Monday, June 12, 2006

Links

Why did it make me so nuts to not have the ability to post links and pics? It's not like I couldn't just babble away... I should be good at that. I do know I would be lost without blogs - I love writing mine and I love reading others. Just a year and some change ago I'd never even heard of blogs and now I consider them essential.

Speaking of others' blogs, I've got loads and loads of places to mention, some of them you may already know about. I've been keeping a list for ages, and now I'm finally getting this post done. These are folks who are working on the free-pieced letters and the free-hand quilting.

You may not know this, but Holly is still around. I absolutely adore her and her blog And Sew It Is and I'm thrilled she decided not to quit blogging after all. Holly has some letters in progress which are very intruiging so far. She's using a consistent black background and varying autumnal colors for the letters. She's even got her classic "a" tucked under the arm of the "T" - marvelous.

Joyce at J's Quilting Blog is a quilting fiend, making quilts like crazy. I've mentioned some of her previous works before, but here are a couple of recent ones with letters: Boys of Noise and the current work in progress Red Hat Mamas. She's been playing with the asterisk/starbursts too.

Marathon Quilter Cher finished a great Wonky Village quilt top with houses and letters in wonderful bright colors. She also quilted freehand fans on her Texas Baby Quilt. This was her first time hand quilting and it came out wonderfully. I keep telling ya that the freehand fans are easy - you just have to relax and enjoy the process and KNOW that they are going to be fans with personality.

ForestJane finished her Liberty and Justice quilt and even had it displayed at the library she works at. If you haven't seen this quilt before, scroll down into her archives so you can see the blocks. In particular, I love the wobbly house she made with a dormer window and the firecracker is fabulous.

Mismatched Quilter Katie is currently showing some wonderful antique quilts and tops in her collection, esp wonderful is the star album quilt with fan quilting - just down my alley. Anyway, Katie made a great pillow with her granddaughter's name on it - turned out fantastic with loads of character. I love how she overlapped the letters.

Dot at Rantala Rags finished a wonderful, glowing quilt called Montana.

Quilting Bebbs finished a letter sampler quilt and did some wonderful machine quilted letters and words on it. You can read about afternoon tea and scones and generally life in England too.

Quilting with Ragdolls Judy and Sunshine Quilts JudyL are both pieceing letters. These are works in progress and will probably be posted once in awhile, so I'm not providing a specific link. Love JudyL's Halloween letters - you know I'm partial to that particular Holiday. Ragdoll Judy is working on what looks like 30's colors to me. At first I was worried that her background print was too busy, but I was proved wrong. Her letters are standing out brave and true.

And last, but certainly not least, Thoughts of Home Lois made me a happy woman by trying out some freehand quilting squiggles and hearts and numbers. She was even more adventurous than I am and didn't mark the quilt top at all, just practised on paper first. She did an excellent job and proved that it really isn't hard - you just have to DO it.

Hope I haven't left anyone out. Aiyee. I've got loads of pics in my backlog too, but I'll just drib and drab those out as usual. Ya'all take care.

6 comments:

dot said...

Tonya, I loved the tour through blog land looking at everyones process with letter quilts and/or free hand quilting. You truely must be an organized person to keep up with all these sites and projects. Thanks for being deligent to do this for us. Keep up the good work and sharing with us. Have a great day.

Quilts And Pieces said...

Can't wait to see your backlog of pics Tonya! I wish I could keep up with you!

ForestJane said...

Ohh, thanks for the honorable mention! You have quite a following, it looks like. You can think of yourself as a Godparent to all those quilts, I think. :)

Unknown said...

thanks for the mention - it must be fun seeing everyone trying out your letters - what a dynasty of quilts you've started!

Judy said...

I'll second that ...thanks for the mention. I have so many tiny left over things to do from about 5 quilts that my mind is scrambled and I really need to sew the last word border together!!

Katie said...

Just to let you know, my granddaughter LOVED the pillow. I wasn't sure about it for an 18 year old but she was overjoyed. Thanks for the idea and encouragement.