Garden Snails

This fun snail quilt belongs to Reneta.  The pattern is Garden Snails by Pen and Paper Patterns.  

Reneta selected the Fluffy Clouds pantograph.  

Most of the blocks were made as part of a block swap that Reneta and I participated in last year.  There are so many unique fabrics that were pulled from the participants stashes.

 

Eternity

This striking quilt is a store sample for Keystone Modern Creative.  The pattern is called Eternity and it is available in 12 different colorways of  Hoffman 1895 Watercolour batiks. The rich saturated colors are even more beautiful in person than in these photos.

Sometimes when a quilt arrives in my studio it just tells me how to quilt it.  These bold batiks on a solid black batik background were screaming at me for some custom quilting.  I ran my ideas by Leslie and she told me to go for it - play time for me!

I stitched around each of the circles and added a linear fill in the background.

The border received some feathers in a plum and purple variegated thread. 

If the front wasn't awesome enough, Leslie made time to dye this gorgeous backing which shows off the quilting pattern really well.

 

Yoyoville

 

I recently had the pleasure of working on this beauty for Cathy.  All I can say is that this queen size quilt was a labour or love - many, many hand stitches went into the applique and yoyos.  The pattern is called Yoyoville by Bunny Hill Designs.   The original pattern is for a twin sized quilt, but Cathy enlarged it to a generous queen at 100" x 106".

Yoyos are used in the main body of the quilt as well as in the borders for the trees and flowers.  When looking for quilting design inspiration online  I did not find very many of these quilts that had reached the finish line.  I can imagine that they are sitting in many quiler's unfinished project piles.

Continuous curves were the choice for the body of the quilt. I love the diagonal line that was formed by quilting through the centre of the small square instead of around the edge.

 

The houses were stitched around the centre and through the roofline, as well as around the flower stems,  and the wavy line fill came as close to the yoyos as I could manage.

Cathy chose the molar feather design for the two white borders, and the colored borders were narrow enough to only require stitching in the ditch.

Cathy provided wool batting for this quilt, and it provided glorious loft.  Wool batting is more expensive, but there are times when it is worth the splurge and I think this was one of them.

Cathy found the perfect dusty purple backing for the quilt.

 

Karen's One Block Wonder

This is Karen's unique take on a One Block Wonder quilt.  Karen always seems to find a way to include some unexpected details in her quilts - on both the front and back.

The border details add such interest to the quilt.

 

Often with OBW quilts, makers like to include a piece of the original fabric in the border or on the back of the quilt.  I love how Karen framed out the different motifs from her feature fabric in a strip on the back of the quilt.  

Karen chose the London fog pantograph which adds nice texture and somehow seems extra fitting with fabric containing tea and biscuits.

Karen said that she made this quilt to use in her new sunroom.  I hope she enjoys many a cup of tea while watching the birds, and maybe a nap or two!

 

Whoo Knows

I recently had the privilege of adding some custom quilting to this fabulous quilt top for Christine.  The top was pieced and all of the hand applique was done by Christine's dear friend Anne Riemer.  To honor Anne's generous spirit and help a charity close to her heart, Christine has donated the quilt to a fundraising art auction for the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre.  The quilt is Item #15, and the auction runs from February 18-27, 2022.

I loved every minute that this quilt was in my studio.  Anne's workmanship was impeccable and all of the owls had such different personalities.  I tried to add unique details to all of the owls.  I used two different background fills - a branching curl and and a sky meander. The frames received loops or leaves.

For the border quilting I decided to let the fabric be my guide and I quilted along all the dark green lines in the striped print.

The quilt pattern is called "Whoo Knows" by Sindy Rodenmayer of FatCat Patterns.  I hope that this quilt raises lots of money for a great cause.  There are over 100 pieces of art up for auction so I encourage you to head over and check them out. 

  

 

Ladder Cake

Reneta sent this fun and floral Ladder Cake Quilt.   This quilt seemed very different from Reneta's typical quilting style, so we ended up using a pantograph that is not her usual choice either.

Reneta is normally one of my "no feathers please" clients, but the Feather Garden pantograph seemed like the perfect fit with it mix of roses and feather plumes.  I used a cream colored thread that blended well across the prints in the quilt.

 

Wheel of Mystery

Leslie brought this lovely Wheel of Mystery quilt top for finishing.  The top was made by her dear friend Anne who passed away.  Anne's friends are working diligently to finish as many of her projects as possible and I have been lucky enough to see many of them.  Anne was a prolific quilter and teacher and everything she produced was impeccably made. 

Leslie is planning to donate this quilt so we looked for a pretty design that would compliment the top, but keep the cost reasonable.  The Gingersnap pantograph seemed to be a perfect fit.

The pantograph compliments the backing as much as the front which was a pleasant surprise.