Tapas Gitana was featured on Chicago's Best! If you like Spanish Tapas - this place is a MUST! The chef-owner, Andrew Novak, has a love for tapas and it shows in every plate. Just watch the video, it'll make your mouth water. The restaurant is in Northfield and worth the drive. Call for reservations - You are in for a treat! The website is www.tapasgitana.com. We know Andy from the old days and couldn't be happier for his success!

 

This is SO funny.... and yes, we do see it all!  Before you click on the video, shut off the music that automatically starts up, scroll to the bottom.  The words of this song are hilarious, to us longarm quilters anyway!

I recently took Penny Haren's workshop on Pieced Applique. Her technique is to use a simple block, like a 4-patch, then add some shape on top, to make the block look more complicated. Each applique shape is cut out using a iron-on freezer paper template. Then she has you fold the edges and glue them down.  After the block is made, the applique needs to be machine or hand stitched.  After it's stitched down, you have to wet the block to get the freezer-paper template out. 

Too much work for me!  And I hate soaking blocks like that ...

I'm sorry no pictures lately. I've been swamped with this and that and have to upload some photos for you. Finished a t-shirt quilt for my niece. Quilted some cute music-inspired quilts. Working on a biggie now. Couple of deadlines due in July. Will get you some photos soon.... :)

Isn't this the cutest quilt? There are angel wings quilted in the center and when you lay your baby down on it, it looks as though the baby is an angel complete with wings and a halo! A photo opportunity quilt. What a great baby shower gift.


This wholecloth design is by Joann Hoffman.
http://compuquilterdesigns.danemcoweb.com/shop/

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there. I wish my Dad was still here. He's been gone sixteen years, but I can still picture him and his smile.

I quilted my first Round Robin quilt from the Wanna Bee's and have it hanging above my sewing table.
This sunny quilt was made with love by my quilting friends, and each time I look at it, I smile!

This beautiful Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt was pieced together over the last 3 years by customer Joan D. It is a big bed-size quilt 103 x 90! Here are the results...

Did you know that there is NO concensus on the 7 Wonders of the World.  It changes based on the year the list was made, who made it, or it could be based on the Natural World, the Architecture World, Modern World, etc...  It's hard to find one list that everyone argrees on!

I came up with the 7...I mean 9 Wonders of the Quilting World.  This list will be comprised of tools that are vital to MY quilting world.  See if you agree....

1.  Rotary Cutter
2.  Acrylic Rulers
3.  Self-Healing Cutting Mat
4.  Ott Light
5 ...

Here's a fun quilt pattern..."Splash".  It shows up great on this small quilt.  Customer made it for a baby quilt, using hand-dyed and some commercial fabrics.

I have a flag quilt that I put out this time of year and throughout the summer. I draped it over a white chair on my front porch. Well - it started raining and I didn't remember it was out there until it got all wet. The red bled into the cream.... what a mess!



Here is the result after washing.  Just a little red left.  (And I pre-washed the fabrics!)




This time, I ...

The Quarter Inch Queens embarked on a Round Robin in May 2009. We each created a center square. These were passed to each bee member, each person adding something to the quilt top before passing it on to the next person. It was fun to come up with something creative and a challenge too! We finished them a year later and exchanged in May 2010. Here are the beautiful results....

Free slideshow design created with Smilebox

This quilt is a baby shower gift for my niece. I added a couple simple borders and pinwheels to make a panel look more interesting.

I've been making Half Square Triangle (HST) for pinwheels. Here's the quickest way to make 8 HST.  From Debbie Caffrey's Power Cutting book.

Here are a couple scrappy quilts that came in....

 

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's out there.



I can remember my Mom telling me some of those things! So Funny! My Mom has been gone nine years and I still miss her. But I'm very fortunate to have a great Mother-In-Law and Sister In-Laws ~ and I dedicate this video song to them! I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

This luscious quilt was made and quilted by Birgit Schueller of Germany.  She is a competition quilter and I just had to share it with you.  Looks like a Smoothing Iron pattern with scalloped edges.

...We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before ...

In honor of Cinco De Mayo.... here are some quilts. Karen Stone made these famous with her book and paper-piecing method.

I like the picture of the one on the bed. It looks like the pattern was enlarged.

I have one to quilt for a customer, so you'll be seeing pictures one day.

This beautiful double wedding ring quilt was pieced by Debra Janik for her daughter's wedding. It is a Judy Niemeyer pattern called Wedding Star (paper piecing).

The batiks look great! Debra must work good on deadlines because I just had enough time to quilt it and get it back to her 3 days before the wedding so she could finish the binding! It will be a wall hanging. I barely had time to hang it for a picture and it was gone!

All the arcs are SID (stitch-in-the-ditch), but no other quilting. The rest of the areas have feathers.

Sometimes these little wall hangings can take a lot of time. Especially if the piecing is small - like these flying geese.

Freehand feathers and continuous curves make up the quilting.

Now I have seen everything...

If you can't find the right thread color for yuor project, this sewing machine uses ink to "print" the matching thread color!

It's a Leitfaden sewing machine, a German design.

I do like the openness, nothing to bump into!