A move to Utah!

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted on here. My computer went haywire and I just replaced it! YAY! Some big changes have happened recently! I moved to Utah. I now live close to my Mom and 5 younger siblings. We live in the heart of Utah called Manti where we are currently building our house and I am trying to build my business out here.



This is our home site. My hubby had to have a huge shop, so it is being put together while we wait on the concrete guys to pour the walls in our basement! I am so excited about this house, we are building it ourselves and it is going to be great. I am going to have a huge room just for quilting!!!

I have been busy quilting too! Here is one that I just finished up for Linda W.

I have quilted a quilt similar to this one before for MJ, so I had an idea of what I liked that I did before, and what I would change. I really had a lot of fun quilting this! I added curly cues to the feathered wreathes and feather around the border, played in each of the different blocks, and stitched in the ditch over all of the piecing AND all of the embroidery! It took a lot of time but the fact that the backing was basically a solid and you can see every stitch on the back made it worth it! You can see the snowmen, trees and little birds on the back!

I've completed a lot of quits since last time, so I will share more at another time. For now, I've got to get my big 2nd grader off to school! If you have a quilt that you need quilted, send me an email at be_happy15@hotmail.com or call me at 530-604-0156. I would love to hear from you!
Happy quilting!
Nicole

My Scrappy year!

I've had the pleasure of being on Quiltmaker Magazine's Scrap Squad this year. What is the Scrap Squad? Well, Quiltmaker Magazine chooses 8 ladies from their applicants each year and that is their Scrap Squad. We are assigned one quilt out of each issue of the magazine to make in our own way, and of course, preferrably scrappy!
I had such joy making each of these quilts. I stretched my imagination and got my creative juices flowing. Of course, after I made each quilt (under a deadline of course) I knew how I would tweak it to make it even more interesting the next time!
This was my first quilt, Majestic Garden. I love scrappy quilt, but I am more of a "controlled scrappy" quilter. I used at least 20 different teals and as many creams in this quilt!

Our second quilt was originally called Mandarin Express, but I felt that Midnight Garden would fit my finished project better. I changed color values, put the quilt on point, and made the quilt larger and I couldn't love this one more!

Our third quilt was a much smaller project. There was so much paper piecing in this one that I decided against making it a bed sized quilt. I believe this will be a baby quilt for one of my nieces someday! I am one of 7 children, so I am sure there will be plenty of nieces and nephews in my future!

Our next quilt was originally called Western Waltz. The original colors were not me at all, so it was hard for me to want to work on the quilt...which is funny becuase the goal is to change it up anyways! I know that if I were just browsing through a magazine and I saw this pattern, I would have passed right by it, but then look at what I would be missing!!

 Our fifth project was all foundation piecing....oi. With the help of the Quiltmaker Magazine editors it was changed to paper piecing for us lucky Scrap Squad Gals! I've always wanted to  make a black white and teal quilt and I knew that this would be the perfect opportunity! I had that border fabric in my stash for more than 3 years!!

So that brings me to my 6th and final scrap squad project. Oh SO Purple :D You can check it out at Quiltmaker Magazine's blog, please leave a comment and tell me what you think :)
http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/2014/01/qm-scrap-squad-nicoles-oh-sew-purple/



These quilts are all headed to Quiltmaker Magazine's headquarters in Golden, Colorado for a special Scrap Squad exhibit! I am so excited that my quilts will be on display there and I'll share photos of the exhibit when I get them!


I have mixed feelings about the fact that this year is over. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on these quilts with my Scrap Squad Sisters, we've gotten to know each other and made some beautiful quilts in the process! Not only did I get to do what I love, but I got to share it with the online quilting community! How does it get any better than that?!? BUT, now that it's over, I get to work on my own projects that have been lying in wait for a year. Stay tuned, because I'm not done yet!
Happy quilting everyone!

Quilts

This beautiful quilt was made as a gift for a 50th wedding anniversary.

This quilt almost used up all of the space on my 12' frame. I love doing these big quilts, especially when it is pieced as meticulously as this one!



We chose an all-over leafy design called "Harvest Winds" I really enjoyed the way that this one turned out!

This next quilt is going to be a gift at a baby shower. We decided to put some custom work on this baby! Boy-o it sure jazzed up this quilt!

I outlined everything in clear thread to start, which made a huge difference!

Then I added some flowey lines in the sky and loops in the clouds. Then each of the animals got a different treatment. The lions got loops, the zebras got a geometric design...

and the giraffes got a stipple to mirror their puzzle pattern.

I'm heading on up to Portland tomorrow for the Machine Quilters Expo. I can't wait to learn some great new techniques and designs.
Have a great week, and happy quilting!

Applique

Oh, how I love sharing quilts with all of you! I've got some more that I would like to share today. This one was made by Coleen. She designed the quilt herself and I think that it is just beautiful!!

Aren't those birds just beautiful? To go with the bird theme we decided to put the Plumage pattern on it.

 We decided to go with the light colored thread not only to blend into the background, but we didn't want the quilting to take away from the awesome birds and I really love how it decorated the plain green blocks.

This next quilt was a block of the month made by Becky.

This quilt was made with homespuns which is difficult to keep straight because it just loves to move all over the place, but I think it worked out very well. OH, and just in case you are wondering...yes...that is all hand applique. She did a wonderful job on it.
I had a little bit of fun with the sunflowers, putting some pebbling in the center of it.

I really enjoyed coming up with new ways to quilt the different items in this quilt. Here is a flower pot. I put a figure 8 type of pattern on the top and a wavy crosshatch in the center of the pot.

This was a very pretty part of the quilt.

I stitched in the ditch around all of the applique so that it popped out.

This watering can was one of my favorite parts...oh wait, did I already say that? I guess the whole quilt was my favorite part. Its such a beauty.

 

This next quilt was made by my mother-in-law Kathi. She handed it to me and said do what you want with it, just an all-over design will be fine. OK! Of course, I knew I had to do something different on it...all of the family was going to see it. So I had a little fun.





I went with a basic loopy design and wrote BOO a few times throughout the quilt.

But that still didn't seem like quite enough...so I added a few spider webs

And a huge spider!! I had fun working on this and playing with different things, I hope that she likes it too!

This next quilt was AMAZING. Betty worked on this quilt on and off for 10 years. She handed it to me and said "Do what you want". Wow, that's trust!

This quilt is huge! It is 105 X 105"! I put a piano key border treatment on the outer border, some feathers on the dark purple, and had some fun in the setting triangles.

Here are a couple of photos of the gorgeous flower basket blocks in the quilt.

A lot of the flowers and leaves were 3-d which posed a challenge to stitch in the ditch around the applique. I had to move a lot of it aside while I was stitching around them....and then it happened...something that I knew would happen eventually...I quilted through my finger. I broke that huge needle off in my finger. OUCH! And oh boy did that scare me! Luckily I was so frightened by it that I moved my finger back to me as quickly as possible and I didn't get even a drop of blood on this very white quilt, so I still call it a victory!

Ok I will share one more quilt with you in this post. This was made by a new quilter, Chris. She made two of them for her grandsons.

She decided to use a black minky on the back of the quilt and we chose my Fantasia pattern to quilt onto it. I love the way that the quilting pops out on the minky backings!

Well, I'd better get back to it! I am currently quilting my next Scrap Squad quilt for Quiltmaker Magazine. I can't wait to share this one with you. It is a color scheme that I have wanted to do for a long time, in fact I bought the border fabric over 3 years ago! Stay tuned! I will share the quilt when I can! In the meantime, I am heading up to Portland next week for Machine Quilters Expo and I can't wait!
Happy quilting!

School has begun!

Wow. I am a mother of a kindergartener! I can't believe that it is time for this already. Jordan is starting her fourth week of Kindergarten already. Boy, I thought once she started school I would have a lot more time to quilt, but it has not been the case. There are 28 children in her class. 28!! And only one teacher. Talk about outnumbered! The teacher asks for 2 parent volunteers per day so I have been helping out at the school a couple of times a week, in fact I am due over there in 20 minutes so I'd better make this fast!
I've been wanting to update you all on what I have been up to. I've had the great opportunity to work on a lot of beautiful quilts lately, here are just a few of them!
This first one was made by Annette and she titled this quilt "Midnight Stars"

Isn't it beautiful? I love the pumpkins in the corners. She wanted some custom stuff in the borders and my all-over pattern "Pumpkin Meander" in the center. I chose to do a simple stipple around the applique and then go back with clear thread and outline all of the applique so that it popped!

We were both very happy with how it turned out!

It's hard to get a picture of the quilting sometimes, but this is what was in the center. Pumpkin Meander!
Next up is Annie's Marmalade quilt. She got a layer cake of Bonnie & Camille's line of fabric called "Marmalade" and she made this lovely quilt out of it!

 

 

 

I put what is probably my most used pantograph pattern ever onto this quilt, "Sunday" and I think that it turned out great.

My little helper helped me unroll this quilt once it was finished!

Allright, she's being shy...but she helps me unroll a lot of the quilts. She likes to help me out!

I have another Scrap Squad quilt to be revealed on Quilty Pleasures this Friday, so please make sure to stop by and let me know what you think!
Happy Quilting!

 



Crabapple Hill Quilts

I have recently been able to quilt two quilts that were Crabapple Hill patterns. One was a farmhouse and one Halloween. The embroidery on both of these quilts was amazing! I had a great time coming up with ways to quilt them. This is how they turned out! The detail on these two quilts is awesome.
This first quilt was made by Annette. 

I wanted to quilt this quilt differently. She told me that this quilt would be going to her son so I didn't want a lot of curly cutesy things. I chose a geometric triangle as my background filler. I think it was a fun way to spice this quilt up a bit! I followed all of the embroidery with invisible thread. The way that it made the embroidery stand out was fun, but the way it looked on the back once I finished was AWESOME.

And a shot of the center panel

Fun right? Here is the full quilt.

This next quilt was made by Laurie. She made it to resemble her family farm, and I just love it!

Outlining all of that in invisible thread was a challenge, and it took a lot of time, but I was so pleased with the end results that I would do it again for sure. Just look at the truck!

Backing:

 Front:

Carrots

And a bucket of Cherries

You get the point. I had fun! :)

Here is the picture of the full quilt

And a close-up of the fillers that I used for borders and background

Thank you, ladies, for trusting me with your treasures! I am so glad that you like how they turned out!! Happy quilting everyone!