Moving...

Due to unforeseen circumstances and limited space, it appears that I am unable to continue posting pictures to this blog. I have set up a new blog site for Ye Merrie Quilter, which can be found at: http://yemerriequiltery.blogspot.com/. Trust me, I have new things to show you, but no space here to accomplish that.

Come on over...I'll be so happy to see you!

Karen, the Merrie Quilter

Valentine's Update

Happy Valentine's Day!

Lauri's sister is expecting a baby girl shortly, as I mentioned the other day, and she gave me a quilt to finish for this new girlie who is due next month. This is a very feminine version of the black, white and red visually stimulating things you see in the stores.

Maybe it's that Valentine's Day is just around the corner, or maybe it's the prospect of a sweet little girl, but I was inspired to quilt double hearts all over the surface.

This was followed up by finishing up the quilt for the auction at the school that Sharon's daughter attends. To echo the pattern printed on the background fabric, I quilted the blue parts with Dr. Seuss feathers. By request, I did not quilt in the blocks where the children drew. Since we used Warm & White batting, you can quilt up to 8" apart without any worries of shifting or bearding.

Sorry it's upside down. I goofed in loading it, and now it's stubbornly staying upside down. Some day I'll figure out this blog editing thing.

I have to get back to work--I have one more quilt to finish before Monday!

Keep on quilting!

Karen, Ye Merrie Quilter

January 2011

Happy New Year all!

Quilting is a great way to relax, to express your creativity, and to warm your family and friends, not just physically, but by touching their hearts with a hand made gift. Finding time and energy to finish them all in a year can be tricky, which is why so many quilters prefer to hire out the quilting portion of the project.

Lauri's sister is expecting baby #2, so the older child is being moved to a Big Boy Bed. He needed a Big Boy Quilt to go with it, so Auntie Lauri made him a beautiful scrappy star quilt for his bed! For an extra bit of fun the border fabric is *glow in the dark*! It measures 71" x 99", so it's perfect for a twin bed and because it was made with high-quality fabrics, it will last for years to come!

I stitched 3's and E's all over the surface--yellow varigated thread for the yellow and stars, and blue varigated for the outside border.

If you need a helping hand with your quilts, please feel free to drop me a note!

Karen, Ye Merrie Quilter

Quarterly report Jan 2011

Only a few projects have come in over the last few weeks, and a few of them I failed to get pictures of. Here are a few that I did manage to capture before their hasty exit to their homes!

Sharon was gifted this lovely quilt top as a quilted hug from friends after the passing of her mother, which was just a few months after her father's death. It was in the words of Cathy Miller, the Singing Quilter, who sang, "Give me a heart for the ones I have lost" and she was inundated with hearts from her friends.

Michele had this lovely Milky Way quilt top in red, black and white. I quilted it in a new pattern I found called 3's and E's. It turned out really nicely, despite a set-back of having the wrong bobbin thread in it for the first few inches. Ooops! I picked it out and started again.

I decided to try a pattern from quilt designer Susan Mayer. This is the result (aside from two seams that still needed to be attached at the time of the photo--it has since been finished).

Since it's been a rather slow few months here at Ye Merrie Quilter, I thought I'd share a few of the personal projects I've been working on. This is the Christmas Pineapple quilt I finished in late September. These blocks were swapped with online friends in 2009 and 2010. Half the blocks were in seasonal colors, and the other half just scrappy. The scrappy quilt needs a binding still, but this was finished and ready for hanging in the living room.

TIP: These 1" x 3" boards were found at an estate sale, having lived a former life as a quilt frame, it now serves as a display rod. Holes drilled in the ends made for easy hanging on nails and the muslin stapled on the boards make it easy to pin quilts onto for display.

This pattern found in Fons and Porter magazine, was paper pieced to make a sweet wall hanging for my niece. These pooches have 3D ears, and look just like her Jack Russell terrier, Milo.


Two of the four table runners that I made for Christmas presents...

The other two table runners for Christmas presents--I quilted all four of them on a single backing, then cut them apart and bound them. All the fabrics came from my stash, so very little was spent on holiday shopping this year! As an added bonus, I had lots of scrap batting lying around to finish these quilts.

This is one of the finished runners, which was given to my sister in law.

Summer 2010

Here are a few things I've been working on this summer. I finally got a quilt done for myself. This is a pattern called Scrappy Pineapple Blossom, which I did as part of an online swap with friends.


This is a quilt that I finished up for Donna. The theme fabric was used for the Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop two years ago.



Yesterday, I finished this quilt for a new customer, Brenda. This Courthouse Steps quilt was made for her son who is headed off to college soon. This should keep him plenty warm for years to come!


Recently I started quilting up a bunch of tops for a charity called American Hero Quilts. These are donated to the wounded soldiers at Madigan Army hospital in the Seattle area.

Karen, Ye Merrie Quilter

End of June 2010

A few last quilts for June

Clara's blue beauty - A lovely quilt that was finished with a loose free-hand all-over flower pattern.

Border on Clara's quilt. She asked for a special pattern to highlight the otherwise plain area, and I came across this one that looked somewhat like half-fleur de lis motifs morphed into each other. Hard to describe, but really quite stunning when it's quilted onto a border.

Lauri's doggie table runner. I created a dog bone motif for the long borders and then free-motion quilted various loopy motifs across the center blocks and the side panels. I'm really quite happy with the results!

More to come!

Karen,

Ye Merrie Quilter

June 2010

It was brought to my attention that this page hasn't been updated in a while...let me remedy that!


Here are a few things that I have been working on for the past few months.

Recently, I volunteered to quilt up a couple of charity quilts for my quilt guild. It is my understanding that these comfort quilts will be given to foster children who are graduating from High School this month. This bright and colorful version was made of scraps donated to the guild in a Jacob's Ladder pattern.

This one also was made in the Jacob's Ladder pattern using a more masculine colorway of browns and blues. The guild provided batting and backing fabric for the two quilts, but this didn't match the provided fabric at all. I donated five yards or so of fabric to better coordinate with the colors on the top.


This quilt was made from a collection of donated southwest fabrics and was put together in an Irish Chain variation. I was really happy with the way the flower bud pattern turned out.

This purse was made for a friend's mom for Christmas--this was a complete commission from stitching the purse together to quilting and finishing. While this is not normally something I would do, I decided that it was a small enough project that it could be finished quickly.

This quilt was made for my mother-in-law for Christmas. You may notice some similarities between this and the purse--the purse was made from leftover fabrics from this project. Since they both loved the same colors, it was an ideal situation to build them both using the same fabrics.

A customer's first quilt! The proud owner of this quilt had never before made a quilt and I was happy to be able to finish it for her so she would have a completed project to show her friends and family.


One of my most difficult jobs was this Fractal Quilt. A mathmetician friend designed this for his wife to make and asked that I quilt a Fractal Curve on it. After some research, I found this pattern and was able to convert it into a quilt pattern for them. The high loft batting she provided made it a fluffy, snuggly lap quilt for them...presumably to watch "NUMB3RS".

And finally, at least for this update, this "throwing star" quilt by Linda. For her, all she sees are the black rectangles. I see the stars jumping out at me...what do you see first?


Karen, the Merrie Quilter