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This is a baby quilt I made for a soon to be born baby boy. The nursery is an “Under the Sea” theme.

I have been quilting since 2008 and have always been afraid of making scrappy quilts. For me, they are to busy, too many fighting patterns, just too much chaos. I decided to tackle my fear of all this and make a small quilt from my scraps. I used an Arkansas Crossroads block and am really pleased with my "controlled" scrappy quilt. Details on my blog: http://bunkhousequilts.blogspot.com/2018/02/im-not-afraid-of-scrappy-quilts.html

When a gal brought me this, I cringed! It had been stored for years and had big water stains on it. This was a huge embroidered top made by a family member who had passed away. Surprisingly the water stains didn't even show when I was done! Boy, was this a challenge!

My wife and I are now in Florida in the RV for a month, so there's no long-arm quilting going on - just some piecing. But before we left, we put together this quilt in about a week and a half. Our daughter was discovered with cancer of the gum in December and had surgery this month to remove three teeth and some bone. The cancer was all removed, she is healing well, and they have given her an appliance to fill the space, but she is really disheartened and having to struggle with emotions and fears. So my wife decided that she needed a hug from us, even though we could not be there. This is pieced with cotton on the top but a Minky backing and thick Hobbs wool. It's really warm and friendly. And when I was done quilting it, I was amazed to see how great the quilting looks on the Minky side. If you look closely at the gold border, you'll see a football at the top (for her husband the Steelers fan), icons for Paw-Paw's Butterfly and Paw-Paw's Princess on the sides (for her two marvelous daughters), and an extra heart on the bottom to represent herself and her love for her family. Quilting with a Minky back was a bit of challenge, and I turned to some posts on this forum for some great help. Thanks to you all for the advice that you post.

The recent discussion about Facebook and the forum has reminded me that I have been meaning to post more quilt pictures here. Have you met Zoe the Zebra? This quilt pattern was featured in Quiltmaker magazine, and when my friend and customer Salli sent me a picture of her version and asked if I would like to quilt it for her, I was delighted. This is such a cute quilt with the three-dimensional details, and all that negative space is a longarm quilter's dream. I knew right away that I wanted to add more flowers, and when Salli dropped off the top this was the only thing she knew she wanted... some shadow flowers in the background. Great minds think alike. I felt that an odd number of flowers worked better, so I only added two more and filled the remaining space with a butterfly. I quilted the background with random fillers. The outer border fabric is very busy, and the quilting doesn't really show, it looks better in the pictures than in reality, so I just repeated one of the background fillers and turned it into a border design.

These are my 2 elephant quilts that I won ribbons on at our guild quilt show. Henry won the judges choice and honorable menti9n ribbon and Ellie won an honorable mention ribbon.

Update- finished. Can’t post pictures. Go to www.facebook.com/sweettsquilting. This is a customer quilt I am working on. It is twin sized. Carolina Lily is the pattern. Custom quilting all over. Black Omni, Pink Glide, and off white So Fine thread on top. Bobbin is white magenetic bobbins. Lots of marking and ruler/template work. I hope to have it finished by Wednesday

Quilt is finished thank you for the likes

Here are a few pics of some recent quilts. My customer did a fabulous job piecing a Cleopatra's fan quilt. I used Hobb's wool batting and Metro Pro thread. I stitched the same design in each block, but in some the thread blends too well and you can't see the quilting. The narrow brown border has a leaf type feather and the outer border is curved crosshatching. My photographing ability leaves a lot to be desired. The pinwheel quilt was made by my daughter (pictured) for the woman who has kept her baby for a few hours each week. Yes, that's my first grandbaby, Raylee Grace. All quilting stops when she's around.

Our local quilt guild is hosting their 30th Annual Quilt show this weekend. I was asked if I would like to participate in a 'Bed Turning' event. My daughter and I will be doing a 'generational' display starting with a quilt my mother (her grandmother) made for me when I was about 5 or 6 years old. My mother was a seamstress and made all my clothes and this quilt was made from scraps of fabrics from blouses, dresses, skirts, etc.. that she had made for me. I used to love looking at it and remembering all those outfits. My daughter 'stole' this quilt from me when she moved out as it has special meaning to her as well. When she was little and staying over night at Grandma's, she got to use this quilt and even when it got too small for her (the quilt was designed for a youth bed so it was shorter than a regular twin) she would insist on that quilt! Now her children love the quilt and it's starting to fall apart but isn't that what quilts are for. To be loved and used... Following this quilt will be her first quilt, my first quilt done on my APQS - (this quilt top was completed in 1994 for my daughter and when I had finished piecing she didn't like navy and pink anymore so this top sat as a UFO until 2011). We will move on to various quilts we have both done and have significance to us. We will finish the bed turning with my Farmer's Wife Quilt which I just completed. My daughter had bought the book, I stole it from her... used the fabric she gave me for Christmas one year... so as you can see this is really a joint show for the two of us! Thanks for looking!

My customer pieced this quilt using a pattern from the book GARDEN STITCHES by Lisa Bongean, Primitive Gatherings. She named the quilt. Because of her unique background, I had some trouble quilting this. She didn't want stippling, just a mixture of feathers and spirals etc. She gave me Warm and Natural and I used So Fine and Bottom Line. Garden Stitches by Libby G, on Flickr Garden Stitches (2) by Libby G, on Flickr Garden Stitches or Blossoms, Bees and Bugs by Libby G, on Flickr Garden Stitches by Lisa Bongean by Libby G, on Flickr

This is my sun bonnet sue quilt I’m working on with straight edge ruler. I really liked using the ruler takes some getting used to and figuring out where to travel. I will get it by time I’m on the last block lol

Here's a close up of one of the blocks.

Our high school youth just painted their class rooms and needed something to brighten it up. I took patterns to them to select from and asked what colors they wanted. They selected "Rejoice" from Block Party studios and want orange, blue, yellow and green. This is what they received in church last Sunday! They really liked it! 20180224_144018-1 by Dell Dunman, on Flickr 20180224_143136 by Dell Dunman, on Flickr

It must be picture day today! I just finished binding this quilt I finished quilting right before Christmas. Yesterday was finally dry enough with a little break through light in the clouds so ran outside for pictures. This quilt is a takeoff of the SKOW Moroccan Vibe, enlarged to fit our bed to 96”x 117. This was the quilt I asked so many questions here about double batting and hopping foot height etc. It was certainly a learning experience in so many ways. Quilted on Lenni.

New addition to our Family! She is a two and a half month old "Teddy Bear". We named her "Bitzie" (a play off of Itsy Bitsy); she is no larger than a pop can.

Lakeshore Sunrise quilted on my new Millie.....Loving this machine This was hand guided I do not have a computer on my longarm.

I started making this quilt early last year and finally finished the piecing and quilting. I loved how the quilting designs came together and planned to keep this one for myself but I have someone interested in buying it so not sure where this will end up! Hobbs 80/20 batting and Superior threads quilted on my Freedom with IQ. Ditch work and straight lines are ruler work. Quilting designs are from House of Creations...no affiliation but stitch out beautifully!

I can't remember the last time I posted a finished quilt photo and I love seeing all of yours. Here is a recent finish; I pieced this quilt over the past two or three years. I found the gorgeous Robyn Pandolph border fabric on sale and bought the rest of the bolt and the one coordinate they had. My heart wanted me to quilt this thing to death; but my logical side said NO! Finish it; it goes on your bed and your dog will sleep on it! At any rate, it is finished and we are enjoying it. I used Quilters Dream Wool Batting and a variety of Glide and Sew Fine threads; quilting is all freehand and ruler work. Thank you for looking!

I have been working hard to make quilting and quilt related items a full time job. One of those projects was to publish my own patterns- something I had dreamed about doing for years and years. I have quilted wholecloth designs for clients before, and for promotional items for a few dye artists. Everybody raved about wanting to learn to do it, so I decided to create a line of patterns that would teach people. My Choose Your Own Adventure patterns let you create over 200 different quilts from a single paper pattern, by mixing and matching various design options. They also teach techniques for filling spaces, free motion quilting, and ruler work. Here is a picture of two quilts created from the first pattern. Cindy Rich, of Twisted Sister Quilting, also quilted one. I don't have a picture of hers to share, but she has it on Facebook. To learn more about it, go to my blog www.sweettsquilting.blogspot.com or the store pages.

Just finished this quilt for a customer who wanted minimal quilting on it as it is "folk art". She chose McTavishing for the background, so I did just enough stitching on the qpplique to hold it down. I had to work on this quilt in the dark with a side light just so that I could see where I was going and where I had been using So Fine Pearl on top and Cream Fil-Tec on the bottom.

Here is the latest quilt I just completed for one of the guilds I belong to...the quilt will be raffled off at our November quilt show so I decided to do some custom quilting to really make it pop...It includes lots of ruler work, ditch work, a bit of curved ruler work with pebbles and ribbon swirls...in the solid areas and feathers in the remaining areas...I love the way it turned out and hopefully it will help sell some raffle tickets for our charity...

I have had quite the run of custom quilts lately, and it seems that it takes almost as long to decide on how to quilt it as it does to do the quilting. I have started hanging up the quilt top that is next in line where I can see it while I'm working on the current one. This gives me plenty of time to make a plan in my mind, and by the time I'm finished with the current top, I am ready to go for the next one. Sometimes I can even work on drawing my quilt design ideas while IQ is stitching. This simple idea has saved me a lot of time. Would love to hear of other tips and tricks that help you! Carol

My customer wanted a fluffy batting with ON RINGO LAKE so I used Hobbs Polydown with Glide 40wt on top and 60wt in the bobbin. Bayside Pantograph. She wanted custom for SIX PACK, which, at first, gave me heart palpitations. Finding just the right quilting designs is difficult for me. The hardest part was trying to figure out the directions for the lines on the tumbling blocks on the edge. For the most part, I had them right, but I did notice there was a pattern when the quilt was off the frame. LOL Oh, well, taking out the wrong directions wouldn't have made the quilt better. So have fun looking for them. I used Hobbs 80/20 since I had so much ruler work with all those seams, and I didn't want to be hopping on my ruler. So Fine on top and Bottom Line in the bottom. Six 001 by Libby G, on Flickr Six Pack Sandy Klop pattern by Libby G, on Flickr On Ringo Lake Bonnie Hunter pattern by Libby G, on Flickr On Ringo Lake by Libby G, on Flickr Six Pack 002 by Libby G, on Flickr

I remember my first customer quilt I did with large applique blocks. I knew I needed to do something with those huge items, so I stitched around them, said a little prayer and went for it. I've stitched over large appliquéd pieces ever since. If I can figure out how to post a picture I will.