Show Quilts Part 6

Carol here ~

I have been spending quite a bit of time at my sewing machine the last couple of weeks working on some smallish Christmas gifts.  I have a regular office chair that my lower back does not like at all.  Even though I had surgery and radiation for my compression fracture on L4 I still have pain at a level 2-3 most of the time.  I can only sit in that chair for about twenty minutes before the pain level starts to escalate.  

I found a chair at Staples with good lumbar support but the chair is too big for my little corner.  I have ordered this ~

Hopefully it works.  In the meantime Dan has rigged me up this ~

Haha, it's not pretty but it is helping! I'll let you know how the lumbar support pillow works.  Fingers crossed!

Continuing with the show quilts ~

CALM SEAS ~ designed by Michelle Renee Hiatt, pieced by Dan, quilted by me. It was only entered into Maine Quilts where it received Second Place (red ribbon).

From Dan ~  I was asked to test the pattern for Michelle. I chose fabrics similar to hers and followed the pattern. As with any of hers I have done, it was very well written and everything worked spot on. Always hard when testing a pattern to completely follow it and pretend to not know how to do the steps. When I finished I saw that there was sufficient fabric left to shrink the pattern to as small as the Studio 180 tools would allow me to go. So I proceeded to make the mini. We had intended them as shop samples until the coordinator for Maine Quilts who used to stay in our Quilt Inn, asked us to put them in the show. We agreed, but I said it needed to hang where I could point to it from our booth. (we were vendors)  The red ribbon looked nice from the booth.

I have absolutely no recollection of quilt this one.  It looks like I did my usual feathers along with some straight line stitching.  This quilt and the mini hang in the stairway going up to our quilting loft.

Judges comments ~ color gradation is fabulous, crisp piecing, good selection of quilting thread both in color and weight.

THIRD TIMES THE CHARM ~ designed and pieced by Dan, quilted by me. It received First Place (blue ribbon) and Outstanding Long arm Quilting (teal ribbon) at Maine Quilts and Third Place (yellow) at Vermont Quilt Festival.

From Dan ~ Third Times the Charm is one of my designs. The first top I made from this idea was made with a black background. I liked how it came out, but alas it still sits in the “to be quilted” pile. 

The second top I made following the same concept lead me to this lighter version. 

 Not my favorite. It also is in that same pile. 

The third version of the top lead me to the one which was quilted and became a show quilt. 

I quilted feathers, cross hatching and lots of circles and swirly's in the main part of the quilt.  The border consists of diamond designs filled with feathers and outlined with straight lines.  Took me about 60 hours to quilt.

Judges comments ~ Excellent piecing, excellent designs and control of your machine quilting, nice tight binding, border print overpowers the quilt ~ floral print conflicts with geometric design.

There is only a couple quilts left to show you, look for one of them in Dan's post on Friday.  I will have the final one in my post next week. 

We had a visitor last night.

Opossum

Isn't he the cutest? This is the second time he has enjoyed the bird food.

Can you believe it's Thanksgiving next week? Christmas will be here in a blink.  

Enjoy!