Autumn quilt finished

Ok, it’s been a busy week, but I finally finished quilting my quilt. This is a memory quilt I made for my son, he went to a special school in CT about 2 years ago. The autumns in CT are just spectacular, hence the bright autumn theme and colors. There are about a dozen pictures of my son and life at the school subtly placed in this quilt:

and the back of the quilt:

As you can see, it is a perfectly typical quilting job. My freehand Carla border focusing on oak leaves, CC in the pieced border using mono filament so as not to obscure the photo transfers, and texture quilting in the oak leaf blocks. Now to trim the quilt and start the binding. Have I mentioned how much I dislike bindings? LOL

Note from Carla:  This quilt was originally featured in Fall 2002 Quiltmaker’s magazine, it is a design by Carolyn Reardon.  Here is a link to this pattern:  http://www.quiltandsewshop.com/product/Turning-Leaves/quiltmaker-patterns

Speaking of quilts, I have my own snuggle quilt I made for myself a few years ago. I love the feel of minkee, so the back is a lovely shade of pink minkee. This morning, my cat, Oscar, decided that it belongs to him instead:

There is a special relationship between cats and quilts. Put a quilt in the room and turn your back for just one moment, then look around and the cat is sleeping on the quilt. Weird….

Enjoy your day! Carla

Quilts and Pets

I’m busy quilting the autumn leaf photo transfer memory quilt today. I threw on the borders, pieced the back, then loaded it on my longarm table. Here’s a picture of it before the quilting:

You can see a few of the photo transfers if you look close at the picture above. I’m entering this quilt into the “memory quilt” category at the local fair.

Btw, the oak leaf quilt is a design by Carolyn Reardon and may be purchased at http://www.quiltandsewshop.com/product/Turning-Leaves/quiltmaker-patterns.

This weekend, I spent a couple of hours volunteering for the local quilting guild. They were trying to raise money for the guild by selling raffle tickets in front of the local grocery store. If this quilt looks familiar, that is because I did the asian style contemporary quilting for this quilt designed by Jill Rixman:

It is always fun to see quilts that I have quilted down the road at a later time and place. There is a funny story about this picture… notice the man in the window to the left of the quilt? He put up a fuss when we put the quilt there, which blocked his view. He finally was irate enough to complain to the store manager. The store manager was very nice guy when he came out to talk to us. He was also a smart man… did he side with a crank customer who will only be there a short while?? Or a bunch of sweet ladies oozing quilty goodness who do charitable things for the community?? LOL Guess who won?? LOL!!

Pets

I have to take Oscar, our gray kitty, to the vet today. He got a foxtail in his eye or eyelid and though we pulled it out, it must have left debris behind because his beautiful eye is not normal. Yesterday, I put some antibiotic ointment in there until I could have him see the vet today. Poor Oscar!!

I dread Foxtail season with a passion! Every day I need to groom all the animals and conduct a thorough foxtail search. Left alone, a foxtail will corkscrew down the animal’s hair shaft and enter the animal’s body. It will continue to migrate and can actually kill your pets if left unattended. If you are lucky, it will only form an infection and abscess, which requires a vet visit and possibly surgery. Last year, we had to spend about 2k on vet bills related to foxtails.

I will report on Oscar’s condition tomorrow. In the meantime, if you have pets and live where there are foxtails, please check them regularly for this horrible weed!

Regards, Carla

Oscar Update: It was a good thing Oscar saw the vet today. There was another whole foxtail in his eye and part of yet a third. His cornea is torn, but with the antibiotic ointment, and no more run ins with foxtails, his beautiful eye will be restored. – Carla

Piecing a Photo Transfer Quilt

I read Michele’s blog today and she inspired me to piece for myself.  I want to do something quick, easy and already in block form, so I went to my pile of UFO (unfinished objects) blocks.  Here is an autumn quilt, designer unknown (from Quiltmakers Magazine about 5 years ago),  it is a wonderful positive/negative applique block design using autumn leaves.  Here I am piecing my rows:

What is cool about this quilt is the b&w and color photo transfers(about 2 dozen) included add subtlety and interest into the quilt.  Here is an example:

Above is a photo transfer of my son’s old school.  Below is a picture of the auction quilt I did as a fundraiser for this school:

This quilt is really a memory quilt for me- plus I love the colors.  Yes, I will add a dark purple border and then another larger border.

I started this quilt about 3 years ago- LOL!!  I think it is time to complete it, so I will finish the top tomorrow and then load it to quilt.  Thanks Michele, for the push and inspiration!!

Hugs, Carla