I just finished quilting this big quilt for Annette. She made the quilt for her lucky daughter.
It's a yummy blue - not as electric blue as in some of the photos.
I quilted it with blue and white So Fine thread and it has a white backing. Annette requested blue thread on the back which is not my favorite for a white backing; it shows every start and stop. It turned out looking okay but you notice I did not take a picture of the back!
As I lay the quilt on my machine to get it folded up it looked so pretty in the sun.
I worked on Cecelia's quilt during the 'polar vortex' and it was a pleasure to have such a cheerful, spring-like quilt to look at while it was so cold and gloomy out.
This is a busy quilt which makes it hard to give the quilting some impact. Luckily, Cecelia had me use my favorite wool batting which has enough loft to give the quilting a nice definition.
I have quilted several quilts for Eddie over the past few years. She made quilts for her grandchildren -usually huge bed quilts, always precisely pieced and well made. Here and here are a few of her quilts. She always had me save her a spot in December for two or more quilts. Last summer she called to cancel her scheduled spot and not long after that died of cancer. A few months ago her husband called and asked me to quilt the tops she had finished. Eddie was a prolific quilter - we found five unquilted tops and I have been fitting them into my schedule.
This Dresden plate is one that her husband says she had been working on forever. She only took it out when they traveled so it took her years to finish. They are hand pieced as well as hand appliqued. I was trying to guess when she started it; judging by the fabrics I'm guessing the early 90's - do you agree? I remember when every hotel lobby and restaurant bathroom were decorated in that mauve and green.
I kept the quilting simple but I think the repetition of the feathers and Dresden plates is pretty.
I'm glad that her quilts will be finished and appreciated by her family.
This is the large amazing quilt I mentioned in an earlier post. Russ made this quilt using a cross stitch pattern; he allowed a half inch finished square of fabric for each stitch. It is machine pieced, has over 17,500 pieces and took him 2 1/2 years to finish.
The original pattern was designed by Nancy Spruance and shows an historical Victorian house in Eureka, California called The Pink Lady.
He really did an amazing job - I think this is a case of a project that took on a life of it's own. The finished quilt is 83 X111 inches, that is before trimming and binding. It is so large that it drags on the floor below my design wall.
The black details are done with what must be miles of embroidery .
It was fun to quilt. I designed a border inspired by Victorian fretwork.
Quilting over a million seams took it's toll. I had to switch to an 18 needle and even then went through 3 or 4 before I finished the quilt.
It is quilted with mostly So Fine thread and I used a poly batting because it seemed the lightest choice. This is one heavy quilt!
Doing edge-to-edge or pantograph quilting is probably the best way to make a profit as a longarm quilter because the work goes faster than custom quilting. However I'm rarely asked to do that type of quilting, my customers come to me for custom work; it's what I am known for and also what I like to do best. One of the perks of doing that type of quilting is I get to quilt some really gorgeous quilts. People bring me their best work, the quilts they want to have quilted specially.
Donna's quilt is a good example of this. She spent a long time making this quilt and her workmanship is wonderful. Her applique stitches are so tiny! Smaller that the sewing machine stitch by far. This is a pattern called Fantasy Flowers by Pearl Pereira of P3 Designs.
I usually do a minimum of marking but since this is a smallish quilt, I was able to put it on my design wall and chalk in the feathered border so it would be symmetrical. The chalk I use is just plain old schoolroom chalk - it stays on long enough for me to quilt the stems and then brushes off with a damp cloth. It's amazing what a difference the lighting makes - this photo was taken with the normal ceiling lights, the rest use photography lights.
Donna's color choices are so pretty - I love the spark of the bright blue, in the swag border especially.
She made a nice wide border and requested lots of feathers - she also mentioned that she likes curved crosshatching. Hey - so do I!
I really enjoyed quilting this - Thanks Donna!
This is Ann's Christmas quilt. I like that it has an understated Christmas look to it. Ann's quilts are fun to do - her workmanship is excellent, she likes wool batting and she lets me loose to do lots of quilting. She used a green flannel for the backing so this is a very warm snuggly quilt.
It's always a challenge to come up with a quilting design for a busy border fabric. My usual choice is something like a piano key border - just plain straight lines, but I tried something more complicated on this quilt and like the way it turned out.
I've been working on a huge time-consuming quilt since my last post but decided to wait to post pictures until the customer picks up the quilt after Christmas. It's an amazing quilt, so check back later!
I have been busy quilting although I haven't posted for a while. Most recently I finished a black on black quilt which just about did me in. Much as I love the look of black backgrounds - they are so difficult to see the quilting on and are hard on my aging eyeballs. I couldn't get a decent picture of it.
Margret brought me two wall hangings to quilt - she had planned to quilt them with her sewing machine but never got around to it. I really like the look of the colored thread (Glide) on the feathered star quilt.
Margret is a very experienced piecer so her quilts were precisely made and a pleasure to quilt.
This quilt had lots of blank space for me to play in and I did get a little carried away. On this quilt I used So Fine so I could do a lot of quilting and have a better chance of hiding any backtracking.
My next quilt is a whopper and should take me through Thanksgiving to complete.
Have a happy Thanksgiving!
This first quilt is one I finished several months ago but couldn't post because it was a surprise gift. It has a kind of complicated history: it was made by Susan for Lily and Lily's mother Charlotte had it quilted as a surprise for her.
There are so many cute Halloween patterns available now and Susan did a beautiful job making it.
Next up is a Christmas quilt made by Jo, one of the owners of Material Girls Quilt Shoppe in Wichita. I've quilted lots of Christmas quilts but hadn't seen this one before - it's called The Blessings of Winter by Shabby Fabrics.
In Jo I found a fellow metallic thread fan so quilted this with lots of silver, red and blue metallic thread. It's frustrating that I can't get the metallic thread to sparkle for the picture! The trees in the border are all silver metallic.
Jo chose a solid red for the backing which made the quilting really show up.
And finally, this bright summery quilt made by Kelly. It is brighter than it shows in the photos - I tried to tweak the color with no luck. So bright that it really glowed on the dark gloomy November days when I quilted it.
This was Kelly's first fused applique project and according to her, her last fused applique project. All of the many little pieces did not want to stay fused and I found several fish eyeballs on the floor underneath my longarm after I finished quilting.
It's cold and cloudy in Kansas this morning - a good day to stay inside and quilt.
