North Carolina Lily

Had to make one more bedcover... I saw the North Carolina Lily in an older patchwork magazine, and had to use it somewhere. I modified the pattern a bit (of course, can't ever follow the instructions exactly...). This is another black and white... well, off-white creation.
This time I quilted using an ordinary sewing machine instead of the long arm. I still think I can get better quilting results with a regular sewing machine... need more practice with Gammill...
Can't see in the picture, but the off-white areas are 'full of stitches' - the big blocks have feathers and stippling. I think this is my best one so far... maybe I'll enter this next year to the Quilt Gala...

Maple Leaf wallhanging

Now... I am getting to be colorful... tan and brown leaves on dark grey background. 12 machine appliqued maple leaves on this wallhanging. The only quilt that I had done using prearie points for edge, fun!

Cathedral Windows jacket

My first love in sewing was clothing, so just had to make a jacket using patchwork techniques. Initially I had planned to make just a small block of cathedral windows to the back of the jacket, but just got carried away and the entire back got covered... I made the 'secret garden' version blocks for the cuffs and one in the front.
As for quilting... that is another story.... I digitized in my embroidery software some overlapping circles (Alan's idea - thanks!), hooped the sleeves and jacket fronts one at a time on a enormous hoop (Hoop-It-All) and had the embroidery machine do the trick. Perfect circles! Pitty the quilting is done in black thread on black fabric, so no-one can see it...
I entered this jacket in February 2009 to the Myrtle Beach Quilt Gala and it won the 1st price in wearables category.

Peacock Puzzle

I have a sneaky feeling that these are not in cronological order anymore... can't remember exactly when I made this one... The pattern is called "Peacock Puzzle" by Jennifer Amor. Her original was in purples and greens, but mine came out in black, white and grey... I had purchased her pattern in 2004 and taken it many times out to have a look, finally I decided to make one. Her instructions are great, it just looked intimidating first. Some of the fabrics I had dyed myself during our winter quilt class, some are purchased. This is hanging in my living room wall.

Poinsettia WedgeWorks tablecloth

I had the book with a template to make the WedgeWorks patchwork. Really easy, looks way more complicated than it was! I made couple little round table cloths (no pictures taken, sorry), and this larger one, calle "Poinsettia"... yes the original was done in red and green, but mine came out in black and white... imagine that...
Initially I was going to use it as a Christmas tree skirt, but so far it has ended up on a small round table in my bedroom.

Lone Star quilt

I still had a lot of black and white fabrics, so here we go again... had wanted to make a Lone Star quilt for a while, so here it is - another bedcover - I need more beds... or walls...
This is also quilted in Gammill long arm machine.

Beyond Color Purple quilt

My sister asked me to make her an embroidered bed cover in blue tones. I gave her couple magazines and she picked the Jenny Haskins' "Beyond Color Purple" quilt. This quilt has the large center medallion with 16 blocks. The blocks and center has a lot of embroidery with some applique. I loved making this one!
I quilted this in my long arm machine, too.

MarJen for Error - quilt

This quilt has got the most 'fame' of any of the ones I've made so far. It was shown in our Finnish quilt class show in a local craft center and a photo was in a local newspaper in 2007. I entered it on February 2009 to the Myrtle Beach Quilt Gala and for my big surprice it won the 1st prize in large quilts category and a "Best of Show" - I am still shocked, since there were so many other beautiful quilts.
This is my version of the Marti Mitchell and Jenny Haskins' quilt called 'MarJen for Error'. It has dresden plates and fans appliqued and a bunch of machine embroidery. I quilted this freemotion on my long arm Gammill quilter.

White lace quilt

I am not sure, if this was my next creation, but it was something that I had worked on and off for a while. I think it is one of my prettiest quilts, however, it does not photograph well, since it is all white. It has a larger center medallion and 16 blocks around it. I used lots of machine embroidery and some lace. There is a lot of quilting, too - mostly done with an embroidery machine.

Pillows

After doing couple quilts I had enough scraps left. I used some of them to make the two black and white pillows using the 'bow' blocks.

The grey and white quilt is done in a serger from the leftover curtains. Yes, my living room curtains are done as patchwork, too. Just big blocks sewn together with a serger using a flatlock stitch and yarn in upper looper.

Snowflakes quilt

My next quilt was a queen size quilt, called 'Snowflakes'. The pattern came from a quilting magazine, but I just had to make it in B&W tones. I added some grey and gold, so this became my Christmas quilt. It has about 2000 pieces and the large white blocks are heavily quilted (has a snowflake pattern with stippling around it). Quilting is all freemotion and was done in regular sewing machine.

When we moved from SC to Finland, my sewing friends gave me a bundle of fat quarters (most of them of course in black and white... my favourites). In Finland I signed up to a quilt class for the winter and made this small wallhanging out of the fatquarters. I used the 'friendship star' block. This is hanging in my sewing room to keep my sewing friends close to me.

My first Patchwork Quilt

After I had done my first quilt (the cream color Latte Quilt), I took a quilting class to learn how to quilt. The project was a patchwork sampler, which I quilted in a sewing machine: center was crosshatched and for the borders I used the embroidery machine.

Older Projects - My first Quilt

When I saw Kerrie Hay's book "Latte Quilt", I knew I had to make one. I had never done a quilt before, but I had sewn 'all my life', so I decided to give it a try. Now, looking back - I would do some parts differently (=better), but it was good enough for a first one. It even won a prize at the Myrtle Beach Quilt Gala on 2005. I liked this pattern so much, that I later made another Latte Quilt in black. The quilt is made of cotton sateen and Dutchess Satin, and it has about 1.5 million embroidery stitches.

Dragonfly

I finished last night my first hand (needleturn) appliqued wallhanging! The pattern and istructions came from Lorraine Carthew's book Mosaic Applique.

I have posted some pictures of my work on couple Yahoo groups and the gallery of my web-store page (www.rapakontakaa.com), but today I decided to start a blog to add them all into one place.