Detour Placemats and Runner for Kendra

Occasionally I share something that was made entirely by me and today is one of those days!  My daughter moved into her first apartment and I wanted to make her a set of placemats and table runner.  She chose our Highway10 Designs Detour pattern and we headed out to see Jennifer in Beausejour at Needle Craft and Studio to select some fabric. 

Kendra quickly selected these three fabrics, and I was in total agreement.

I made 6 placemats and the runner and decided to have some fun custom quilting them.  A mixture of lines and swirls was all that was needed to finish them off.

The Detour pattern is a nice relaxing sew.  The longest part, (like any time you make placemats) is the binding!  But I love how the set looks on the table so it was all worth it.

It was a little hard to send these on their way, but I will have to get myself a supper invitation so I can go use them!

The Detour pattern is available as a PDF download  or in paper format.

 

Donna's Compasses

This quilt was made by Donna and she is keeping it for herself.  So often my clients make quilts to give away, that is always makes me happy when they make something special for themselves.

Donna requested custom quilting for this one.  I decided that ruler work was the best way to highlight the compasses she worked so hard to paper piece. The straight and curved lines would have the best chance of showing up on the background fabric as well. 

I stitched in the ditch through all the compasses and added a single echo in the background around them.  The sashing got and egg and dart motif and the borders received bead board treatment.   Donna and I decided to use Quilter's Dream Puff batting for extra loft, and it really helped the quilting show up.  Quilter's Dream Puff is not nearly as expensive as wool and it a great option to consider when a loftier batting is in order.

 

Western Blackford's Beauty

Jamie brought me this western themed Blackford's Beauty quilt.  The blocks were made as part of an exchange at her quilting group.  Jamie supplied the fussy cut centres and the white background fabric and participants added the blue, red and cream from their stashes.

Jamie wanted custom quilting on this one, and we worked together with her and ideas and my suggestions to come up with a quilting plan.  I used two colors of thread on this one, white in the background and a charcoal grey on the colored areas. Jamie suggested the charcoal color as some of the design elements reminded her of wrought iron which suited the quilt perfectly.

This mix of straight lines and freehand curls and loops came together nicely.

Sometimes photographing quilts is the hardest part of the job.  The wind was giving me a run for my money for a week, but I persevered and got some okay pictures in the end!

The almost solid backing shows off the quilting design so well and almost makes it seems reversible.

Cora

This darling baby quilt was made by Reneta.  The pattern is called "Cora" and it was designed by one of my "local" fabric store owners - Wendy at Fabriculous.  (I can get there in under 2 hours, so by my standards she is indeed local!)

Reneta requested simple quilting for this one.  So I decided to add a mix of hearts and flowers in the squares.  It was really fun to do.

Reneta loves a cuddle backing, and I do have to say it shows off the quilting very nicely.  I used Quilter's Dream Puff batting to keep it nice and light, a shiny lavender Magnifico thread for the top and a pink Bottom Line on the back.

A great pattern to keep in mind when you need a fast baby quilt.

We had a chance to get dressed up this weekend for the Dauphin Detachment Regimental Ball.  Thankfully one of the other members was taking photographs as everyone came in, as this is the only photo I have of us all night.

We have won the battle with the concrete in our back yard.  This is how it looks right now.  We are waiting on a guy with a bobcat to dig out the sections that do not have the right base for paving stones.  You can see the blue flagging tape  in the grass - we are extending the patio to that point.  The second photo is taken standing on the driveway.  I think the larger patio will help to unify the back yard.  Our only access to the back yard is from the driveway and across the patio.  A lot of work still ahead, but at least there is some progress!

Double Wedding Ring - No Feathers

This lovely Double Wedding Ring Quilt belongs to Gale.  Gale and I have never met, but we did chat on the phone about her ideas for this quilt.  She really didn't have any strong preferences, she just wanted me to know that she didn't really care for feathers.  It seems I have quite a few clients who feel the same way!

This is the first DWR quilt that I have had the opportunity to work on, so I went looking online to get some inspiration.  The vast majority of DWR quilts are loaded right up with feathers!  It was a fun challenge to do something different.

 Gale's quilt is made by appliqueing the ring to the background fabric, and she chose a blanket stitch.  I decided that I didn't want to quilt on the rings, so I stitched in the ditch around them, and added the curls in the melons and a large flower motif in the center.

I wanted to keep the border simple, so piano keys seemed like the perfect option.

Gale provided a light beige backing allowing the quilting designs to come shining through.  Lots of pictures of this one because I am just so pleased with how it turned out!

Kyla's Quilt

This is a quilt that I started for my daughter Kyla way back in 2010.  I participated in the Sister's Choice block swap hosted by Shannon at the Piecful Kwilter. We made 12 blocks that were identical using bright batiks and Kona black. All the participants were to sign the front of their block discretely with their name and where they lived. We sent them to Shannon, she shuffled them up and sent us 12 back, including one of our own.  My block is in the bottom left corner of the picture below.

I knew I wanted to do some custom quilting on this one, but didn't want to quilt it within an inch of its life so it would still be soft.  Kyla, now 16,  had a lot of input into the quilting designs.  She really wanted me to use variegated thread on the black.  I was a little hesitant, but glad I went for it as we are both really happy with the results.

The blocks were framed with this motif in the sashing between the small blue stars.  The thread is a blue/green/purple Lava.

The blocks themselves had a mix of continuous curves, loops and swirls in a So Fine thread that blended fairly well into the block fabrics.

Kyla requested feathers in the outer border.  I added a curl every so often for to break it up a little. It was very scary getting started on this as I knew I couldn't hide anything, but things went really smoothly with my favorite "less stress feathers".

Here is a shot of the black back that shows the quilting (as well as some lint!).  I used Quilter's Dream Midnight Poly batting and Kona black for the back.