Sunrise Quilt Studio

The roses are in bloom! The former owners of our home had planted these red climbing roses up agains the shed. When we moved here last August, they were almost done blooming. Since it had been such a dry year for them, they didn't have many blooms on them. This year we've had an abundance of rain, so the roses are blooming profusely :) We also have some yellow daisies behind the shed closer to the tree line. It's fun to discover what is growing around here. My husband Paul is planning to do some landscaping in our front yard. It is already planted with several bushes, but they have overgrown the area they are planted in. I'm not certain what he is going to end up doing, but we'll have some work ahead of us. Now that the soil has dried out a bit, I'm hoping to get the canna bulbs and daylilies planted this weekend. Quilt-wise I'm binding the seascape quilt. The binding is stitched to the front by machine and this afternooon I'll work on hand-stitching i

The seascape quilt is done!!! Except for the binding and label, but I'll have that done in a day or two. Each time I photograph a quilt, I realize how desperately I need a place that will accomodate bed-sized quilts. My design wall isn't tall enough because my basement ceilings aren't tall enough. But then, I would need 9 foot tall ceilings to be able to photograph bed-sized quilts and my house just doesn't have 9 foot tall ceilings! Oh, well! Here are the photos I took, making due with my 8 foot ceilings. And some more! I chose to quilt a large meander in the outer border because the borders are so wide. I just couldn't figure out anything more creative to put in them. It seems to work though - giving the impression of clouds in a sky and texture in the sand. The goal in the sky and sand was to create a separate texture in each fabric. The house is outline quilted and the trunks of the palm trees have a simple straight line quilting to separate the different se

I completed the pattern for Autumn Mountains and posted it for sale on my website. The pattern comes with photo illustrated directions and a full-sized pattern. My goal is to add 2 more patterns within a weeks time, and then continue to add patterns as I develop them. Here is a photo of the Autumn Mountains pattern. The seascape quilt is still on the machine at present. It has been slow going what with me recovering from surgery. The doctor released me from all restrictions, but I find that if I work more than an hour at a time at the machine, I pay for it later. I don't have my stamina up to par just yet, but I'm plugging away at it. I've been fiddling with the idea of adding more applique to the seascape quilt in the outer borders. Perhaps some large leaves or seashells. I haven't made up my mind, but I need to decide soon. It will be hard to add the applique after it's quilted and still look like it wasn't an after-thought. Susan

I am in the process of constructing a website! You can reach it at http://www.freewebs.com/sunrisequiltstudio It includes photos of quilts, a description of my quilting services with pricing, and a web store where I'll be selling patterns for my landscape and seascape quilts as well as longarm machine quilting patterns. Take and look and let me know what you think. The patterns for 2 quilts are almost ready to be sold. They will be Autumn Mountains and Sunset Beach. As I get the instructions written, future patterns will be available for additional quilts. The doctor released me from all restricted activity today and I'm anxious to get back to quilting on the machine. I'll be busy tomorrow working on my sister's seascape quilt. I'll post photos of the progress I've made in a day or 2. Susan

I'm trying very hard to be good and rest like I was told to do by my surgeon, but it's really hard for someone who doesn't like to be idle. The surgery went well and the final report was benign! Praise the Lord! No thyroid cancer! Now I have to rest for a week before getting back to quilting on the machine or doing any heavy lifting - like lifting my DSM on to the kitchen table so I can sew. In the meantime, I'm hand appliquing the landscape quilts that I glued together earlier and have finished 4 of the them now. I also read a Quilting Arts magazine and am halfway through a book about quilting :D "The Quilter's Apprentice". I haven't read any of Jennifer Chiaverini's books before, but they have caught my attention especially after being recommended by a "non-quilter" friend. So I splurged and bought 2 of the books the other one being "The Runaway Quilt". I couldn't find #2 and #3 in the book store, so I settled for #1 an

Or what I did yesterday! I spent the entire day working on landscape quilts. Here's the before photo of my dining room table covered with fabrics for me to chose from to make the quilts. And here is the after photo of the quilts I made from the fabrics. This actually took me 2 days to do. One day to draw the patterns and another day to chose the fabrics, cut them out and glue them together. The quilts need to be appliqued. I'll do this by hand for some of them. Others will be done by machine. I really like this process of landscape quilting. I make the pattern on a piece of printer paper or tracing paper and transfer trace it on to freezer paper. After numbering the pieces in order of assembly, I chose the fabrics for each piece then cut the template from the freezer paper one piece at a time, iron the template onto the right side of the fabric and cut it out leaving a 1/2 inch margin all around. To assemble the quilt, I start with the top piece and work my way down. I glue un

The seascape quilt is on the machine :) I didn't get any further than that with the quilt, but I'll try to get some quilting started on it today. My goal is to get it completely quilted and bound by Tuesday next week so I can give it to my sister. We'll just have to see how the work goes and how many interruptions I have. I've also been working on piecing some landscape/seascape quilts. I have 2 on the design wall right now waiting for more inspiration. I'm not sure if I need to add more applique to them or let them breathe the way they are and add more details with quilting. I'm leaning towards breathing and adding quilted details. Yesterday morning I added some DSM (domestic sewing machine) embroidery to the first seascape (the one with the purple sky) in the palm tree leaves and really love the effect, but it's so hard for me to do that on my DSM. I guess I'm too used to the free movement I get from my Gammill. The tree in the quilt with the orange