Memory Quilts

I feel very privileged that quilters trust me with their treasures.  These 3 memory quilts were made by Bonnie for a dear friend who recently lost her husband.  The quilts are for the gentleman's wife, daughter and granddaughter.

With the exception of the navy sashing fabric, all the squares and even the borders were cut from his shirts.  The quilts all have a unique border, but contain the same fabrics in the center.

Bonnie included some neat details like pockets, pocket squares and buttons, so I knew that a freehand design that I could do from the front of the machine was the right choice, and I did the topographical map lines across the entire quilt top.

The quilts were only about 54" square, so I was able to load one piece of extra wide backing fabric and fit two quilts across the width of my machine.  The third one went on underneath.

I love the texture of the quilting on the navy Stonehenge backing fabric.

Pixelated Heart 2

Reneta sent this sweet Pixelated Heart Baby quilt for the same treatment that the last one got.  Reneta is a very generous quilter and is always giving things away so if she loves a project she oftern makes it more than once.

The Heartstrings panto is a nice simple finish. I always love to personalize quilts when the opportunity arises, and since Bria had already made her appearance I decided to include her name in the quilting.

This pink flannel backing is the perfect cozy touch!

Bold City Slicker

I am just in love with how the bold batik version of our City Slicker pattern came together! Kathy & I had recently seen a version of our City Slicker pattern with a black background that one of our customers had made.  We thought it would be the perfect project to work on together when recently attended a retreat at Road 17N in Winkler.

Kathy and I dug into our bold batik stashes to create this top.  The pattern calls for a jelly roll, but you can be creative and use your scraps too.  It was Kathy's turn to quilt one of our joint projects and she decided to custom quilt it this time around.

Looking at it just makes me happy!

City Slicker is one of those patterns that seems to lend itself  to so many different colorways.

The original cover quilt.

Kyla's grad quilt.

Reneta's New York City version.

Cheri's earthy version.

If you think you would like to try this pattern for yourself, ask for it at your local quilt store, or check out our Highway 10 Designs Etsy Store.

  

Winter Joy

This is Dorothy's interpretation the Border Creek Station pattern called "Winter Joy."  Dorothy is the mom of Barb, one of my choir members and this is destined to be Barb's "winter quilt" (her mom doesn't spoil her do you think?).  

After giving her mom a little assist with zig-zagging around all those applique pieces, Barb came over to chose the quilting design.  She immediately fell in love with the Snazzy Snowflake panto and didn't feel the need to see anything further.  We decided on a very delicate variegated Fantastico #5170 thread called Pixie Dust. 

Sounds like Dorothy will be the lucky winner of the the task of binding before Barb can enjoy this on her bed....

BQ4

This is Vanda's take on the BQ4 pattern by Maple Island Quilts.  Vanda knew she wanted a modern geometric design for this one so opted for the Gatsby pantograph.

We used a dark taupe/brown thread to play nicely with all the fabrics.  It was So Fine! #458 - Lone Wolf.

Vanda utilized all her leftover pieces to makes a backing.  Once again she measured carefully and created a pieced backing that was as easy to work with as a solid piece of fabric.

Ring Toss

Vanda made this quilt for a special family friend that she is going to be visiting.  The pattern is called Ring Toss and was from the Summer 2014 edition of Quilter's World Magazine.

We decided on the "Joust" panto.  I haven't' used this one in awhile, but I always love how it looks stitched out.

Vanda provided a very pieced backing, some might call it another quilt top!  She was not happy with the leafy print in combination with her other fabrics, and didn't want to include those blocks on the front, so she re-purposed them as part of the back.  If you want to do something like this for a backing, you have to be extremely careful that you measure carefully.  If there is any extra fabric in a pieced quilt backing it can be very difficult to avoid pleats as it is out of sight during the quilting process (extra fabric has to go somewhere).  Fortunately for me, Vanda is a a very careful and accurate piecer and presser and there were no issues for me to worry about.

Hoffman Bali Tiles

I recently quilted this cheerful quilt for Michelle.  The colorful squares are from Hoffman Batiks and were sold a few years back under the name "Bali Tiles."  I was stumped as to how to quilt the tiles for awhile as I didn't want to take away from their crisp designs.  There weren't too many quilted examples out on the web.  Of the few I saw, the tiles designs were outlined and echoed, but that didn't feel right for this quilt.  I took a few photos of the quilt top and started doodling on my favorite app "Draw on Photos."  I decided simple on the tiles and some feathers in the solid black might be the perfect balance.  I sent my doodle off to Michelle and she gave me the go ahead.

Here you can see the final result.  Michelle provided a poly batt and the quilting showed up well, especially with batiks on both the front and back.  I used a grey Microquilter thread over the tiles.  You can see I changed up my designs for the cornerstones as I didn't want to have dark purple thread on the white squares.

  

Those black triangles were calling for me to play in them.  I used a variegated purple Fantastico thread which shows up well but doesn't draw too much attention to itself.

I was pleasantly surprised at the pattern that emerged on the back.