Blue and green..

February 24, 2016February 25, 20163 Comments

Blue and green seem to be the colors that I am being drawn to

lately. It’s funny how my preference for color seems to keep

changing. Last year, I loved bright reds and oranges. Can you

believe that?

Do you have a preference for a certain color?

Nathalie’s Quilt

This is an interesting pattern but it is the color that is

drawing me in.

The border area

Here is the pieced border. The quilt doesn’t look flat because

I had it bunched up on the floor. It is quite large so I would not

have been able to lay it all out flat.

Again, I love the colors of this quilt. Maybe because I

am also working on my Oceans BOM.

Oceans BOM-completion of blocks only.

I am hoping to have it all pieced within the next 2 weeks so I can

begin adding embellishments. Wish me luck.

The borer area is pretty cool. The pieced border

mimics the piecing in the centre of the quilt but in a

different way.

The backing shows the quilting nicely. Nathalie wanted

an all over design and chose “Quirky.” The design

resembles one of the prints on the front of the quilt.

A pieced backing

I love pieced backings. They add more interest to the back

and use up more fabric as well. Nathalie chose a light

aqua polyester thread for the top and the backing.

Can I brag a little here? My son drew this picture for his

art class, in school.

Mothers can be pretty biased when it comes to their kids’ abilities

but I really do think he is talented when it comes to drawing.

A close up of the baseball. Can I remind you that this is

drawn freehand and with a pencil. Looks pretty

realistic, doesn’t it?

Hope you have a good week.

Can I challenge you to find something amazing about

each of your own children today?

See you next week.

All finished…

February 17, 2016February 17, 20168 Comments

I am very happy to say that the “Friends of Baltimore” applique quilt

is all finished. And it is on its way home to South Carolina. When

it arrives, I will breathe a sigh of relief; I am sure that Darlene will too.

This is what it looked like on the floor of my studio. I have

included lots of photos for you to enjoy.

The braided handle looks like it is 3D. The two

layers of batting(wool on top and 80/20 Hobbs underneath) really

makes all the applique puff up, almost like a trapunto effect.

I really like the borders in each block. And did I mention that

the applique is phenomenal. I couldn’t even find the threads

that Darlene used to applique the pieces onto the quilt top.

Do you see the masking tape in the upper right hand corner?

I put this on so Darlene can see where there is an area that

needs a little repair.

It is funny how each quilt takes on a life of its own. On this

particular quilt, all the background fills wanted to be

in miniature.

Feathers and swirls are the background fills here. I saw this

sample on one of Sharon Schamber’s quilt, so I had to try it.

The border area. I decided to use 5 background fills that I

had used on 4 of the 16 blocks. These consisted of swirls,

pumpkin seeds, McTavishing, a circular design, and

some gridwork. Whenever I get bored with one, I switched

over to another fill. Yes, I am a little OCD.

One of the 6 different vases in the border area. I love feathers

so I had to put some of them onto the quilt top. It seemed like

they wanted to be miniature too.

In this block, I used an oval design that is echoed several times. It

does look stunning with the very posh bird.

Darlene’s “Friends of Baltimore”

The fruit in this basket is quite stunning. The pineapple

needed a little extra stitching but all the other fruit was

stitched around. I used a monofilament thread to stitch

around all the fruit. It saves alot of time not having to

switch out thread color constantly and the monofilament

thread seems to camouflauge itself with quilt blocks.

In this block, I used 2 different background fills. It does add

interest to the block.

Onto the back of the quilt. This looks so cool. It reminds

me of a wholecloth quilt.

You can actually guess what block is which when you look at

the backing. I packed the quilt in such a particular way so that

Darlene can see the back of the quilt first when she opens the box.

Hopefully, it will give her goosebumps.

Here is the posh bird but now he is colorless.

One of the baskets and the feathers that support it.

You can see the sashing received straight lines. It add more

texture to the quilt.

Another vase; this one is holding a book in it.

More shots of the background.

Love, love, love the texture of the backing.

The mighty eagles finally found his feathers. My son

actually drew in the lines for me. He is quite artistic

and helps me out whenever I need it.

The border area once more. I hope you enjoyed the photos.

I feel like I am coming back down to earth today. Working on a

quilt like this kind of pumps you up for the duration of the

quilting. One’s mind almost becomes obsessed with the

quilt; how much is done and what is left to be done.

It is all good and fun though.

Have a great week.

Almost there…

February 10, 20166 Comments

Isn’t this quilt gorgeous? To me, it is a work of art.

Although this quilt is not an exact replica of the one I have

on my frame, it is not far off. There are only 2 blocks that differ

between the two. This one was quilted last summer.

Darlene, has been patiently waiting for her quilt and I am

almost there. I finished all the background fills for the 16

blocks yesterday; today I worked on the border.

After 4 hours of quilting, I only had 1 border completed.

This block has 2 feathers quilted at the base of the vase. I filled

in the feathers using Judi Madsen’s style. Once again, the pebbles

around the outside of the block looks quite classy, to me.

A double teardrop was used in this background fill. They

are actually quite small. This quilt seemed to have a

mind of its own, in that all the motifs seemed to stitch

out on the small side.

Swirls were used in this block. I tried to use a different

background fill in each of the 16 blocks. It makes it more

challenging and fun for me.

I decided to try a different fill here. It is a half circle that is echoed

2-3 times. It is a more modern fill but I think that it looks ok.

What do you think?

The top of the same block. I know that some of the pictures

are a bit yellow. I have 2 different lights above my frame and

now I think that I have to get more Daylight LED lights. I have

some LED lights but they are the soft light. It does make a

difference when I stitch and take photos.

I decided to quilt in some circles here. A thin cream

polyester thread is used for the stitching because it doesn’t

create alot of thread build up, only texture. And I love

texture!!!

Cindy Needham has alot of background fills that I love, love,

love. This one is made up of scallops and then filled in with

small lines.

More texture. I think that this background fill may be

my favorite of the whole quilt. Basically, I marked a diagonal

grid on the block. Stitched in lines around each edge and then

scribbled in the center so that the lines pop off the block.

Another pictures of the same block. Do you see how 3D the

rose bud looks, in the upper left hand corner? Gorgeous!!

All I can see in this photo is feathers. I threw in alot

of these, all over the quilt.

Again, this blocks looks similar to the one above but the

scribbling has not been added.

Do you see the 3D rosebuds? They are gorgeous and

are just popping off the block. I had to be careful going

around these because my foot kept getting caught on them.

MctAvishing was used for this background fill. I love the

texture it creates but it does take alot of time to quilt out.

The mighty eagle, he received a tight miniature stipple.

It really makes everything pop. I must add that I used

2 layers of batting for this quilt too.

The top batting was wool and the one beneath it was

80/20 Hobbs. Using 2 layers can be tricky but the

rewards are well worth it.

I hoped you enjoyed your tour of the 16 blocks. I can’t

wait until Darlene sees it. Pictures really don’t do

justice to the quilt.

Have a great week. Happy Valentine’s Day too.

Filling it up…

February 3, 2016February 3, 20165 Comments

This is what I have been working on for the past several weeks.

It seems that whenever a quilt needs to be done by a certain time,

that obstacles keep popping up and taking me away from working

on a quilt.

On the frame

This quilt is no exception. Lots of appointments, a funeral

to attend, kids finishing up exams and life in general seems to be

telling me that this quilt is not going to get completed. I have

other thoughts about this though.

In each block, I decided to stitch in 3 lines around the

perimeter. In the center section, I stitched in pebbles.

If you ask me, I think it makes the blocks and quilt,

in general, look more “classy.” This fits beautifully

with the quilt, as it is a more traditional applique

quilt.

Stitching the pebbles in the border sections. Sorry for the

terrible lighting. Once this is completed, I will begin

filling up the blocks with background fills. That is always

my favorite part of working on a quilt.

To change up this post, I have added some pictures of

completed quilts I did for customers, before Christmas.

A customer’s quilt.

I can’t remember who made this quilt but it was big!!

The borders were really cool. Leaves were stitched all

over the quilt and I used a cream polyester thread for

the top and the backing.

The cream backing really shows up the pattern nicely.

Modern cars and trucks.

This proud grandma wanted to keep the feel of this

quilt modern. So I stitched in cars, trucks and trains

for her grandson. It was pretty funny because all

of the templates I used for the vehicles, were bought

at Dollarama. They were made of fun foam too.

It is pretty interesting that you can find alot of quilting

supplies at the Dollar Store. What quilting supplies

have you found at Dollarama?

In the borders, she wanted her grandson’s name and

date of birth. What a great idea!! So I used my Scan & Cut

machine, which my darling husband bought me last summer.

I cut all the letters and laid them out on the border.

Then I traced around them and stitched

them out. What a time saver that was!!

Back of the quilt.

The backing shows up the stitching nicely. I used a white

polyester thread for the top and the backing.

A close up of the trains, cars and trucks.

Remember last week and my encouragement to join the

365 Challenge. Well, the first few blocks only took 5 minutes

or so but the one I made last night took me over an hour!

And it is only 3 1/2″ square. I am realizing that it takes

alot of accuracy to make these blocks. And it doesn’t help

that the pieces are so small and sometimes move when

you stitch them together.

That is ok though, because I am stubborn and will find some

way to make it work. Any tips for working with small

pieces?

Have a great week!!

Stitching Impressions

All aspects of longarm quilting

Month: February 2016

Blue and green..

All finished…

Almost there…

Filling it up…