Riding Mountain Memories

Myrna made this wonderful quilt that features printed photos of her hometown of Riding Mountain, Manitoba.  On the body of the quilt I used my freehand topographic quilting design to add a nice texture.

I did minimal quilting on the 4 photos.  I stitched in the ditch around the blocks and followed the outlined of the main elements in each of the photos.

Myrna also provided this pieced backing with a couple of panels and more coordinating fabrics that she used on the front.

Topographic Quilting

Marion made this modern quilt as a gift for her brother who is active and enjoys many different outdoor activities.  She found the perfect fabric collection and put together this top that highlighted the prints.

Marion knew exactly what quilting motif she wanted for this one - my freehand topographic lines that matched the background of the dark grey print perfectly.  It gives great texture to the front and the back of the quilt.

Heavy Metal

Marion was very resourceful in making this quilt.  Marion bought the centre Stonehenge Heavy Metal panel by Northcott, and for the majority of the rest of the quilt, Marion used a friend's leftovers that had made a number of quilts from this fabric line.  No specific pattern, just a lot of creativity.

Marion asked for simple quilting, and I suggested my freehand topographic meander.  It added a nice  texture and kept the manly feel of the quilt that Marion was going for.

To Give & To Receive

Reneta makes a lot of scrap quilts using 2" squares for the most part.  She has made this particular scrap quilt at least twice now and the pattern is very appealing.  The pattern is called "To Give and To Receive" and was originally published in American Patchwork and quilting but is now available on apqshop.com here

I quilted Reneta's other version of this quilt with my freehand topographical meander and we decided we loved that one so much that we would repeat the design again here.

Amy's Mile-A-Minute Quilt

Amy has a way of taking the oddest bits of fabric scraps and morphing them into something eye catching.  Amy referred to this as a "Mile-a-Minute" quilt.   I think what makes this quilt so pleasing to the eye is the narrowed color palette that Amy stuck to when selecting her scraps.  It add a calming component to the more busy piecing.

As soon as I saw this one I suggested my freehand topographic quilting as the organic nature of that design seemed just right to me.  Amy happily agreed.

It is always fun for me to work on scrap quilts of people I quilt for often.  I recognized where that little x block came from - check out the quilt here.

Great job creating something from nothing Amy!

 

Scrappy Anchor

 

Reneta is the queen of the scrap quilt and she has done it again with this scrappy anchor quilt.

Reneta left the quilting plan up to me so I decided to use my freehand topographic quilting on the scrappy background sections and did some continuous curves on the white square making up the anchor.

Storm Trooper

This Storm Trooper quilt was made by Crystal for her teenaged son.  It is dramatic and awesome!  I am not a Stars Wars fan, but I can appreciate how much this quilt will be loved by someone who is.  Below you can see this quilt on my queen sized bed.

There isn't a commercial pattern for this quilt.  Crystal got out her graph paper and pencil crayons and drew it out referencing images she saw online.  She has already had requests from other family members for one of their own!

This quilt was dramatic and perfect in its unquilted state, and I didn't want the quilting to distract from the graphic image.  I felt it was important to use black thread on the black fabric and light grey thread on the light fabrics.  So freehand quilting was a better option than a pantograph in this case.  We decided on my freehand topographic pattern and since seeing the quilt, Crystal's son said it looked like some sort of Star Wars map, so bonus there!

Crystal also found the most the most perfect flannel for the back of this quilt.

Thank you for trusting me with your show stopping quilt Crystal,  I know it will be loved!

 

Around the Island

This fabulous quilt was made by my good friend and client Reneta.  Reneta served as a pattern tester for The Quilted Stash.  The pattern is called "Around the Island" and will be published in a book called The Quilted Stash.  For those of you not familiar with Canadian Geography, the island in the centre of the quilt is Newfoundland.

Reneta is from Newfoundland so this quilt has a special place in her heart.  She knew she wanted some special quilting on this one.  Since I started quilting in 2012, I have quilted more than 100 quilts for Reneta, so she knows what I can do, and I have a pretty good idea of what she likes. Sometimes she has a vision, sometimes she leaves it up to me. When the idea of adding song lyrics to the open corners came up we were off to the races!

Reneta immediately knew the song that spoke to her the same way this quilt did - Saltwater Joys.   The song was recorded by Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers, written by Wayne Chaulk. 

You can have a listen here.

I had a lot of fun doing the cursive writing quilting.  The key to that was all in the preparation!    

First I cut some newsprint to size and with a sharpie in hand I did some writing to see if I could connect the words and to get a sense of the row height that would work.

Next step was heading to the computer to see how many of the song lyrics could fit into the triangles.  Two stanzas in each corner was a great fit.

Then I chalked in the lines that I would need to follow and numbered them for reference.

On the really long lines of text, I gave myself some registration marks so I had rough idea of the spacing, but otherwise I just went for it.  The hardest part was remembering to dot my i's and cross my t's in the moment! 

For the colourful squares Reneta requested my freehand topographic meander quilting.  The beautiful fabric is the from the Journeys collection from Northcott.

And for the remaining two corners we opted for the Breath of the gods panto for an even design that complimented the rest of the quilt.

  I will share more photos because I can! All of these photos were taken on the grounds of the Marine Museum of Manitoba right here in Selkirk.  And for a little more behind the scenes - this is what the quilt looked like 50% of the time during this photo shoot.  I am very lucky to have a willing helper!  

I enjoyed every minute this quilt has spent with me.  Thank you Reneta for putting your faith in me - I look forward to more collaborations in the future!