PatriciaFayeMcLaughlin
Patricia Faye McLaughlin sent me a photo of her Backyard Birds quilt, saying:
I wanted to share my completed Backyard Birds Quilt that was our 2015 project on the Quilters Club of America Applique’ Group.
It is one of my very favorite quilts. I did the FMQ on my domestic machine. Thank you so much for such a fun quilt pattern.
I love it! Well done, Patricia!
My mom began this quilt in May of 2012. The finished quilt went on her wall a couple of weeks ago…
Mom chose some fabric from my stash and then I brought more fabric. I offered to give her ‘help’ but she was very happy do make this on her own. She did it her way and it’s perfect!
The top was finished in time for it to hang on her wall last year, un-embellished. I quilted it this summer and she spent the following weeks adding embellishments. Can you tell that my mom really likes sequins :-)?
None of this was easy for her. She struggled with her glasses, arthritis and neuropathy in her fingers. Threading the needle and dealing with the little sequins and beads was a challenge—but she did it! Click the arrows on the slideshow, below, to see more of the blocks.
Have I said that I’m proud of my mom for sticking with this? I am! It has a folk art vibe that just can’t be beat. Way to go, Mom!
Susan sent me photos of her lovely Backyard Birds quilt. Isn’t it lovely! Way to go, Susan.
She said:
I have sewn for years but as I work full time I have never had the opportunity to develop my patchwork skills beyond a simple sampler quilt. I am undergoing medical treatment since July and I am using my time off work and getting treatment to patchwork, learning new techniques and work on creating some wonderful quilts.
I quilted the blocks separately. I attended a quilt group at Coles Sewing Centre, Nottingham England, and my lovely teacher Gilli Theokritoff helped me through the tricky bits!! I had never done free motion quilting before and Gilli pointed me in the direction of youtube and watching Leah Day. I started off just drawing, then practising on practice blocks and can say after a lot of effort I now have a work of art on my wall. When I read Linda’s intro in the booklet and the comment re getting through cold winter and difficult times I really wanted to agree I cant wait for the spring when all the treatment is over and the song birds return.
I like this choice of background fabric. I don’t know that I would have chosen it, but it’s very pretty. Susan also included a photo of her detailed documentation patch. I’m impressed!
Susan added:
I am getting on well with my treatment looking forward to the spring when I get back into work, with some wonderful skills learnt, new friends made and several quilts sewn.
And this…
Breast cancer, 1 in 10 women my age get it…Luckily I had a routine screening in May and something was picked up,
My advice to you all is if you have any concerns, LUMPS bumps whatever as soon as you can go to your doctor. If you get the opportunity to have screening Take it. I am so lucky routine screening found it, and it’s treatable. Don’t be frightened to say I am worried about this. Do something about it. With love, Susan
I agree with Susan on this point. I’m a big believer in treating your body like a used car—one that you want to drive forever. If something isn’t working, get it looked at.
I love show and tell! Today I have two quilts to share with you… should it be show and tells? First up is Sharon Hendrix’s version of Lorna’s Vine…
She wrote:
I recently completed one of your patterns, Lorna’s Vine, from your book Amish-Inspired. I hand applique and hand quilted the quilt. Thru the years I have completed many Piece O’ Cake quilts.
My piece is hand quilted by me in Gutterman thread in a lime green color, it reads very neutral against the red fabrics.
Sharon, you did a fabulous job! I love the change you made to the wheel block. I don’t know that I would have thought to use lime green thread but it definitely works.
Next up is Lynn Tubbe’s version of A Walk In The Mountains, made with wool…
Lynn wrote:
This quilt hung at the Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) last year, and was awarded Best Use of Embellishment in the traditional category. I really enjoyed modifying your pattern in order to highlight all my wools. I thought the plaid leaves were especially fun.
This is also a spectacular quilt! I want to congratulate both Sharon and Lynn—very nicely done, indeed!
Lindsay Fulmer emailed with photos and a story of her Spring Wheels quilt. She wrote:
I came across the Spring Wheels pattern from the Once Upon a Season book many years ago when I was a beginner quilter. A few years ago when I felt as though I could take on the quilt, I decided to just pull up my big girl pants and do it. I used a white on white Lakehouse dot for the background and each wheel has a unique Kaffe Fassett fabric. I have been collecting his fabrics for years.
The quilt won first place for Large Contemporary and Viewers Choice at the Flying Geese Quilt Guild show called “Harvest of Quilts”. It’s also been shown at Road 2 California. I had Judi Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts do the machine quilting – all done on a long arm however not computerized. The only requirement I had of her was to not quilt on the Kaffe fabric, just on the white. Otherwise, she had full reign over the quilt. Click here to see Judi’s blog post.
Recently my husband found my quilt on Facebook….he had seen a post from his childhood art teacher. It’s amazing the power of social media! There are over 26k likes at this point. Click here to see that post.
Lindsay, let me add that I think you made a fantastic quilt! Congratulations on the acclaim you are getting for it. For those of you who haven’t made Spring Wheels, I think we would both say that it is too much fun to miss out on.
Jackie Liles and Diana Dodds just finished this fantastic quilt made from our Whimsical Quilt Garden pattern. They named their quilt My Nocturnal Garden. Don’t the colors shine!
My Nocturnal Garden by Jackie Liles and Diana Dodds
Thank you both for sharing your quilt with us!
Piece O Cake Blog 