Sweet Home Quilt Co.

We love seeing what our customers are making, and we had some great projects brought to the shop this weekend!

Laura brought this sweet little quilt to share…we had helped her pick out the fabrics for it not too long ago. She machine appliqued the vines and leaves with invisible thread, a first attempt, and it looked fantastic! I never seem to have much luck with invisible thread in my machine…

Brenda and Marty came for a visit from Macon, and Brenda shared a terrific Halloween quilt with us…oh, the variety of Halloween fabrics was amazing! And she had also included machine embroidered blocks of Halloween motifs throughout the quilt…here are a few (sorry for the blurry photos!)

After we ooh’d and ahh’d over the quilt, Brenda shyly mentioned that since we liked the quilt so much we’d probably love the witch that went with it…seems she had left it in the car. We made her GO GET IT! One word…A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

The detail on this Witch Doll was simply amazing…click the pictures to enlarge! Look at her striped legs and boots! And the black lace garter….be still my heart!

This was Brenda’s first dollmaking experience and she did a simply amazing job!

We love show & tell at Sweet Home…please bring your projects to share with us!

Melisa

I am woefully neglectful when it comes to sharing the great projects our customers bring in to share with us…I’m sorry! I was cleaning up some photo files this afternoon and came across these really great customer projects that we’ve enjoyed over the last few months (in no particular order.)

Cathy brought these three projects in a while back to share with us.  The geometric squares are all doggy prints, and that tumbler quilt is to die for! I want one…I L-U-V scrappy quilts!

Gretchen shared this elongated 9-patch made for her Dad if my memory serves me correctly!

Mary Helen shared her Hunter’s Star made with French General’s Rouenneries collection…fabulous!

Jayne made TWO of these Zippity Do Dah quilts – one for herself and one for Elaine, who does the long-arm quilting on Jayne’s quilts!

June made this wonderfully feminine version of Fire Escape, and a vibrant Happy Holidays table topper (both designs from Atkinson Designs.) Great job!

Kathy shared this beautiful star quilt with us earlier this year….love the border treatment!

Robin made Fire Escape in all purples and greens, and a Hunter’s Star in varying shades of purple. Do you think Robin likes purple?

Last, but not least, is Miss Lydia who is nine years old. She picked out all the fabrics herself (with a little help from Mellie!), and I love how she chose a geometric squares border print that mimics the center squares layout! Terrific job, Lydia!

Melisa

Yesterday we enjoyed a visit from The Jane Gang of Northeast Alabama (Mike’s old stomping grounds of Sand Mountain to be exact!), and we had so much fun with these ladies. Billie (seated left in the blue jacket) is a family friend and loyal customer of Sweet Home, and she sang our praises to her friends so much that they had to make a day trip just to come see for themselves!

Several of the quilters in The Jane Gang have made more than one Dear Jane Quilt (!!!) including Billie. She brought one of two that she has made to share with us, and we spent quite a while poring over the intricate blocks and fine stitching. Billie spent over 200 hours on the hand quilting alone of this quilt! In her words, “I’ve completed two Dear Jane quilts and I’m so weary of them. One is difficult enough for an old lady and two takes the prize.”  Takes the prize is an understatement – the workmanship in this quilt was amazing and my photos in no way do it justice!

That’s Billie’s husband, Mr. John, on the right. He says these are “Dear John” quilts because he’s the one who has suffered through the making of them! You could just hear the pride in his voice, though, even through his teasing remarks.

Here Billie shows Pam the finer points of finishing the “valleys” of the scalloped borders.

You can see both Pam and Mellie have their mouths hanging open! Each block was more and more amazing!

Billie also brought her current work-in-progress – a 1930s applique quilt and another amazing work of art! She’s used some feedsacks and scraps “begged” from friends – this one actually made me want to do some applique!

I can’t wait to see what quilting pattern Billie decides to use on this one! Of course, it will be handquilted, too!

What a fun day we had with The Jane Gang (and Mr. John!), and we can’t wait to have them come for another visit.

We’ve had some beautiful projects brought in for show and tell lately – hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

Gwen brought her jar quilt to share with us, complete with tassels on the lids! Great job, Gwen.

Rose shared a yummy batik quilt – this is just her third quilt!

This is Carolyn with her FUN flying geese quilt! The background is multi-colored dots on black, and it just makes me smile!

Carolyn again with her Christmas runner – she’s made several of these for gifts! Hope I’m on her list!

Carolyn has been busy, busy. This is another fun quilt, so simple but so effective in just two colors!

Denise shared the Just Can’t Cut It quilt she made for her husband. The focus fabric is a winter scene and the other coordinates work beautifully with the print.

This is Marie who just finished our Building Blocks beginner series a couple of weeks ago with her version of Strawberry Pie – king size, no less! She has already moved on to her next quilt – you sew girl!!!

Mary made this Jelly Roll Stars quilt during a recent retreat – yummy!

Nancy’s “not meant for jelly rolls” quilt – she made it work, though, and it is a terrific quilt!

We love show and tell, so be sure to bring your projects by to show us.

I am waaayyyy behind on sharing our customers’ show and tell projects, so this is going to be a long post with lots of pictures, each one as enjoyable as the last! One of my most favorite things about owning a quilt shop is being able to see finished projects from our customers! I often say that I have to live vicariously through you all because I don’t get much finished myself (for me personally, that is, since I’m usually sewing on shop samples.) I love it when you bring a finished project to share, it inspires me and usually results in a sleepless night (!) since it sets my wheels to turning and I have to act on the impulse to create! That’s a good thing, though, so keep bringing in your show and tell – I can sleep when I’m dead!

This is Gail with her rendition of Just Can’t Cut It. Gail was visiting Peggy from out of state and had to stay an extra week just so she could finish the projects she started. She said she knew they would never get finished at home – smart girl!

Here’s Gretchen showing off her shirtings quilt (sorry, I don’t remember the pattern name.) I love the secondary stars formed by the darker blue fabrics!

JeNel finished up her Jelly Bargelly from our class earlier this summer. These are MY colors! Each quilt from this class has been spectacular, and all so different because of each individuals fabric choices.

Annette (who is hiding behind the quilt!!) made this for her granddaughter, Kaitlyn, to take to college this fall. Actually, she and Kaitlyn both worked on it together. I think the pattern is Graham Crackers. We had this fabric collection, Sorbet from Moda, featured in our foyer display earlier in the summer, and Kaitlyn fell in love with it the moment she walked in the front door. Annette documented the making of the quilt from start to finish and made a photo memory book for Kaitlyn to go with the quilt.  What memories!

Here’s Karin with her Union Square quilt, started at retreat last year. (Karin is hiding behind the quilt, too, this is a HUGE quilt!) I have only ever seen this quilt made in “traditional” fabrics, but Karin used Nancy Halvorsen’s 12 Days of Christmas fabric line and it is fabulous! Just proves the point – don’t be afraid to step outside the box with your fabric selections, especially with the more traditional style quilt patterns. The results can be wonderful as in this case!

Here’s Liz with her little appliqued wallhanging. Each of the squares is individually hand appliqued – I think they’re like one inch squares! Liz is one of the Batty Babes, and I told her she was NUTS when she started this project, but she needed handwork for long car trips with her hubby. The result is a strikingly beautiful collage of garden florals – I’m envious! The pattern is from a past issue of McCall’s magazine (I think!)

Peggy finished a couple of projects, too, while Gail was visiting from out of town. Here she is with her Christmas table topper and her floral Turning 12 (a smaller version of Turning 20!). Peggy does such a great job picking out colors – she lets herself fall in love with a fabric and then she builds around it; the perfect way to build a quilt you know you’ll be happy with!

Here’s Shelia, pulling a Wilson – remember that TV show?, with her Batik Strip Stars quilt. This was a Silver Thimble Quilt Club project that we kitted earlier this year. I’m not a huge fan of batiks, but I absolutely adore this quilt!

Here’s Sarah with a magazine project using Moda’s Aviary fabric collection. This is the yummiest, most feminine quilt – love it, love it, love it! Sarah churns out quilts like I change underwear – every single day it seems!

Hope you’ve enjoyed Show and Tell. Bring in your next finished project so I can share it here – everyone loves to see – especially me!

We’ve enjoyed some great Show & Tell this week, and I know you’ll be dazzled and inspired, too.

Teresa brought in her ‘Rallye ’round the Flag’ top that she finished at the Silver Thimble Quilt Club stitch-in last week. The pattern is from Jo Morton’s book, Remembrances. I’m a huge Jo Morton fan and this little beauty is going on my personal ‘To Do’ List! I’ve got the book, I’ve got a whole bolt of the blue/cream stars, and plenty of other Jo fabrics in my stash to do the borders. All I need is T-I-M-E!  Great job, Teresa!

Here’s Sheba with her cutie pie baby quilt! I love how she used just Moda Bella Solids for the stars on the polka dot background fabric, and the twisted block setting just adds an extra little element of surprise. Too cute for words! Sheba shares my aversion to square quilts, so she borrowed my trick of just putting top and bottom borders on her quilt so it wouldn’t be square. Good work, Sheba!

Here’s Ruthanne (hiding!!) with her Posy Time wallhanging made for her granddaughter. This is a Bunny Hill Designs pattern from Anne Sutton, and I just love it. We have it made up in the Summers Basket of Flowers fabric collection with a kit and it looks totally different from Ruthanne’s pink & green version. The little yo-yo flowers are just the perfect finishing touch! Ruthanne also quilted this one herself using a new embroidery module she just bought for her Bernina. She’s psyched now to work on that stack of tops she’s been building! Great job, Ruthanne.

Ann brought her Jelly Bargelly quilt to show us.  She started this in our Bargello Basics class we offered earlier this year, and it turned out wonderfully. I think it is destined for a grandchild, too, if I’m not mistaken. Great job, Ann.

Harriette came by this morning with her latest finish. I’m not sure what the pattern is called, Wavy Flag or something like that, but it is a wonderful quilt! The design is so striking and she did a beautiful job of quilting it with RWB variegated thread. Notice the Jo Morton blue/cream stars again – love, love, love that fabric! This one may go on my “some day” list, too! Terrific job, Harriette.

I am continually awed and inspired by the talent that walks through our doors each week. I love seeing customers’ projects – it keeps me motivated!

I hope you’re having a quilty weekend. The weather here is beautiful today, much cooler with a slight breeze blowing, so I’m about to grab a good book and a Diet Coke and head out to relax on the porch for a while.

We’ve had lots of customers stop by lately with show and tell, and I knew you’d enjoy seeing their projects. I’ll even show you one that I recently finished!

You’ll recognize Kris who works in the shop several Saturdays a month. She adapted the Little Charmers 2 table runner pattern from Anka’s Treasures into this cute lap quilt, which she made as a wedding gift. She used the Bistro collection from Moda reflecting the couple’s coffee interest. I love how it turned out, and what a great idea to revamp the table runner pattern!

Marty brought her latest finish to share ea rlier in the week – a cute, cute baby quilt of colorful kites on a sky blue background. She had been in the shop not long ago to purchase a backing and we helped her settle on a ‘perfect’ multi-color dots to finish it off. The tails on the kites are 3-D and Marty pointed out that she waited until after the top was quilted to add the tails so that the “windy” quilting pattern would be uninterrupted.

Here’s another cute baby quilt made with one of our pre-cut flannel rag quilt kits. These kits are perfect for a quick gift in a hurry because the squares are already pre-cut so all you have to do is sew, clip and wash!

Kathy brought in her amazing Civil War Diary quilt top to share with us and it is fabulous! Those are six-inch paper-pieced blocks!  She did a terrific job picking out her fabrics and piecing the blocks – this was her first experience with paper-piecing, too! The black pinstripe sashing that she used to pull the blocks together is the perfect frame for these incredible blocks. Kathy attended a six-month class at the shop last year which focused on the Civil War Diary Quilt and she’s the first to finish her project. I am so thrilled that she finished it although she said it would be a while before she quilted it because she’s sick of looking at it!

Last up is a table runner I finished as a gift for a friend’s birthday. This is a new pattern I found at Spring Quilt Market from The Teacher’s Pet called Strip Center. It is designed for 1-1/2 inch strips so I used a honey bun from Moda’s Zippity Do Dah collection. I love how it turned out, and I’m working on another one which will be a shop sample. One thing I’m doing differently this time is to use Mary Ellen’s Best Press on the strips before cutting and sewing – I think that will help with the stretching.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little Show & Tell episode. I love it when our customers bring in their projects to share with us – we don’t often get to see the end result so it is always fun to see how projects turn out. I try to always have my camera charged and close at hand so bring your projects in so we can share them here with all our blog readers!

Tomorrow is a “retreat” day for me. I’m heading over to Grayson to spend the day at Pat’s Summer Stitch-In for the Silver Thimble Quilt Club. I packed far more projects than I’ll ever get done in a day, but hope springs eternal. Maybe I’ll get a little something done anyway! And if I don’t that will be ok, too, I know it will be fun, fun regardless! Hopefully I’ll have pics to share afterward…stay tuned.

A couple of recent Show & Tell projects that I wanted to share with you all.

This is LeAnne’s “Night and Day” from Eleanor Burns’ newest book of the same name. This quilt was stunning! LeAnne made it for her boss, who retired last week.  I saw this technique demonstrated when Pat and I visited Etowah Valley Quilt Guild to hear Eleanor’s sister, Patricia Knoechel (read about that adventure here.) This project is all strip-pieced! We just got the book in stock at the shop, and I’m working up a sample and a class – stay tuned!

Robin brought her completed stars quilt in to show us. We had agonized over fabric choices for this one, and it turned out beautifully. The centers of the stars and the borders are all fussy cut and very precise! This quilt has a real “Marrakesh” feel to it!

Thanks for the Show & Tell, ladies! You know I love to see your finished projects so be sure and bring your stuff in to share !

We’ve had a busy week of show and tell here at the shop, so I thought it only fair to share with ya’ll who couldn’t be here to see these wonderful projects in person. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show!

Debra created this really bright and fun crib quilt from a package of Baby Geniuses Grow Up charm squares and coordinating brights (we still have a few of these charm packs in stock!) Some lucky little one is really going to enjoy these bright pinwheels!

This is Robin’s red and cheddar star quilt – the picture does not do it justice, trust me! It is bright and vibrant, and perfectly executed with lots of fussy cutting for the star centers and the border. Robin quilted it on her APQS machine and did a terrific job with the quilting, too.

Sherry has been MIA for a while, but she finally brought this beauty in earlier this week to share. Turns out she’s been hanging out in Florida for several months! My photos of this quilt definately do not do it justice. The center blocks, which you can see a little better in the picture below, are all embroidered birds and birdhouses. Sherry had brought the embroidered blocks in last year and asked for help in deciding what to do with them; we fooled around with a couple of ideas and came up with the blue and yellow sashing in the center. Then she decided later to make it bigger so she added the surrounding blocks and borders to the center section. Can’t you just picture this on a white iron bed in a sunny yellow and blue bedroom???

Bea paid us a visit yesterday and she always has wonderful show and tell to share.  She is a prolific quilter and does beautiful work.

This is one of her scrappy string quilts. I love how the blue and red sashings really pull all the scrappy colors together. Bea had just picked this one up from the longarmer, and she used a variegated thread to quilt it; it will be bound in the red fabric.

This is an applique quilt that Bea made using a published pattern in a magazine (sorry I didn’t get the magazine details!) The colors in the picture aren’t very true, the nine patches along the outside edge are done with black prints and blue prints, and all of the colors are really rich. We chose a blue and black stripe print for bias binding.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our little show and tell. We love it when our customers bring in their projects to share. Next time you’re coming to see us, bring something to share with us, too!

Melisa

It’s been a while since I’ve shared show and tell projects from our customers so I thought I’d get caught up a little. We’ve seen some really beautiful and thoughtful projects coming through that just have to be shared!

This is Nicole showing her Blooming 9-Patch that she entered into her guild’s “green” challenge. The colors and fabrics Nicole used in her quilt represent the earth’s sustainable resources – water, trees, grass, etc. But the quilting is the most amazing part of this project! She quilted the center as a “globe” of the Earth, quilting the continents, and throughout the quilt she had quilted leaves and other natural elements. Around the outside she quilted footprints, representing the human “footprint” being left on the earth through our use and misuse of the earth’s resources. It is truly an amazing quilt, with a lot of “green” thought in its design.

Judy (L) brought in this t-shirt quilt to share with us which she made for her boss whose husband had died. The quilt is made with the husband’s Harley Davidson t-shirts and I had helped Judy pick out the sashing and background fabrics a while back. The quilt turned out terrific and is a true keepsake for the family. The quilt pattern is Quilted to a “T” by Little Black Dog Quilt Co.

Bernie (L) and Rose (R) are in our Beginning Quilting class, and this is their first piecing effort! They did not know each other before the class began and chose their fabrics independent of each other. I’d say they have the same tastes, you think!?!?! This Beginner Quilting class has been so much fun, the peals of laughter coming from upstairs each Saturday afternoon have everyone commenting on what a great time they must be having!

This is Bernie, too, with a banner project that she offered to make for her church. She’s not letting any grass grow under her feet! Her enthusiasm and new-found love of quilting are an inspiration to all of us each time she enters the shop! Keep it up, Bernie!

We love Show & Tell at Sweet Home so bring those projects in to share! I often say that I have to quilt vicariously through my customers since my quilting time is so severely limited! I love seeing what you’ve created.

Melisa