LEAVES ARE FALLING

It's hard to believe that just two weeks ago we had 24" of snow on the ground and still had leaves on the trees. The neighborhood kids were building snow jack-o-lanterns rather than snowmen.

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WHOLECLOTH FUN

What a fun day playing with one of my new wholecloth designs. I love this shiny red fabric. I've got to go back to the store and read where it comes from and more detail about what the fiber content is. I know it is mostly cotton with some shiny threads woven in for the glitz.

I first heard about this fabric from my friend Dani. She quilted a Sun Compass quilt using a creamy yellow metalic color of the same fabric. I had to beat feet down to Fabric Depot to find some for me. I found both the creamy yellow and this yummy red that is perfect for a holiday wholecloth. I even found the perfect backing fabric on the 50% off rack.

Now, that was fun ... trying to get good pictures of shiny fabric! Enjoy!

Quilting detail at the bottom of the wallhanging.

Closeup of 1237 Ornamental Feather

Closeup of 1236 Circle of Angels

Closeup of 1229 WB Medallion

1075 Bead Strings was used in the border and 1077 Touching Beads was used for the sashing. I couldn't get a good picture of the 4th block used ... 1233 Pine Cones & Berries. Sorry. This sample is just a 4 block sampler with the blocks being set in at about 17" and the wallhanging finishing about 38" square. It could easily be enlarged to bed size. Wouldn't this be yummy on the bed during the holiday season after Thanksgiving all the way through New Years!

A NEW DRAWING ...

Elaine made her choice ... here's what she had to say:

OH MY GOSH!!! I never win anything. Thank you, Thank you!!! I’m just so excited, I can hardly sit still!!!!

I have just been drooling over your patterns! I would just love your “1190 Leafy E2E” I can just see it on a quilt. I even think it would look wonderful on a whole cloth quilt.

I’m just having a hard time believing I won!!!
Again,
Thank you, and have a GREAT 4th!!!

Elaine Reed
Glad to be a SS..

And this is what her pattern 1190 Leafy E2 looks like:
She's right about using this pattern to create a wholecloth quilt. Isn't that a wonderful secondary trellised design that is created when rows are simple repeated across the quilt fabric. Again, CONGRATULATIONS to Elaine. Looking forward to seeing pictures when you use the pattern on a quilt.


And now it's time to empty the hat filled with names for the June drawing and start a new drawing for the month of July. All you have to do to get your name in the hat is to post a comment to one of my postings on the blog or make a purchase from Mountaintop Quilting. Easy as pie! For the July drawing I'll be offering a free medallion quilting pattern of your choice OR a free piecing pattern. (That way, everyone who reads gets to participate ... Statler quilters and piecers alike.)

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July if you are celebrating the holiday here in the USA!

STITCH OUT SAMPLER

Hooray for a day of sunshine! Even for an Oregonian, the rain is getting to be a bit much for this time of year. It's time for sandals, short pants and sweaters to be packed away. Let's see if I'm as ready for summer after next week when I visit my daughter in the Alabama heat and humidity. Then I'll be glad to be back in the cloudy cool Pacific Northwest - where we do love our roses!

My Joseph's coat has been a real distraction as he shines in all his glory outside the window at my desk. The color variegation and the multiple blossoms on one stem - I know they have a name for that type of rose, just can't remember right now - is truly a wonder to behold.

Just a note: click on any picture to enlarge and see the quilting up close and personal.

I took today to play with my longarm machine. I wanted to get a stitch out sampler of some of the new patterns and to review some of the functions and procedures with Creative Studio, our new software for our Statler Machines. You never know how much you've internalized the processes until you step outside of the box and begin actually applying them in new and different ways. Some of the things I tried today were as easy as pie. I found others that made me think a little bit to work it out, and then I found those processes that need a little more time with the manual.

When I looked at the designs for this latest release I found a common thread running throughout. Most of these new designs are all about TEXTURE.

I played with the traditional clamshell pattern taking it a step further by adding echoes to the shape to help make it an easy edge-to-edge design, and then adding additional textural patterns inside of the clam shapes. The possibilities are endless.

The clamshell is a design that appears to be easily executed but has in the past been one that put me a little on edge. Keeping the curves nice and rounded; keeping the spacing accurate; managing to keep the points out of the curved line above and below - these are some of the challenges when executing this design. The computer driven machines help with the accuracy but there are set-up issues with the alternating trim design. I'm not a big fan of multiple tie-off points which is a part of alternating patterns. And, through all of this technical jargon, much thought, and many hours at the computer mouse in hand, I finally came up with some designs that are easily executed, accurate, and give a fresh new look to an old favorite.

There are 14 designs in the collection ... 6 single blocks, 6 edge-to-edge designs, and two bonus edge-to-edge designs added in to increase the flexibility when working with a Classic rather than an Optimum. The bonus single rows will also allow other options with an odd sized quilt when the rows just won't divide up right and the pattern becomes too distorted. This collection (1207) is on sale this month for almost half off the total value is purchased individually ... and ... if you drop a comment (say, "Put my name in the hat!") in the box at the end of this post you'll be entered into a drawing to get a free edge-to-edge pattern! This picture shows a row of 1217 Clam Bubbles E2E and a row of 1208 Clam Double E2E. I had no idea the two different patterns would fit together so easily like that!. Fun surprises all around.

Two fun edge-to-edge designs I've shown you before as line drawings are just as cute stitched out. 1218 Sock Monkey and 1220 Cloudy Cascades sitiched out like a dream today. I had run a single pattern of them before as a test. Today I wanted to include them in actual stitch out for my customers to review. Sometimes it's hard to translate what you see on the screen to how it might look on a quilt top. Much easier when you're looking at an actual stitch out.

Cloudy Cascades gives you a chance to practice with Alternating function in the Creative Studio program so the mountains don't march down the quilt top in rows.

The tiger stripe blocks and triangle are really all about texture. These designs would look so good on an lodge type quilt, a guy quilt ... think about the texture that is created with a baptist fan but now make it into wavy lines following a diamond shaped pattern. 1210 Tiger Stripe 1, 1211 Tiger Stripe Triangle, and 1212 Tiger Stripe 2 look good stitched out to the desired size be it large or small so density of quilting is easily controlled and balanced.

And, last of all, I do several "soldier" quilts throughout the year and I'm always looking for ways to create designs that work for both men and women, are utilitarian in nature as these quilts will be well-used and well-loved, and the designs must set-up and stitch out easily. 1197 Ripples & Stars and 1216 Clam Star E2E are two new designs that will meet those needs. Both patterns are offered at half price during this next week. Be sure to visit the Mountaintop webstore to take advantage of the sales.

Remember to participate in the poll at the top of the side bar, and get your name in the hat for a free pattern to add to your Statler Library. The drawing will be held first thing in the morning July 1st!

ROCKY RAILROAD BED

And, now ... for the rest of the story ... Plots of Rocks.

Walter is a longarm customer of mine and always brings me interesting quilt tops with interesting ideas and suggestions for quilting designs. This last winter he brought me a Railroad quilt. I couldn't believe the care he took in piecing the fussy-cut rails and the actual pattern he picked to go with all of these railroad fabrics was perfect. And, now to the quilting.

We talked about a lot of different possibilities included the use of the traditional railroad crossing signs and signals. But it true what they say about quilts talking to you. As Walter's quilt hung on the design wall waiting patiently for it's turn to loaded onto the machine, it kept saying,

"Keep it simple. Let my fabrics shine through on this one."

"Remember the young man who will be sleeping or napping under me. He doesn't want something all fancied up. He wants a peaceful rest and to stay warm."

"He just wants to appreciate Walter for knowing how much he likes trains."

And, so, after much careful listening to the quilt top, a plot of rocks was born. The collection consists of a Rock Block, a Rock Triangle, and a design called Rocks Fill P2P. I stitched straight lines in following the path of the rails, did a quarter inch echo in the blue triangle blocks, and a simple crosshatch block in the railway company logo blocks. The borders were filled with rocks with the set-up made easy using the point-to-point rock design.

And Walter sent me the nicest note of appreciation for the design choices I worked out for his quilt telling me how much the young man liked his new quilt. Thank you Walter, for sending me the challenges that help me to grow in new directions and to see the design possibilities with new eyes.

PATTERNS & PLOTS OF ROCKS

Today was a day of cutting, piecing, and computers.

First, the cutting ... my red and white sample of TWISTING RIBBONS is hanging in my trunk show at Fabric Depot and this means I need to have another sample on hand for booth hangings in the area and regional retail shows.

I like the swirling twirly motion in the blue and white mock-up. So, today I started the blue and white sample ... a day of cutting and piecing blocks. I need a total of 48 blocks for a twin size quilt. Sometimes I don't like knowing I need 96 two inch squares with lines drawn on the diagonal ready to complete sew-n-fold corners. I sorted the patches and blocks in sets of twelve blocks so the numbers wouldn't be quite so overwhelming. I have 20 blocks more than half finished so there is hope, but I still have a lot of triangles to prep before I can sew!

The second thing I did to help manage the "numbers I don't want to know, was to break up the cutting/piecing tasks by working on other projects. The other project of the day was to update my online web store with all the new Statler patterns I've been digitizing over the last 2 months.

NOTE TO SELF: Never, ever wait this long to add the new patterns to the catalog! Oh my, I think I would rather be drawing diagonal lines on squares in preparation for piecing face-to-face half square triangles!

But, enough of the whining. Statler users, you'll want to be sure and get yourself over to the Mountaintop "store" and check out the new designs. I have half of them loaded and ready for your shopping. I will be getting the rest of them uploaded tomorrow. Click on the "What's New" bar under each category to see the new patterns. Overall you will find 14 new blocks, 3 new border/sashing patterns (Grab a martini and check out the Olive Eye Sashing!), 8 new edge-to-edge designs including a great Sock Monkey design for Eryn's Monkey Business quilt and all of you Northwest quilters won't want to miss Cloudy Cascades (both to be added tomorrow), and 4 new triangle designs.

The sale for this month features a design called Ripples and Stars. The Ripples edge-to-edge we've all loved to use so far has morphed into a new pattern with the addition of stars scattered randomly through the ripples. The new Ripples and Star pattern is on sale for the next week until June 15th for half price to celebrate Flag Day.

I used this pattern on an American Hero quilt I finished back in March. American Hero quilts are presented to the parents of soldiers who have lost their lives in combat. A very worthy cause to support those who serve and sacrifice with honor and courage.

But, what about the "plots of rocks" you ask? You'll have to come back tomorrow to read about their story.