Tori Spencer Designs

Let me just start off by saying these next pictures are NOT my work.  I wish they were, but I have to give credit to Cousin Sue of Queen Creek, AZ, who is a Master Long-Arm Quilter!

Oh how I love having talented people in my life to inspire me!

Sue also gives me advice and help on all matters of quilting and life. She is such a hard worker and has “more work done before breakfast than most people get done all day.” It must be true because this quilt alone took 60 HOURS of work!

She now has 149 quilts that she has finished that belong to her.   AND she hauls them around to trunk shows so us regular gals can enjoy them too.  (Must be a really full trunk! ha ha )  At the end of last year we were comparing notes about how many quilts we had quilted. Turns out she quilted as many last year as I had done TOTAL in the last 4 years.  I’m tired and must go take a nap now.

One good thing about seeing this process was that I realized these elements are all things I can do, it’s just a matter of prior planning and being willing to stand at the machine for 60 hours~ yikes!

Thanks for the inspiration, Sue!

I mean, what boy wouldn’t love this?  Frogs, Lizards, Monkeys — what more could a kid want?

I quilted water, lilly pads, and bugs! Perfect!

Who knew BUGS could be this cute?

Even the back is darling!

What fun.  I loved it!

Look at these fun 30’s fabrics that Mary Jane used on her quilt –

And it just HAD to be quilted with cute flowers, don’t you agree?

I love this pattern!

So that makes 3 completed quilts out of the 7 that Mary Jane brought me.  I’m gettin’ there!

Better go get busy . . .

Ok, I’ll tell you. I don’t really want to do it but I know you’ll all agree with me anyway.

Unpicking STINKS!!!

AND it STINKS even WORSE when you’re unpicking stitches made on the long-arm quilter.  Seriously, can life GET any worse than THAT?  I submit that it cannot!!!!!

I actually had to buy new seam rippers. (Well, Theresa and Judy bought them and delivered them to me, bless their hearts.)

Did you all know that you need a new seam ripper from time to time?  They get dull just like scissors and become very hard to use. They only cost about a dollar and well worth it I say. Throw that old one away that your grandma passed down to you and GET A NEW ONE!!!  Your life will totally change for the better — believe me!

The best part of all this, though, was that my dad (who came to visit this weekend) was the best unpicker of all time!  Who knew!?!  He was such a trooper and unpicked for many hours. He thought it was fun.

Now I have threads all over my house and have learned a great lesson ONCE AGAIN on what NOT to do!!!  I will never forget it!!! I promise.  Really.  Maybe.  Hopefully. . . . .

Good question. I know I’ve been working hard but don’t have many pictures to show for it.  Two quilts I finished for Mary Jane I did not photograph. How dumb. One I started and then had to take off and unpick (more on that trauma later.)

Then I started AND finished AND photographed this one for Kristie –

Gorgeous quilting, right?

I love the blue thread.  Kaitlin told me to use the blue and I have to admit I was hesitant . . . but it worked out great and looks absolutely gorgeous!  Plus it was fun to quilt because there were many different elements.  Thanks again Kristie, for bringing me these beautiful canvases to play on.

I see that I have not written a new post for two weeks!  That’s terrible.  I am simply too busy working, quilting, appliqueing, UNPICKING, cleaning, washing, ironing etc etc etc to be able to blog!  There are so many good stories to tell, though, and I’ll try to send some your way this weekend. But I have company again so now I’m busy shopping, playing, cooking, and having fun…. and breathing. . . . oh, and dyeing my hair before it turns completely gray.  Better get going. More later, I promise!

I am quilting this wonderful old quilt for Carol. Isn’t it lovely?

It was given to Carol by her husband’s family. She had to sew the sections together and needed it quilted by this week so she could show it to her in-laws who are coming to visit, which I was glad to do. Here’s the story:

“Paul’s great-grandmother Beatrice was raised in southern Utah by her childless aunt and uncle because her parents were too poor to raise her.  Because of that, Beatrice was able to have nice dresses and shoes and live in nicer circumstances than her parents could have provided.  She always remained devoted to both sets of parents and when her father died she bought some of the belongings of the house to help the family have money for her father’s funeral.  This quilt top was in a trunk Beatrice bought at the time.  The quilt top was supposedly not made by her real mother, but acquired by the mother as a trade for some service.  The quilt top was not perfectly or completely made but symbolizes sacrifice and service on many levels.  Paul’s grandmother Helen gave us the quilt top once when we were staying with her because she knows I love to sew and quilt and she wanted me to have something sentimental.  I completed the quilt top and fixed the problems as best as I could.  Thank you, Tori, for finishing this heirloom for my family!”

How great to have something sentimental from long ago. I’m so glad I got to help Carol finish her heirloom. She’s my great friend!

Well, it’s Saturday, and Theresa now knows about her red schoolhouse quilt.  So it took her about 9 days — that’s a pretty long time to keep anything from Theresa!  Glad you love it!

Look what I finished this week. The Little Red Schoolhouses that Theresa has been waiting so long for…hmmm… wonder why she doesn’t seem to know about it yet. Is Judy keeping it a secret? If so, sorry. Theresa’s too busy to see it here so we’ll just wait and see how long it takes for her to catch on somehow. I finished it a week ago, I’ll let you know when she finally hears about it.  In the meantime, enjoy…

Cute, ha? But I have got to learn how to take better photos, right? I’ve worked too hard on the quilting to not have better pictures.

When Melissa was here last weekend she was going to try to do the long-arm quilting on her own quilt. It would be her first try. So we chose a cute and easy swirly pattern, had her practice and draw it for a while… okay, possibly not long enough… then let her use the machine on a practice piece, which was turning out okay but not exactly how she would like it. Take a look.

I wrote her name for her and tried to get her going but — let’s just say that making circles NOT look like squares is harder than you think.

Maybe a design with square circles could be cool, though. Anyway, she then gave up and made me do it for her, which was for the better in the long run. She’ll try again when she has a scrap quilt that will become her picnic blanket instead of one she really wanted to be fabulous — which, of course, it is now!

Cute and funky fabrics, ha? They look like Melissa. With grey binding it will be wonderful!

And the back is just as cute because of that DARLING bird fabric.

Speaking of fabric, darling and gray, Melissa found this one at A Quilter’s Oasis and HAD TO HAVE IT.  Don’t tell her hubbie.

P.S. To all you fabric designers and fabric buyers out there, give us more gray fabrics!  ANY time we walk in to a store and see one we LOVE it!  We think Jill should put a gray fabric in her new fabric line. Fabulous!

More soon on the old but wonderful quilt I’ve been working on for Carol F and will finish tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone for the calls and quilts. I am backed up — but in a good way. ha ha

Judy is so patient waiting for me to quilt for her. She gives me all the time and space (and electricity!) a quilter could ask for. (I’m over there 3 times a week at least.) And then she just waits so patiently for me to get around to doing some for her. But I’m committed and determined to get some of her quilts done now!  I finished two last week and have plans for the third.  The problem is that other people keep bringing me so many quilts too!  (Thank you!) Mary Jane brought me 7 on Monday!  Yes, 7 quilts — how amazing.  She brought in three bags so I thought there would be three quilts, but no! Those quilts just kept coming and coming out of the bags and there were seven!  Wow! I’m excited, can you tell?

Anyway, here are the two I did for Judy……

First, the Christmas batiks with gorgeous golden thread poinsettias.  Can a Christmas batik BE any prettier than this?

Then the “Licorice” quilt.  Mmmm….Black licorice…my favorite

Can you see the awesome 30’s prints she used in this one?  I love it!

I wish you could see the quilting on this better but it’s hard with black thread on the black fabric. It’s such a fun design to quilt. I love doing it.

After we took these pictures Judy said, “Are you going to blog about these?”  Blogging accomplished.