New quilts, New Year! 2013

Keeping it simple.

My goal (not a resolution, I promise) is to get the quilts posted this year. I want to try to show at least one picture of each quilt. I have so little time, sometimes I just put off the post until it seems silly to post about a quilt I finished weeks ago. I have a few plans on how to accomplish this. We will see how fast I move....

This is a quilt that I made for the giving tree at work. It is made with the Riley Blake fabric line, "Flutter" by the Quilted Fish. I think the fabric line was great with the bright orange and the blue! What a great bunch of colors. Of course I would love the orange (my company and logo colors are orange and green).  I think the blue smaller border is great also. That is the Riley Blake "shades" fabric, and the color is Robin. What great color.

 I googled "fast layer cake quilt" and I got a great YouTube from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
They were right, what a quick quilt this was. I had it cut, sewn, quilted and bound in 5 hours, Yes I did the binding on the Sewing machine with a blanket stitch... I wish I had the time to turn it by hand, but time was of the essence. I had to get it wrapped and under the giving tree.

My thoughts on the quilting... I did a pantograph on the center of the quilt, that took longer than sewing the whole quilt. I couldn't bring myself to the the pantograph on the whole quilt, so I did my signature butterflies around in the small blue border, and a big band of feathers on the orange border. I almost did piano keys, but I just didn't have the time. Next year, watch out!  I even remembered to photograph it. I almost forgot.... I put wonderful Minkey on the back. That was a soft and warm quilt.

Then feeling the inspiration of the Riley Blake quilt above. I forged on... I had been on the phone with my sister and we talked about the holidays and when she was heading up. I told her about the Riley Blake quilt, and she was saying she wanted to make a jelly roll race quilt, but she hadn't done one and she might bring a jelly roll with her and she could make one while she was up here visiting for the holidays.
So my mind was working... I still had my daughters boyfriend that needed a little something else? I had some U of W fabric, some tan and some purple fabric, that I had picked up with the plan to make a quilt some day? so... I thought what if I cut strips 6.5" wide the width of the fabric, that would give me quite a bit of fabric strips. I sewed them end to end repeating alternating colors. Kind of like the jelly roll race quilt (so far wider strips and only 3 colors) it was one very long sewn strip of fabric. Then I started sewing the strip together and making it wider and wider and wider. I had to get it smaller than 62", because that was the width of the University of Washington polarfleas fabric I had for the back. I managed to make the quilt top 59 x 75. It works out to be perfect for a 2 person stadium blanket, or a twin quilt?
I got that sewn in around an hour and a half. WOW, I was beginning to enjoy the fun of sewing again. I pinned the quilt on the frame and learning my lesson from earlier, I did not put a pantograph on this quilt, I just did my custom swirls and covered it quickly. It quilted up in about an hour and a half. NICE... so I got the binding made and sewn on by machine and finished it also with the button hole stitch. The best part is the quilt was in the box and wrapped. in about 5 hours. It took longer to make the binding than the rest of the quit.

That was so much fun sewing and finishing up projects. But after the holidays were over and I had quilted 2 of my sisters baby quilts she made (not getting to the jelly roll quilt made). But she did make these Tetris Quilts, nice little 1" finished squares. YIKES, she did not finish hers that quickly, but they did end up being a couple really cute quilts. She made a boy version and a girl version. She had 2 people at work that were having a babies and they knew one was having a boy... So the other better have a girl? ...at least she used soft green and pastel fabrics so... it could go to a boy if it had to?? only time will tell.

Then onto some customer quilts.

I have had this purple and green split nine patch, batik quilt for a while and Diane has been so patient with me. I just needed to get the darn thing quilted. I love the colors. That woman can do color. I just fell in love with this great quilt. It is so easy, a split nine patch.  She makes the quilting pop with the cream background. I didn't do too much, I just quilted some wonderful feathered wreaths tone on tone. I used my new Magnifico thread from Superior Threads. That thread has a nice sheen to it, and it is thicker than the Bottom Line thread (I usually use), and it melds with the batik fabric. Sometime I use Bottom Line thread and it is just too thin,it looks wrong...anemic? I don't know how to describe it, but the Magnifico and the Omni thread are great with batik fabrics  and I love it. That thread make my job pretty easy.

 Thimbleberries is on the frame!

And then... I needed to get a couple Thimble Berries quilts done.
I had saved a spot for one of my customers and she ended up not finishing her BOM quilt from the Parkland Parish, but she did have a small table topper she wanted quilted? if that would work for me? Of course.... I love doing the Thimble Berry quilts because they are so darn cute. I quilted up the fence with tree grain, Mc Tavishing and or swirls in the sky and background, feathers on the flowers, feather and piano keys for the borders and so. The quilt up quick and cute. 

 I am almost ashamed that it has taken me a month to get this cute little pillow on the frame? I needed to have backing and sometimes the silliest things are a little road blocks. But I did put a pretty wreath in the center a ring of feathers in the white background and the green has wonderful piano keys and a big 360° feather for the large outside border. I love it. :) so did my customer.

And as always the first of the month brings my BOM class at the Parish. Here is my block FINISHED before the night before class starts. Go figure.... I am sure this will not last long. But for now I will enjoy it.

 

Holly Taylor!

After that I got to working on this beautiful Holly Taylor quilt. My customer said she has had the quilt finished for years. Dang it...This is such a great quilt, I love the colors and the layout. This would be a great design to put some needle turn block in. She used a panel from the fabric line, but WOW. It looks great (my opinion of course) I love the way I did the frames with the quilting, and I repeated the motif throughout the quilt. Where the blocks didn't have the red triangles, I just put part of the motif in the brown border and tied all the quilting together with the motif of the quilt. That is the part that is hard to explain about my quilting. I do not just doodle on your quilts. I work them the same way you do with the fabric line and the design. I try to put continuity into the quilt and the quilting.  I love doing this, and I want to say thanks to all of you that are so gracious and willing to let me quilt for you. Thanks I really appreciate it.  I have also included a couple quilt in progress photos for this quilt, be sure to look at them all and see what you think.

In the sunshine

The borders

on the frame doing the background.

Hanging on the design wall.

The centerpiece of the quilt.

an angle that might help you see more of the detail

Borders....

Marsha's Pink and Black BOM Sampler Quilt

I think this is one of the quilts from the Quilt Barn in Puyallup. Marsh has a wonderful quilt, she choose to use Bamboo Batting, it just feels so soft. I enjoy quilting the BOM Sampler quilts. I just feather them up and do a little doodle here and there and the darn thing is so cute. I did the "lace border" in the gray. The gray fabric is a tone that the quilting just pops on it. I knew it would, and I was unsure what to quilt there. I didn't want to just feather it, because of how bold the sashing would be and I felt like it might overpower the blocks. So... I am not sure if this is better, but I do like it. 

I have a pink and black quilt I pieced, and I need to get quilted.... Maybe I should send out my quilts? ? it is just a thought.

WIP...

Now for the oldest quilt I have.... This is Margaret's Sun Bonnet Sue quilt, and she has been waiting for me to quit it far too long. I had been afraid of her usual request...don't over quilt it, just do a little quilting, and she is not a fan of crosshatching. So...That put me in a new arena. I love to crosshatch or echo these kind of quilts???? so...I had to brace myself. You would be amazed how easy it is when you just put your mind to it. I worried about this quilt for month. I had it out and hanging in planning mode for a long time.  I googled and looked on Pintrist and looked some more. I looked at some quilt shows, antique shops and kept looking for something kind of in the same period that would be lightly quilted. This is a pretty old quilt top, these are very old fabrics, and it needed respected. I am not a fan of seeing these quilts with an all over pattern (no pantographs or meander). I have to think out of the box and into the old and antique box? In my opinion if you all over this quilt it should be a baptist fan or crosshatching. So... below you can see how I get some of the planning going. The feather plumes are a bit fancier than they would have been back then, but that's okay in my opinion. I am not hand quilting this. 

This is just a plain block I used for planning and doodling on to see what I liked.

This is the quilting in motion. I love it. 

Thanks for looking and seeing what I have going on.

As for the Breezy update. I have found another lump on her, this one is on her belly. I will have to have it removed next week. We will go in for surgery on Wednesday, and find out more then. Wish us luck and remember us in your prayers. We can sure use it.

I just want to say thanks for looking in on us and if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you quickly. 

it is time to go and finish the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.

got to go - star