Kittens

This sweet quilt was made jointly by Reneta and Amyfor a fellow quilting friend who just welcomed a baby girl into her family.  The pattern is "The Kittens" by Elizabeth Hartman.    Reneta and Amy dug into their stashes for a beautiful selection of pink fabrics for the kittens.   

This quilt has a bit of a fun story.  To preface, I need to tell you that Reneta and Amy are both cat crazy!  (I may only know one other person who loves cats more.)  Sheri, the new mom,  on the other hand is a dog person through and through.  Sheri, Reneta and Amy all love a good joke and can dish out the teasing as well as they can take it. So of course, the first thought is to make a cat quilt for the dog person!  Reneta and Amy think every little girl should have a kitty to love and they knew the only way that would happen is with kitties on this quilt.  Here is Darby with her loving puppy and alone to see her beautiful face.

Reneta and Amy left the quilting design up to me, and I did this wavy line/bubble combination.  Reneta said it looked like a ball of yarn loose on the quilt top.  

The backing fabric was something new to me.  It is a chenille type of cuddle fabric.  It quilted up fine as it really isn't any thicker than regular cuddle, but it is MESSIER when you trim it!   Ugh!

 

Canadian Fabric Challenge

Each year the Crocus Quilter's Guild here is Dauphin, MB has a challenge.  Normally we are given 3 fat quarters and can making anything within the size parameter of 120" in perimeter.  Whoever wins the popular vote picks the fabric for the following year.  I won in May of 2016, you can read about that here.  Since our challenge reveal would be taking place in May of 2017, and our challenges would be on display at our local library over June and July, I thought is was the perfect opportunity to pick some Canadian themed fabric in honour of all the Canada 150 celebrations.  

 

I chose three fabrics from Northcott's Stonehenge  OH CANADA line.  I thought the flag print could be a bit challenging to work with so I added a neutral off white and a tone on tone red.

My project did not get completed in time for the reveal date so you won't see it with all of the others here.  I am very pleased with how mine finished up so I will show you some of the details.

All of the fabrics I added were coordinates from the Stonhenge line.  I really love the border fabric, and almost selected it for one of the challenge fabrics.  I thought its directional nature would be tricky to work with when you are only given a fat quarter so I opted not to.  I bought a big chunk for myself so I could use it for the border and the backing.  I decided to add curved lines for the quilting.  I was concerned that straight lines might make the text print look crooked if it was even the slightest bit off.

I stitched in the ditch around the flag print squares and  the narrow sashing and border strips.

Pebbles behind the 3-d maple leaves were the finishing touch.  I had intended to leave the leaves a little more dimensional but it didn't quite work out that way, but I am still happy.

I had a wonderful visit with Kathy back in May, and we found a few moments to take some new head shots for upcoming Highway 10 Designs projects.  We don't get to see each other very often so I'm glad we took the time to do this, these are my favorites.

Darling Little Dickens

Cheri made this sweet quilt for grandbaby #2 that is due in July.  It will be a surprise if it is a boy or a girl so the first quilt this lucky baby will receive has a nice neutral color palette.

Cheri used a fabric line called "Darling Little Dickens" by Moda, and when I first looked at it I thought I saw carrots and peas and doughnuts and chicken legs.  Upon closer inspection it is actually carrots and peas and sheep and bears among other things!

Cheri and I debated between putting a panto on this or doing a simple custom.  In the end the delicate fabrics and simple layout were calling out for custom.  I did not quilt on the prints, rather in the ditch around them, and added single loops in the sashing and a triple loop in the border.

  

The backing a piece of beige Fireside fabric and I really enjoyed working with it and the end result.  It is far less messy and less stretchy than any of the other cuddle or minkee fabrics.  Fireside is a 100% polyester fabric made by Moda.  It has a really nice feel in your hand.

I love the quilt and the poppies that bloom for just too short a time in my front yard!

Eleanor's Music Quilt

This beauty was made by Eleanor and is a graduation present for her granddaughter.  Eleanor collected some of the nicest music themed fabric I have seen.  The quilt is personalized with a photo of Clara and her championship field band.

I tried to keep the quilting simple and let the fabrics shine through, and as a result I used quite a variety of thread.  Magnifico, So Fine, Microquilter and Invisifil.

The green Magnifico thread (2080 - Cactus Green) that is on the far left was used in the border.  Lots of the fabrics that Eleanor used had a metallic element, but a true gold thread was overpowering in the solid black border, but the olive green read as a gentle gold and added just the right amount of sheen in the feather border design. 

I chose a variety of designs to add a little interest - crosshatch, clam shells, some 60 degree diamonds and a few pebbles just for fun.  Simple loops in the sashing was all that was required.

I couldn't bring myself to stitch over the keyboard fabric, so I stitched around all the keys with black Microquilter thread.

The grey Stonehenge backing shows off the variety of quilting well too.

Two for Donna

Donna made this quilt for as a grad gift for her grandson.  Donna added the Browning Buck mark logo for a little special interest.  When I saw the camouflage fabric and the logo, I immediately suggested my freehand woodgrain for the quilting pattern.  I think it was the perfect choice and looks cool on the brown flannel backing.

Of all the quilts I have quilted for Donna, this is the first one that she is keeping for herself.  She asked me to quilt this wallhanging for her, and I took some cues from the fabric patterns to help make my design choices.

I added straight lines to the ribbon in the centre, and varying width piano keys in the border, and a string of pearls  in the small gold border.  My favorite part are the "nemeshing" style feather in the blue sections.

The quilting shows up amazingly well on the solid backing.

Floral Heartstrings

Gail made this pretty floral quilt as a graduation gift.  The floral print she used is really the star of this quilt.  I am not usually a floral person, but I really loved this one.

Gail chose the "Heartstrings" panto, and the hearts and ribbons add to the feminine style of the quilt.  I used a soft green color in both my top and bottom threads.

Star Blanket

I have appreciated the beauty of the traditional star blankets for a long time, but up until now have never had the opportunity to work on one.  I was very excited when Shirley called to see if I would quilt this one that she was making for her son.  

This quilt is a graduation gift for Shirley's son who will be going on to study Natural Resource Management in the fall.  She wanted simple quilting, so we decided on ditch stitching the star section (which would traditionally be done by hand), and a large water meander for the background.

Shirley provided a extremely lofty batting, and I almost couldn't fit the quilt roll in my machine!  I wasn't able to use a ruler for the stitch in the ditch work, as my foot could easily slip over the ruler due to the thickness of the batting, which was dangerous to the ruler and my hand.  It is a good thing my Innova tracks so easily in all directions as I free-handed all of the star section.

I outlined the motif in the top and bottom borders for a simple finishing touch.