I haven’t done many traditional quilts, or appliqué, and no full size machine quilted pieces. But, I offered to make a quilt for my husband’s son and his fiancé. They found a masterpiece, with one big tree of life. I suggested that I come up with one they’d like on their bed. The couple, who live in So. Korea, wanted it mainly in cream and crimson.

With EQ6, I designed a medallion, then patchwork surrounding it. It took me about a year and a half to make it. Here are a couple of pictures and the design, entitled Allen and Sumin’s quilt.

They seem pleased. I loved playing with your software.

Penny took pictures of the ferns in her backyard and had them printed on fabric. When combined with batiks that complemented the electric green of the ferns and the richness of the mulch, this project really started to take shape. The ferns were further emphasized by appliqué that continued their shapes past the block edges. This was a simple but effective scrap quilt that was fun to make. It appeared in the Irish Quilting magazine.

This quilt was inspired by a Summer Challenge for Quilts for Kids. QFK is a Charitable Organization which collects then distributes quilts to children being treated for life threatening health issues in Hospitals across the country. The challenge was to create a quilt using the preprinted panel "Spacebots" by Jill Webster for Clothworks. This quilt would then be sent to QFK headquarters to be distributed as needed. I envisioned a bright, fun quilt with the illusion of motion. I think this quilt fits the bill. Hopefully it will bring a smile to a child’s face and offer some measure of comfort in their time of need.

As far as design goes… the appliquéd butterflies were inspired by butterflies in two of the fabrics featured in the quilt. On a sheet of plain white paper, I sketched the butterfly until I got a version I was pleased with. Then I imported it into EQ6 and resized it to fit a 12” block. Using the “freehand” and “Bezier curve” tools I traced my sketch. After tinkering with the shapes a bit a finished appliqué butterfly block emerged.

I imported all of the fabric swatches that were possibilities for the quilt (I did not use them all) and created several different block colorways.

Now I had a block, so the layout work began. How many blocks? Sashing? Borders? EQ6 makes it so easy to play with all of these design options. Typically I become overwhelmed somewhere in the design process and have to put the project aside and let it “marinate”. The version I had originally planned to make had another scalloped border, but once I began the actual quit construction, I realized it was one border too many. The border corner teardrop shapes are smaller versions of the butterfly wing teardrop layer. It was quick and easy to resize the teardrop, move it, rotate it, copy and flip it, and make a cute little block that repeated shapes from the main design.

This quilt was a first-prize winner in Benartex's "Piece Love and Quilts" contest.  It was designed to use a collection of their "City Girl" fabrics.  An original pinwheel block is skewed into the diamonds of a star layout from the Layout Library.

I decided to work with a couple of my not-so-favorite colors as a challenge to myself several years back to branch out from the colors I normally use. Stars were an easy choice for these colors--I designed an original paper-pieced star, and I manipulated a double nine-patch for the alternate blocks.

I had some Winding Ways templates for a while before I tackled this design, which I also learned to draw in a class with Patti Anderson.  It features remnants of mostly Lakehouse fabrics, again purchased on that trip to Hancock's of Paducah.  The top was completed for quite a while before I decided how I would quilt it, including the floral motifs in the alternate blocks.  I didn't think it was my best work, but entered it into a contest anyway...which was a good decision, because it got noticed and will be in an upcoming issue of American Quilter.

I designed it in EQ6, drawing a PatchDraw circle on a plain block and a smaller circle on each quadrant of a four-patch block from the Block Library, using the grid to keep the circles aligned with each other. Then I set those blocks alternating on the Quilt Worktable. It was great to be able to see how it would look in different fabrics since I was aiming for a contrast of prints and solids. And just for fun, I played with Random Recolor a bit to come up with some other color schemes–like the Verner Panton print that inspired the quilt, it’s a pretty versatile pattern. This quilt was featured in the American Patchwork & Quilting’s August 2009 issue.

Visit Kevin's website: http://www.feeddog.net/

I really enjoyed making this.  It was my first project using electric quilt and the kaleidoscope collection.  I have 24 more wedges to make plus cut all of my black pieces for the mystery quilt.  So I am on the final count down.  Then comes the fun of putting it together and deciding on a border.

As you can see in the picture I just sent you, I used a lot of stippling in the background.  It was also my first attempt at free motion.  I started small so I had to finish it all using the small stippling and then the black border didn't look right without the stippling so I had to continue.  I used the stitch in the ditch with transparent thread to outline the blocks and wedges.  I put the applique on top of the stippling and also used the transparent thread on that.
It took a while.

Thanks for your help.  It was great.

The working title was "Finely Feathered", but it took a long time from conception to completion, hence the name change!  The design started with the Feathered Star blocks of my own design, which I came up with during a Quilt University class with EQ guru Patti Anderson.  I collect swans, and had been working on an appliqué swan design for quite a while (I edited a "blob" for months to get what you see here!).  I decided to combine the two ideas into a study of the meanings of the word "feather" for quilters.  There are appliquéd feathers in the border, feather quilting designs, and a row of machine feather stitch around the quilt.