Susan Marshall sent this picture of her first attempt at applique after taking my class last year at Common Threads Quilting. Isn’t it great! So bright and pretty!
Made by Susan Marshall
This is our Lucky Stars pattern, made with some changes to the original pattern. It’s out of print and I really do need to make it available as an ePattern, one of these days.
Susan said:
I’m currently working on Aunt Millie’s Garden… you have created a monster!
Go applique monsters!
How full is your email inbox? I try to keep a handle on mine but I just found a show and tell quilt that was sent to me December 4!!! Janice, I’m sorry for being so very slow. Here’s what Janice had to say:
I just finished My Whimsical Garden quilt. It was so much fun to applique with all the bright colors. I machine quilted it on my Janome home machine trying to stay with the whimsical theme. So much fun! I’m such a fan of you and Linda.
Thanks, Janice
Janice, your quilt is beautiful and the quilting is especially nice. Way to go! Thank you for sharing it with us :-).
Judy Burrell attended my Pick-Up Sticks class in October 2015 in Monument Colorado. I love it in purple!
Pick Up Sticks by Judy Burrell
You can find this pattern in The Quilters Practical Guide to Color. It’s a lot of fun to make, and kind of addicting :-).
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.
Piece O Cake Blog 