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.

 

Dawn's HST

Dawn brought me this pretty and springy quilt top to finish for her.  She used a layer cake to make the HST and this top came together quickly.  This quilt really had a dramatic transformation while on my machine.  

It went from nice to a bit more wow with the Tickle Too pantograph, variegated Fantastico thread and Quilter's Dream Puff Batting.  Quilts don't always need to be complicated to be beautiful.

Joyce's Disappearing Nine Patch

I recently completed this quilt for Joyce.  I love autumn/earthy color palette for this Disappearing Nine Patch quilt.

I used Quilter's Dream Puff batting to keep the quilt nice and light, and the "Come Dance with Me" pantograph.  It has always been one of my favorites.  I love how it looks on the peachy beige Stonehenge backing too.

Pineapple Quilt

It has been over two months since I have added anything new to this blog!  I have been quilting (among other things) and I hope this quilt makes up for the long silence.

Reneta made this wonderful quilt top from a tutorial by Jackie Padesky .  (Reneta did change the pineapple tops slightly.)  Reneta loved this quilt top and decided it deserved some "super dense over the top fabulous quilting".  No pressure! How to handle the pineapples came fairly easily, but it took me a long time to decide what to do as the background spaces in the quilt were not symmetrical.  Once I had the idea to include the "hibiscus like" flowers the rest fell into place. 

I used two layers of batting to make the quilting really pop.  A layer of Quilter's Dream Blend on the bottom, followed by a layer of Quilter's Dream Puff on top.

Reneta had a pieced backing, and although things turned out fine, I wouldn't recommend this much piecing on a back with dense quilting on the top, as the risks for a pleat or a messy looking back are high in my opinion.

I have quilted many quilts for Reneta and she always has a vision and often challenges my creativity.  This time she challenged me to step outside my box to complete her vision and I am really glad that I did.  I think I might need one of these for myself!

Hexagon Stack 'n Whack Fish

These two baby quilts were made by Reneta.  They were the result of a class a number of years back, and weren't made for anyone in particular.  She has a feeling that someone she knows will have twins one day and these will be their quilts.  She put green Cuddle on one, and blue on the other.

Reneta left the quilting design up to me, but she did have one request.  She asked if I could add a couple of goldfish (like the one in Disney's Pinocchio) to the black border in a bold or variegated thread.  If my machine was computerized this would be a snap, but I'm always up for a bit of a challenge....

I found a coloring book image and copied it to an appropriate size, and cut it out so I could chalk the basic shape onto the fabric.  Then using the chalk line as a rough guide, I drew in the rest of the fish details with my needle and thread.  I decided that a solid orange Magnifico thread would be more effective than a variegated so some details weren't bolder than others.  I impressed myself with this one - I thought there was a 50/50 chance that I would be picking this out and trying something different!

I love how well it shows up on the Cuddle backing.

For the rest of the quilting I did continuous curves in the Kaleidoscope hexagons, and added a curl to my curves in the green star points.  The back border got a water meander in a blue thread to give it a little more interest.

I love how these quilts came out and they are super cuddly as they have a minimal amount of quilting and Quilter's Dream Puff batting.

CIty Slicker for the Dorm Room

 I made this quilt for daughter #1 as a grad present for her new dorm room at the University of Manitoba.  This quilt has been in the making for a while, but residence move in day of September 3rd was my deadline. 

 

I asked for Kyla's input on this quilt along the way.  She had suggested that she could just take the original City Slicker quilt that I made when we were designing the pattern for Highway 10 Designs.  I wasn't quite ready to part with that one, and I wanted to make something just for her, I selected a jelly roll in some of her favorite colors and paired it with the icy blue background.

Kyla chose the Zephyr panto.  I used Quilter's Dream Puff batting so that washing and drying in the dorm would be nice and easy.  I used a variegated Fantastico thread called Misty Morn on top and Bottom Line blue in the bobbin.

I love to personalize quilts for my clients when given the opportunity, and I wanted to do the same for Kyla.  I wrote her name in one row of the panto.  Subtle, but present.

I wanted to make a couple of matching throw pillows to send along and I was lucky to have an extra bit of my Stonehenge backing once the quilt was finished, so I found some small batting pieces and loaded the pillow fronts and just kept on quilting the panto over them.

It was a close call but they fit!

This pillow was made from the little pieces of jelly roll strip that are left over from cutting out the quilt.

The second one was made from bits and pieces from the quilt and my stash.

And here you see it where it will be living for the next 8 months.  City Slicker is the perfect sized quilt for a standard dorm room bed.  This one is a twin XL.