Batik Stars

Glen and Angela brought this lovely batik star quilt.  Glen does the piecing but they work together for design decisions.  

They chose the "Glamourous" pantograph and I think it adds some nice movement to the top.

Using sheets for backing fabric sometimes gets a bad reputation at times.  Overall I haven't found them to be a problem if they are washed and pressed and they aren't a super high or super low thread count.  This taupe sheet quilted up perfectly on the back.

 

A Couple of Art East Quilts

Art East Quilting Company has some of the most fun patterns on the market today.  Recently two of them came through my studio.  First up is this darling quilt made by Shelly. This pattern is called "Cattle Call."  

I just loved the colours Shelly used.   Shelly decided on the Bora Bora pantogrpah and a medium green thread.

Next up is Cindy's "Trending" quilt that was a Block of Month project from Art East over the last year.  Cindy selected her own farbics in a very similar color palette to what was offered in the original kit.

Cindy selected the Breath of the Gods pantograph and a medium blue thread for the quilting.

My daughter helped me take a few fun photos in front the Alice in Wonderland mural on the side of our favorite tea shop here in Selkirk.  

My favorite animal in the quilt and a cute detail of the mural!

Stellar Mosaic

This fabulous quilt was made by Cindy.  The pattern is called Stellar Mosaic by Cotton and Joy and the kit was curated for Cindy by Jennifer at Needle Crafts and Studio in Beausejour, Manitoba.  Sometimes when a quilt arrives in my studio it tells me that it would be extra special with some custom quilting.  This was one of those quilts.  Cindy told me to surprise her.  After thinking about things for a while I sent Cindy some doodles and she told me to go for it.

The first area that I came up with a plan for was the black background.  I used a handful of rulers to add the lotus shapes.  Some loops in the peach squares added a fun motif.

The focus fabric squares were filled with some simple curves.

And the most fun part was the floral motif that I quilted in the white stars.

Cindy provided this great pink Fireside backing and it shows off the quilting so well.  I love the designs that emerged on the back.

Thanks for trusting me to play on your quilt Cindy!

 

Around the Island - A Custom Adaptation

Reneta was commissioned to make this quilt after a friend of hers saw the "Around the Island" quilt that she made for herself last year.  Check that quilt out here - it is still one of my favorite quilts that I got to add quilting to!

The pattern is called "Around the Island" and is in the book called The Quilted Stash by Ralph Jarvis and Corey Follett featuring Newfoundland inspired projects.  Upon request Reneta replaced the island image in the centre of the quilt with the sailboat silhouette.  My understanding is that this quilt is destined to live on a sailboat!  The other special request was the quilting around the perimeter of the quilt, but more on that later.

Reneta let me run with the quilting plan for the body of the quilt.  I framed the sailboat section with some straight lines and filled the inner section with designs that mimic the wind and the waves.  I used a medium grey thread for this section.

The rest of the body of the quilt was filled with the Harbor Wave pantograph in a deep teal colour.

The prints on the front of the quilt as well as this fabulous wide backing are all prints from the Journey fabric line from Northcott.   The black is the Northcott Colorworks Solid in Ultra Black. A perfect for this quilt don't you think?

The request for the quilting around the perimeter was to include the lyrics to the chorus of a favorite song - Wave Over Wave.  With just a little preplanning, this worked out quite easily.  I did have to take the quilt off and turn is as I cannot write upside down or sideways with my longarm! I do however quite enjoy adding cursive handwriting to quilts.

Here are the lyrics that are included in the next few pictures. 

Where it's wave over wave sea over bow

I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow

There's no other life for a sailor like me

Than to sail the salt sea boys to sail the sea

There's no other life but to sail the salt sea

This was a fun project to work on.  Just enough challenge to keep me on my toes and a one of a kind quilt for a lucky guy.

 

Simple Hearts

This special quilt came through my studio recently.  It was made by a group of virtual quilting friends for one of their own who had experienced a loss.  They wanted to send their hugs from across the miles and worked together to create this special quilt.

The pattern is a freebie from Cluck Cluck Sew called Simple Hearts.  They each made a few hearts in the recipient's favorite colors and sent them on for assembly.

The Fanciful Fliers pantograph added a nice simple finish and went really went with the bee fabric that was part of the backing.

The pieced backing is really fun too.  It is always special for me to learn the back stories behind the quilts that I get to work on.  This was no exception.

 

Oak Breeze

Donna brought this lovely quilt that was pieced by her friend Anne who sadly passed away too soon. Donna and other friends have been working to get all of Anne's projects across the finish line and I have been lucky to see many of them. 

 When Donna contacted me she wasn't sure what type of quilting finish she required, but thought possibly custom because some of the blocks contained hand applique.

Normally I don't like to put a pantograph design over hand applique, but there are exceptions to every rule.  When looking at the overall quilt - the busier prints, the medium- low contrast in most of the fabrics, I didn't think custom quilting would add to the top.  It would cost a lot more, and quite frankly might have been more of a distraction. 

 Donna and I looked through pantograph and thread choices and decided that the Oak Breeze pantograph would be a good fit, and we found a lovely thread to blend across the quilt - So Fine #516 Gondola Gold.  I think the pantograph lets the interesting fabric choices and sampler blocks shine and the quilting be in the background.