One of the really cool things about my job

as a longarm quilter is that I get to be part of

some really cool quilts!

This quilt was made by Linda and will be given to her son.

The quilt was very geometric with alot of straight lines,

so I tried to bring some curves into the quilting.

This is a close-up of some of the quilting details.

We celebrated the 4th with a BBQ at our friends Bob and Jenni.

Mike and Rafael are enjoying some homemade ice cream in this picture.

Poor Mia only got to watch!

No sweet stuff til her 1st birthday!

The Gibbs can clearly see fireworks from their driveway

so we all sat outside and watched the display.

Last Saturday we all donned our finest and

attended the wedding of Oliver.

Oliver has been a family friend since he was just a little lad....

What joy it was to see him marry a really wonderful

young lady. 

The icing on the cake is that they clearly adore each other.

I wish them a lifetime of happiness.

tammy

Finally Finished

Whoo Hoo! 

I put the final stitches on this sweet summertime Watermelon quilt last night just before midnight and I just love the way it turned out.

This quilt started with fabric purchased at Rosie's Calico Cupboard in San Diego.  I found the watermelon seed fabric, then chose the green while I was there.  I knew I had white fabric at home in my stash. 

My next job was to find a pattern. 

I have a bunch of 3 yard patterns from Fabric Cafe.

http://www.fabriccafe.com/

These are quick to cut and easy to sew patterns.

The Wind Mill quilt pattern looked really interesting because when I altered the dimensions of each strip each square could look like a watermelon slice.

My first plan was to find a watermelon print at my local quilt shop, but alas, there was no watermelon print fabric that matched the fabric I already had.  The watermelon seed fabric I had was pinkish

and all the print fabric was more red.

So I was back to the drawing board............

I've always wanted to do an applique border so I figured that this was my opportunity to create one.

Awhile back I remembered seeing an applique on the Moda Bake Shop website

so off I went to find it.

Maria Wallin's quilt "Sun Kissed Squares" inspired my watermelon applique border treatment.  I really liked the vines she created and the little flowers she used throughout the quilt.  I just made a watermelon to match my theme and used the flowers in a different way.

You can find a picture of Maria's quilt here:

http://www.modabakeshop.com/search?updated-max=2011-06-07T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=12

This is the label I made for the back of the quilt.

When I saw this swag banner made by Kerri over at the Lovely Little Handmades blog I knew I wanted to make one.

Mia's party gave me an excuse to try it out.

You can see the banner Kerry made for her daughter's Polly Pinwheel party here:

http://lovelylittlehandmades.blogspot.com/2011/06/pinwheel-party.html

I changed it up a little by using felt instead of fabric.  I also made the appliqued letters on my embroidery machine.  Pretty fast and fun!

Here are some other fun watermelon things that I have made or found.

The cool watermelon border fabric came from Joann's and made terrific tablerunners.  I used some of the scrap border fabric to line the bottom of some plain kitchen towels that I found at the 99cent store.  Micro Mitts were also made from some scraps.  I found a watermelon candle at Walmart and the watermelon drink jar came from Fry's.  Our dear friend Jo loaned us the watermelon bowl and shakers. 

All that is left to do is plop Mia down on the quilt wearing her little pink bathing suit with the watermelon applique and take some pictures........

when she gets up from her nap I just might do that!

Having a watermelon kind of day here.............

tammy