Plaid Ponies = Huge Mistake!!!!

It took some time, but I finally finished.  Between the piecing and quilting this quilt took some time.  I was so excited when I took the quilt off the frame and was shocked to see 

 A Huge -- Beginner Mistake!

It was all quilted before I noticed it!!!!!! 

Can you find it????  Ugh!! 

I must have looked at this quilt on my design wall for days....Nope didn't see anything.  I thought about taking the whole quilt apart, but decided against that. 

I asked my friend to find the mistake and she couldn't see it. Thank Goodness this is not the first quilt I made for her.  I had to point out that row one and two are not in the right order....  She didn't care, she loved it anyway!!   

 I stitched in the ditch for most of this quilt.  I wanted to keep is simple since it's a very busy quilt. 

Outer border strips

I called my friend about the name.  I wanted to double check the spelling of the Baby's name.  She told me it was correct.  I saw her a week or two after the quilt was done ..... Guess What .... It was spelled wrong!  I knew it...  I told her I would make her a new quilt label when she got the correct spelling, but she said... don't worry. It should have been Gabriel.

Plaid Madness!

Plaid Madness!

This quilt is called "Plaid Ponies", by Joyce Stewart (Quilt it for Kids Mag - 2001) but I call it Plaid Madness!  Its all done with paper piecing.  There are over 50 different fabric patterns and colors.  I didn't have enough fabric to make this quilt, so I went down to a local home decorating shop and asked if they had any old fabric sample books.  The shop owner gave me four discontinued fabric sample books.   I was able to use quite a number of those samples...  way more than I had in my stash!   What made this even more difficult was the customer only wanted browns, beige's and tans... but.... in the end I was able to add a little more color!   Not only was I able to use those sample squares, but the my friend also got some very high end decorator fabrics!   Can't wait till it's done.  Not sure how I will quilt it yet.  Its a very busy quilt so I think simple is better.   Close ups to come!  

Two Paper Pieced Blocks

Outer Border with With and Without Satin Stitches

   

Inner Borders attached ... Outer Border in pieces. 

Christmas Goodies!!

Look at the great goodies I received for Christmas!  

Love my family as well as my quilting family!  

 

Pony Quilt

 I was asked to make a little girl who lives in Russia a Pony Quilt.   I was delighted to make this. I was told that she was very ill.  I wanted this quilt to represent " Freedom".  The pony is in the center of a meadow with butterflies all around..... Her saddle on the side after a long wonderful ride!  

Quilt Challenge - November - Swirls

I loved this quilt pattern when I first saw it.  I bought the fabric from Connecting Threads.  I was going to enter this quilt in a local quilt show.  Unfortunately is was cancelled do to Hurricane Sandy.  Instead of stippling around the designs I used different size /shaped swirls.  

Dragon Quilt

I was asked to make a little boy who lives in Poland a Dragon Quilt and a girl who lives in Russia a Pony quilt.  I started with the dragon quilt first. 

This quilt was such a blast to make!!  I wanted to make this one fun and fantasy based. I found some copyright free coloring pages.  I mixed and matched until I came up this this design.  To get the size I needed I printed out each coloring book design and blew it up to the size I needed. 

I went to my local fabric store looking for a light colored brick fabric, but I couldn't find what I was looking for.  I bought a brick template a long time ago and decided to try it.  I used a tea stain dye. 

Whatever you do!  Do not put your tea cup on the fabric!!!  LOL

 I let the fabric dry and I reapplied the tea. Heat set it and washed it. I wanted to make sure the brick work lasted in the wash.

I then traced out each piece of the castle on freezer paper.
  

I then added the water colored fabric.

I traced each piece of applique on my homemade light box.  I used Wonder Under to fuse the applique pieces on the the main fabric.

Plexi Glass on a florescent light box

Some of the quilting.

I found a dragon font!!