Seasonal Sampler

The is Mary's festive Christmas quilt.  The quilted started out with Mary following along with the American Patchwork and Quilting Seasonal Sampler 2022.  Mary substituted some of blocks for others she found and liked to truly make the project her own.

I love all the fun Christmas fabrics Mary included.  She told me the fabric in the present block was from a stocking she made for her son when he was young.

Mary selected the Snow Winds Pantograph and a white thread to make sure it didn't take away from all the darling blocks.

Mary found a lovely flannel print with snowmen for the backing and the most wonderful candy cane stripe for the binding that was added by Bindings by Marion.

Aperiodic - an oops and a fix

Do you remember this beautiful Aperiodic quilt that Marlene made?  Marlene was the original pattern tester for her daughter Janice's pattern design.  After Marlene got the binding on she realized that there was an error in the placement of two blocks.  When Marlene emailed to tell me this news I scoured the pictures I took and struggled at first to find the error.  Can you see it?  The picture is below is the after it was all fixed.

I'm not sure how many of us would undertake what Marlene did to correct the mistake.  I didn't think it was very noticeable at all, but Marlene couldn't unsee it, and she and her daughter were shocked they didn't see it in all the checking before the quilt originally came to my studio.  Marlene and I agreed that because of the original quilting design, fixing this and restoring the quilting was realistic.  Marelene is not afraid of a little extra work, so she forged ahead and I like a challenge every once in awhile so I agreed to join in on the journey.

The first thing Marlene did was to trace the quilting design in the areas where she was going to remove the blocks.  (I hadn't thought of this originally but it really made my part of this operation easier.)

Marlene's next task was to carefully rip back the quilting stitches and tie off and bury the thread past the area she was going to remove and replace. After that she carefully removed the offending block and hand stitched the correct one back in place.   Marlene does beautiful hand applique, so this skill was definitely in her wheel house.

 

Now it was my turn.  The quilt was completely finished with binding, and one of the areas that need quilting was right against the binding so how was I going to load it back on my frame?

I didn't need to quilt near the top edge so I was able to load that side back on just using my red snappers just below the binding seam.  It was a tight fit, but it worked.

I basted a scrap piece of fabric to the binding along the bottom so that I could attach it to my frame and quilt right up to the binding seam.

I used the tracing Marlene provided to mark the quilting pattern back on the quilt top using an air erasable pen and chalk. (This was an easier option than trying line up the paper pantograph and work from the back of the machine.)   I then stitched and connected the quilting sections.  There were quite a few starts and stops as it was bits an pieces of multiple pantograph rows.

I was very pleased with the results.  Once the marking lines were removed it was very hard to tell where the surgery and restitching took place.  

Now Marlene can just enjoy her beautiful quilt without seeing things she doesn't want to see!

Laura's Halloween Quilt

Laura brought me her first quilt that is made with some really cool Halloween prints.  She made this quilt for her daughter.

The print with the blue background has some cool spider web, skulls and moths hidden among the flowers.

Laura and her daughter selected the windswept pantograph for the quilting and the shiny black Magnifico thread.

Sydney's City Slicker

Sydney made this lovely version of the Highway 10 Designs City Slicker pattern. The pattern uses one jelly roll and some background fabric.  The fabric collection that she used was an older Hoffman Bail pop with a lovely warm colour palette.

Sydney selected the Bora Bora pantograph for the quilting design.

I know Sydney was giving this quilt away as a gift and I'm sure the recipient will be thrilled!

Positively Bohemian

This striking quilt was made by Donna.  The pattern is called Positively Bohemian by Robin Pickens.  It features the Dandi Annie fabric collection by Robin for Moda.

Donna chose the Cassava pantograph that is somewhere between looking like a feather and flower.  She found the perfect colour of Fireside backing to bring the whole project together.

This second quilt is just pretty in pink!  Donna selected the Gingersnap pantograph as it seemed to fit with the circle patterns in the fabric.

And a lovely pink Fireside to continue the theme.

Sports Quilts for Cindy

Cindy brought a pair of sports themed quilts that she made for her grandsons.  The hockey themed quilt she bought as a kit.  The pattern is called Just Add Ice by Miss Winnie Designs and was designed to feature the Northcott "All Star Hockey" Collection.  Cindy selected the Yo-Yo pantograph for this one.

The second quilt was soccer themed, and Cindy used the pattern as a starting point and made up her own plan.  This quilt received the Quirky pantograph.

Both quilts were backed with Cuddletex and had finishing touch added by Bindings by Marion.

Buried Treasure

This stunner was made by Zandra.  The base pattern is called Buried Treasure by April Rosenthal and it came from and issue of  American Patchwork and Quilting from a number of years ago.  Zandra enlarged the pattern and added the borders to make the queen size quilt she desired.

Zandra selected the Macrame pantograph and this was the first opportunity I had to stitch it out on a quilt.  I love the gentle movement it added and the scale seemed just right for these blocks

Zandra's colour value placement really adds to the drama of the quilt.  The borders carry on the theme and add a lot to the finished quilt.