagonal lines are almost universally flattering.

The first one I made was View D, from a poly lightweight sweater knit from Emma One Sock. It’s a very interesting fabric, and unfortunately out of stock.

It’s a little shiny, which I normally would not like, but in this case, I do. The fabric contains every color of the rainbow, and then some, I think!

You can see the crossover neckline. On this version, I cut the front pieces so that the crosswise grain was pretty much parallel to the front neckline edges. It’s a pretty stable knit, with not a lot of stretch, so it worked well.

Here you can get a really good look at the fabric, and see the gathers at the side seam.

The second version was View C, which is the same as the previous version, except that the sleeves are ruched at the wrist.

This is an 11 oz. rayon/lycra jersey from, again, Emma One Sock. (Sorry, it’s a bit wrinkled.) This fabric is a lot stretchier than the knit I used in the first top, and so the neckline drapes a lot more. It’s best if I wear a camisole or tank top under this, especially if I plan to bend over!

To accent the gathered side seam, I added some Zundt FSL after it was sewn. Honestly, in real life, the colors match much better, and there is a tiny touch of light blue metallic in the embroidery.

I also added a lace motif over the ruching on the outside of the wrists.

The third version, which I made a few months ago, is also View C, this time in a poly/lycra matte jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics. I think this fabric is also no longer available, which is sad, because I love this color! But they have lots of similar knits.

You can see the ruching at the wrists, which is done with narrow elastic. I like the ruched sleeves, because I almost always push my sleeves up to 3/4 length, and this does that for me! This fabric is intermediate in stretchiness between the multicolor poly knit and the light blue rayon knit. In any case, the pattern needs to be sewn in a drapey knit fabric.

This must be a popular pattern, because I’ve had it for at least three years, and it’s still available. I can see why!

Argentum

 

Argentum is the Latin word for silver. That seemed an appropriate name for this little quilt!

It’s a miniature – just 16.5 inches square, and was completed in 2014. It was juried into the Road to California contest, and was shipped yesterday. It’s already been in two other shows; it won 1st Place, Miniatures, at the 2014 IQA Houston show, and an Honorable Mention, Miniatures, at the 2015 AQS Paducah show.

It was made from silver gray silk/cotton Radiance fabric on both the front and back (I have a story about the back…) The machine embroidery is from Zundt.

The design is for two colors – the first, a satin-stitched design, and the second, an outline around all the satin stitching.

Here you can see the corner design stitched four times around the center, and you can see the metallic outline stitching, on this sample in gold. I skipped the first color – the satin stitch portion – and stitched only the outline. Done with antique silver metallic thread, it creates a very light, airy filigree look. (See other things I’ve done with this design here.)

The same four designs as above, stitched only with the silver outline, then turned on point, form the center of the little quilt. The corner design was stitched individually in the corners,

then stitched side by side, mirror imaging each time, to form the border. Just this one machine embroidery design, stitched multiple times, was used in this quilt. I used water-soluble stabilizer so there would be no stabilizer remaining in the stitching to make the quilt stiff.

Okay, the machine embroidery was the easy part! Next came the applique of teeny-tiny bias strips. These are less than one-eighth inch wide, too narrow for me to make a stitched, turned tube. To make these tiny strips, I cut bias strips of the silk/cotton fabric about one inch wide, pressed the fabric in half lengthwise, then stitched one-eighth inch away from the fold with very short straight stitches. I pressed the narrow folded edge over the stitching, so that the stitching was just on the under side of the fold and didn’t show on top. Then, I trimmed the fabric very close to the stitching, so that the raw edge was hidden under that less-than-one-eighth-inch-wide fold of fabric (that’s why I needed those very short stitches, to prevent fraying.) This fold wouldn’t stay pressed for me (it was too much bias and way too narrow) so I used a toothpick to apply just the tiniest bit of water-soluble glue to hold that fold in place, then pressed the glue dry. Finally, I hand-appliqued those tiny little strips to the quilt top using Superior Threads Kimono silk thread. (The scallops along the binding were appliqued on after the quilting was done, but before the binding was applied.)

Next – time for quilting. The back is the same fabric as the front, and the batting is Hobbs Tuscany wool. First, I stitched in the ditch of every bit of the silver embroidery with monofilament in the needle and silver metallic in the bobbin. The rest of the quilting was done with the silk Kimono thread in the needle and Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin.

I finished all the quilting. The little parallel lines are about 14 per inch! Almost done! Ready to soak and apply the binding, right? Wrong!

After I soaked the quilt, look what I found on the back!

(Yes, this is the back.) See that red spot? Did it wash away? No! Aaargh! I could have just placed the label in an odd place on the back and covered it, but the red showed through faintly on the front. What had happened?

Just before I made this quilt, I had made a quilt for a benefit for Libby Lehman from red, orange, and turquoise silks. Apparently, a tiny thread of the red silk stuck around, and floated onto the back of this quilt after I had soaked and as I was blocking it. Red silk bleeds terribly! So there, on the back of my little quilt, was a bright red splotch! Tiny, but obvious. I asked for advice on facebook, and tried some of the suggestions, all to no avail. Finally, I decided I had nothing to lose, and poured Chlorox 2 directly on the spot. After several hours, it lightened slightly. I rinsed the quilt, and put the peroxide bleach on again. I repeated this several times a day for almost a week! Finally, the spot was light enough so that only I could tell where it was, and I was afraid that I would irreparably damage the fabric, so I called it quits. Even I can’t find the spot now!

Whew! Onward… I blocked it one more time, marked where the binding would go, appliqued the little bias scallops, and applied the binding, which is just over one-eighth inch wide.

Because it still needed a little something more, I used the silver metallic thread and stitched by hand an outline stitch just inside the binding. I added the sleeve and label.

See, no red spot! 🙂

This was at Houston, and will give you a better idea of the size.

You can read about the flower pins I’m wearing in this post. And, of course, I made my top! It’s StyleArc’s Gina Tucked Top.

Wish my little silver quilt good luck at Road to California!

Update 1-19-16: This was part of the e-mail message I received today – “Your entry #12256 titled “Argentum” has been awarded “Excellence In Machine Quilting” by our judges.  You will receive $1,500.00 in prize money.  This award was graciously sponsored by Primitive Gatherings.”

Woohoo!!!