Sparkle Tree Skirt

 

Holy Cow!  I love this.  I have been sharing a few sneaks of this quilt on Instagram (@judiakagreenfairy) for the past week and a half, but I'm so happy to share the whole quilt top with you now. This tree skirt is called Sparkle Tree Skirt designed by the talented Sarah Vedeler.
Laura pieced and embroidered the top, she did a beautiful job.  Laura is the owner of The Quilt Crossing in Boise, ID - so be sure to visit her if you are in the area, tell her I sent you!  This tree skirt will be a class during summer 2014, so contact Laura for more info if you would like to be a part of this awesome top.  The original tree skirt is split and has a hole in the center for the tree, but Laura will be using this for her circular table.  I am sure it will be just gorgeous.  In all reality, I wish it were mine ;-)

 

So yes, this tree skirt is made with dupioni silk - I love this stuff, it quilted up beautifully. I used Kimono Silk thread by Superior threads to quilt it up.  Have I told you I love that thread?  Well, I do!  It's amazing.
So the goal for the circular center of the quilt was to have it move, the diagonal lines are all the same angle, but don't ask me what the degree is because I basically drew one out, then copied it to the rest of the tree blocks.

I think the purple and turquoise are so beautiful together.  Sarah's appliques are incredible and just perfect.







I wanted to have a design between each small edge block, the square/diamond motif is what I came up with.  I think it looks great.


The center circle is fun.  Just straight lines with a pie shape piece in between.  The texture is just awesome.


This quarter feather swirl is so fun to quilt up.  I think I should probably do a tutorial on that one, what do you think?


I had four background fillers for the tree skirt.  It worked out so there was an even amount of each. 

This is the first one.


Second one.


Third one.


Fourth one.


I like how I quilted the dividing fabrics between the large trees.  So fun.



The back!  Isn't it gorgeous?  I need to get my own silk to make something for me.




Well, this is my last finish for 2013.  I hope to get a lot more finished for 2014 and I can not wait to share it all with you.

More than just another quilt....

 

So my mom gave me the best surprise for Christmas.  This is a quilt top that she made a while ago and when I saw it I went nuts!  I told her how much I loved it and wanted it, but she quickly told me the quilt was meant for one of my nieces.  I was cool with that, but every time I saw the quilt top at her house I kept telling her how much I wanted it. 

We were not together for Christmas, but because of the amazing technology of FaceTime, we were able to share our Christmas gift exchange. My mom wrapped this finished quilt into another throw quilt she bought for Clint and me, so I still had no clue she finished it for me.  She convinced me to open the throw quilt and I unwrapped it and had the best surprise ever!  I had no idea she had finished the quilt, let alone that it was for me - oh my mom is so thoughtful.  She has always told me that she doesn't love making things for me because she doesn't want me to compare her stuff to mine, but I would never do that.  I am so grateful to her for this amazing gift.  I think we all know what it means to make a quilt, have it be apart of you and just pray that the person we gift the quilt to will appreciate what it is really worth.  I will treasure this quilt forever. Thanks Mom!


She even inscribed it to me. 


She did an amazing job on the quilting, I am so proud of her!


Isn't the texture just awesome?  Oh, and in case you are wondering, this quilt is made from her pattern that was featured in a magazine back in 2012.
 

The best part of the quilt, besides the awesome texture and beautiful fabrics is that it has minky on the back.  I love cuddling with a quilt and watching movies at night and this is just what I plan to do with this quilt.


Isn't this just beautiful?  I love it!

One more thing, be sure to check out our Year End Clearance Sale going on right now.

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all the best this Christmas time and I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends.  Thank you so much for being incredible friends and customers to our Green Fairy Quilts family.  We couldn't ask for a better group of people who support and encourage us each day with sweet comments and your orders.   Thank you so much!  It's been a wonderful year for us and we wish you a very Merry Christmas! 

I want to share my favorite Christmas song with you, it always makes me get a little teary eyed.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  It is the First Noel performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

 

Helen's Quilt

I thought it would be fun to show you the back of the quilt first.  I love plain backings, seriously!  It is so nice to see my work and not have it lost in a large fabric print.  So, thank you Helen for using a solid backing for this quilt.  This is my second quilt for Helen - she is so great to work with and I really hope she loves this quilt.

 
The texture is just so awesome, I love it!


As you can see this quilt is huge!  So big!  It took me a long time to quilt it, not to mention my machine decided to not work for a couple days while it was on the frames.  Thankfully that is all fixed.  This pattern is called Patchwork Baby Quilt and can be found here.  Helen made this quilt larger for her daughter's redecorated master bedroom.  I think it is going to look amazing.




The print fabrics were all quilted with straight 1 inch lines.  Simple is sometimes better, but not necessarily faster.  It takes a long time to get these straight lines straight.


I decided to frame around each of the blocks.  I marked each line before I quilted.




I felt it would give a great dimension to the quilt to leave some of the blocks plain as seen above.


The other blocks were filled in with circle loops.


I am so glad to have finished this quilt.  It was a whopping 120" wide.  So big. 

I hope you like it. 

One more thing, if you want to win a copy of my book, head on over to Jenny's blog for your chance.

This week...

This week has been a busy one with Christmas next week, I have had to make time to go shopping.  Have I ever told you that I hate shopping?  Everyone and their dog is out at the stores, parking is always a mile away from the store and it takes forever to get anywhere.  Besides that though, Clint and I made a date of it and we went together - that made going so much better.  The kids shopping is all done, I just have a little more to get for Clint and then we can just enjoy next week.  

I am currently working on a quilt that I am loving.  I can't wait to share it with you.  In the meantime I have my quilts (pictured above) to keep me company on Clint's pool table.  He isn't a fan of them taking over his area, but until we move he will have to deal with it.   Did I tell you we are moving?  It is going to be wonderful.  I will have my own space, a studio that I could lose myself in and wall space that I will be able to show my quilts on.  I can not wait! I will have pictures of my studio soon.  

One last thing - if you liked my book could you please make a comment or review on AQS's website.  You can do that here.  I can't tell you what to say, but I would love it if you said something good about it. ;-)

Have a wonderful week!

Quick trip to Salt Lake

 Me and my sister made a quick trip up to Salt Lake to go to my brother's temple wedding.  It was short notice, so we had to make it a quick trip.  We drove up Thursday morning and came home Friday morning.  It was an amazing trip and one trip I won't forget.  This sweet lady picture above is the one who encouraged me to write up my patterns.  She just kept saying, "write it up, Judi" - so naturally I had to hand deliver her my book.  We worked at the Fabric Center in West Jordan together for a couple of years and that was seriously the best job in the world at the time.  I am so grateful to her for believing in me.  

 

 Temple Square in Salt Lake is hard to beat in December.  I have said this before, but it is still true - you need to see it in person.  It is so beautiful and this picture doesn't even capture a fraction of the amazing Christmas lights.  I had the best time with my mom and dad and siblings, I am so grateful for my family. 

The best part of going up to Salt Lake is going home.  I grew up here and it will always be home to me.  I walked out of my parents house to see the amazing orange sunset (this picture does not give it justice) and I just had to take the picture.  Life is wonderful!  Seriously.  

On another happy note, I finally finished a quilt.  I will share the whole quilt next week.  Stay tuned.  

December...

 I feel like the last few months have been really hard for me to keep up on my blog.  I don't want that to become a habit.  So, I will try harder to keep the posts coming because I would like to keep this record (blog) of my life as well as include my quilting life.  So, bare with me as I add a few more posts that aren't just quilting.  

This is my tree in our entry, I had so much fun putting it up with my kids.  They were with me the whole time and I taught them how to move the ornaments around and make it pretty.  I am a little OCD about ornament placement, but I decided that fun memories with my kids are better than having the perfect tree.  Still, I think it looks pretty good. 

 December has been such a blur - all the days have been meshed into one it seems.  But, thankfully we have had incredible and unlikely weather for St. George.  So, movies and being cozy inside has been so great.  Looking at Christmas lights always makes me happy. 

 If you follow me on Instagram, you would know I have a total obsession with clouds - so these winter clouds are so beautiful.  The blue skies are amazing.  

 I have sat at this table signing and packaging books and have gone to the post office back and forth for the past week.  It has been crazy, but I am so grateful.  I hope to have the rest of your orders out today and tomorrow, so thank you for your patience with me. 

On Saturday night we had a record breaking 6 inches of snow fall on our desert city of Saint George, the kids were in heaven and I have to admit that I felt like a kid again as we played in the snow together.  I cherish these moments with my kids, I hope they know that.  

I hope your December is going great.  I hope to catch up with a little quilting before the week of Christmas.  I will keep you posted. 

My Book Is Finally Here - In Stock!!!!

 

Oh my word - I feel like it has been ages since I started this book process. I know it takes a while for every author, but this has been a 3 year process for me.  I started my projects the beginning of 2011 and one dashed hope and excitement later here we are!  December 2, 2013 will be a day I remember as the day I received my book and I officially became an author.  It's a surreal feeling.  Almost too much to handle.  The UPS guy came late last night with my first shipment of books and I was so excited I couldn't quilt, then I didn't sleep much last night. I am just so grateful that it is finished and I can start shipping out your orders. I know a lot of you have been waiting for a long time and I appreciate your patience.  Thank you so much for your support!!
I have had quite a few orders so it will probably take us a week to get all of them out.  I will start with the orders that have come in first and move on from there.  The books will be shipped out this week using Media Mail and will arrive 3 - 5 business days after that.  Please look for your signed copies sometime next week.  International orders will go out as First Class International starting this week as well. 


Okay, so I know you have seen the cover - but seriously, I love it even more in print!  The editors, especially Kathy at AQS did a beautiful job on my book.  I am so happy to be working with them. My book comes with a CD-rom with quilting outlines and templates for all my projects - that in itself is 118 pages.  The book has 104 pages of instructions for 6 quilting projects and a lot more templates, and of course - quilting eye candy.


I think the back cover is amazing too!  Seriously, I love it! It has been so long since I finished the quilts in this book and I am so happy to finally be able to share them with you. Once I receive my quilts back I will write posts about them as well, but until then - here is a peek inside.


I dedicated this book to my husband, kids and my mom.  They have been so patient with me and so supportive.  What do you think of the quilting?  Eek!  Love this!


I just love the layout of the book.  I hope you enjoy it too.


This is my "Irish Lass" quilt. I love it.


Probably my favorite quilt in the whole book - Modern Flowers is an amazing design and the quilting just puts it over the top.  I want piecers and quilters alike to enjoy my book.  This book isn't just for quilting and it isn't just for piecing.  It really is a great combo of both piecing and quilting because I love the whole process of quilting.  Each one of these quilt projects started out on graph paper and went from there.
 

Oh ya, that is the back of the quilt.  I have waited so long to share this with you!  I hope you like it!.


Each project is fun and unique and must be made! I have started a Flickr group for you all to share your own Quilting Wide Open Spaces projects, so please join with me here.  I can not wait to see what fabrics you put together with my designs. I also can not wait to see your quilting with my templates.  Be sure to share that on my Flickr group. 


Love this one. 


I think some of you may have seen Queen's Cross at some of the AQS QuiltWeek Shows.  So, you have seen it more recently than I have.  I love it though, another favorite.


I promise to share more of my quilt projects as soon as I receive my quilts back.  I have been so excited to share this with you and I am so happy that I finally get to.  There is so much more in my book, but you need to get one yourself to read.  Just remember if you buy the book from me, it will be a signed copy.  It would be a perfect Christmas gift for you and your quilter friends.

I just have to say thank you so much for your love and support through the years.  I can not tell you just how much it means to me.  I realize that this would not be successful without all of you.  Thank you so much for everything! Happy Quilting! 

Get the book here.