Keeping busy…

March 31, 20202 Comments

Hello, I hope that you are staying inside and keeping safe.

Here are some quilts that I completed for clients within the last month.

Joan’s Quilt

Joan made this cute panel into a baby quilt for her new grand daughter. The animals

are very sweet and the fabric is gorgeous!

I stitched around all the animals and the blocks. The outer border received leaves .

Joan’s Quilt

Its funny that these two quilts were made by two different ladies with the same name:”Joan.”

I just realized that as I loaded the pictures for this blog post. It made me laugh. Yes, I am

easily amused.

A Charity Quilt

These quilts that are made by Joan are given to charity. She is a very generous person.

If you have any scrap fabric you would like to get rid of, I know a lady that I could pass it

on to and she would be very happy to receive it and sew it up into a charity quilt.

The Backing

The backing of the quilt. I used a cream Omni thread for the backing and a light pink thread

on the front of the quilt.

Charity Quilt #2

Joan also made this quilt for charity. Love the pink color. I used a light pink OMni polyester

thread for the top and the backing.

Swirls were stitched all over the quilt. The name of the design is “Soho”

The backing

Hope you are staying inside and safe. It’s a great time to sew, quilt or learn a new

hobby or skill. I have been tying my hand at sketching something once a day. I will have to

show you my scribbles next time.

I also quilted my first Ribbon quilt this week. I will have to show pictures of this too.

See you next week.

Strip by strip…

March 10, 20161 Comment

Here is what I have been working on lately. Linda created

this quilt for her grand daughter. I think that she’ll love it!

This is such a quick quilt to piece together. It is created by

sewing strips to strips and then a border is added, if you

so desire it. And it looks like a million bucks.

What a great selection of prints in this quilt. Her grand daughter

will certainly love and have fun looking at all the prints in

this quilt.

“Flirtatious” is the name of the panto chosen. And a light

yellow polyester thread was used for the top and the backing.

The back of the quilt.

Orange is the color of the backing and what a great color it is.

You can really see the stitching on the backing.

Guild Charity Quilt

This is a Charity Quilt that one of the members, in my local

Quilt Guild made. Brenda is a very generous person with her

time and always pieces together quilts for the Guild, which

are then given to the local Hospital.

This is an adorable panel. I wanted to stitch something

out rather quickly so I chose “Swirls” by Norma Sharp.

The backing

I used a light purple thread on the top-So Fine. And a dark

purple polyester thread on the backing.

Hope you are enjoying the warmer weather. Don’t forget

the time change this weekend. Spring ahead and not back.

A Modern Charity Quilt…

May 21, 2015May 21, 20154 Comments

The Guild I attend (Kempenfelt Quilt Guild) is a very generous Guild

indeed. Throughout the year, The Guild creates and donates at least

3-4 quilts to local charities. This year, I had the privilege to be asked

to quilt this one.

I consider it a “modern” quilt because it has no border,no sashing,

lots of solid bright colors, and lots of open negative space.

Charity Quilt

Here is a side view of it on my frame. There is one spot that hasn’t been

quilted yet. I wanted to give you an idea of what we longarmers face when

we put a quilt on the frame. We have to be able to “see” what the

stitching will look like even before we put one stitch into the top.

When I first received the quilt, I had no idea of what to do with it.

But as usual, I went to the Net and found inspiration at Murdock Manor.

Janet Murdock had quilted this quilt. And yes, I did email her

and ask for her permission to use this quilting design.

How can you not like this quilt? I love the texture that the quilting

brings to the whole thing. I am quickly learning that I am becoming a

texture junkie. So, with this idea in mind, I began to quilt this top.

The name of the stitching is called “Matchsticks and Pebbles.”

Not quite original but it does describe the stitching to a tee.

The matchsticks took a long time to stitch out but the pebbles were

alot quicker. Because the background was white (and I have overhead lights

with my frame) there was a really bad glare coming off the quilt top.

After the first day, I noticed that I was getting a headache. So, the next

day, I turned the lights off and wore sunglasses while I quilted. Yes, it

was quite the sight.

When my kids came home from school, they thought that their mother

had lost it totally. It worked though-no more headaches or glare.

Matchsticks & Pebbles

It took me 10 hours to quilt and I used a white polyester thread for the

top and the backing.

The backing does show the stitching nicely.

The backing

The colors of the solid bars did show through to the backing. After all the stitching

was done on the white background, I went back and stitched around the bars

with a monofilament thread on the top. This helped so that I didn’t have to

change threads for each of the different colored bars.

I have to mention too, that when I was deciding on which way to quilt the

diagonal matchsticks. turning off the lights did help me see where I was going.

Sometimes you have got to get creative in order to finish a quilt.

Have a great week.

A special Kitty…

April 13, 2015April 14, 20157 Comments

This is one special kitty.

She showed up at our front door several weeks ago, meowing

loudly while staring up at us through the door. How can you

not do something?

My daughter decided to take care of her and began feeding

her. Eventually, she moved into our sunroom and then,

after several days of feeding her, her belly became quite

round and plump. Yes, she was pregnant! What to do?

We already have one cranky cat who did not like this

new addition to the family and we were dog sitting too.

We decided to contact a local animal rescue charity called

Street Cats Rescue Mission. A lady and her husband showed

up that evening, confirmed our suspicions and assured us that

she would find her an adoptive home asap. She did and within

3 days, our very special kitty had seen a vet and was being loved

by another caring family. I am very thankful for organizations

like this.

On that note, I also made a kitty lap quilt for an upcoming

fundraiser at my church. The pattern was free over at

Shwin & Shwin. You have to go onto their Craftsy account

to download the pattern pieces though.

It went together really quickly and I quilted it really

simply as well.

How can you not love the glasses?

I quilted straight horizontal lines on the white background

and in the cat’s pink body, I stitched a diagonal line in matching

pink thread.

For the backing, I used some yellow fabric. It is a little hard

to see the stitching but it is there.

I also managed to quilt Barb’s quilt last week. It is a very

colorful Batik quilt.

I love Batik fabrics and the color is always eye catching.

Barb wanted a pantograph so she chose “Flirtatous.”

It is a fun design and it adds some nice swirls to the square

piecing of the top.

A light purple polyester thread was used on the top and a light

polyester grey thread for the backing.

The backing fabric was really soft so it should be nice

and cuddly to use.

Again, the stitching shows up nicely on the back.

I think that spring has finally sprung here but now there is the

urge to clean everything is sight. Blah!! I would rather be

quilting.

Have a great week!

100th post!

January 7, 20153 Comments

This post marks my 100th post!! Wow! I can hardly believe it.

Even though it does take a bit of time to blog weekly, I really enjoy

the opportunity to write. There is always something to write about

when it comes to quilting.

In this photo, there is a whole lot of cuteness going on with these

puppies. This is actually a Charity Quilt our Guild created and

I had the privilege of quilting it. I love these small quilts because

I get a chance to practice some freehand quilting. It also feels

good to give back to the community and help someone out too.

In the doggie blocks, I quilted around the dogs. How easy is that?

In the dark blue squares, I opted for straight lines, almost

imitating a plaid look. I was short on time too, so this was a

quick way to complete the top.

The background is a bit blurry but it is a solid dark blue fabric.

I did use a blue polyester thread for the top and back. I also chalked

in the lines and used a small ruler to help with the quilting.

Delores made this quilt. I am amazed at how a simple

block can look so great just by turning it around.

Here is a close up of the block itself. It is a rectangle with 4 different

colors in it. The block is also surrounded by the tan border and then

turned sideways to create the pattern.

I used a red polyester thread on the top and a medium brown

polyester thread on the backing. The panto is named “Bowknots.”

This is what the outer border looks like. I really like this

red print.

Ah, the backing. The stitching really stands out here. It is

an interesting pattern.

An overall look at the backing. Hope you have a good week

and stay warm. It is -22 here right now. Brrrr…

Stitching along…

October 2, 2014Leave a comment

Here is a photo of what I have been working on this past week. This 12 1/2″ block

is for the 2015 IPM Quilt. The theme was “Autumn Splendor.” After looking at the

five fabrics for the block, I thought of sunflowers. I had some pictures I had taken

of sunflowers a few years back and used one of those. I am discovering that I like

working from photos.

The background is pieced and the petals are all sewn on with a zigzag stitch. In

the center, there are alot of French Knots. I didn’t care to count how many but it

did take me 4-5 hours to stitch them all on.

I like the block but I would change it next time round. I would have used the

orange fabric for the center,instead of the green. And I would have stitched

the French Knots more like the way sunflower seeds are in real life. It is

completed now and I am not picking out all those French Knots.

This is a charity quilt for our local hospital. Our Guild makes these for the ICU

Dept. I think they are all so cute and it is amazing how generous quilters are.

This shows a close up of the free motion quilting I did. I tried to incorporate

feathers, swirls, and flowers. I am trying to be more spontaneous and

adventurous with my quilting. Charity Quilts are a great way to practice.

Another close up of the quilting. I did forget to take a photo of the backing.

It is usually a dark color, it was a dark purple. It helps the babies to think

that they are still in the womb and they will continue to grow and thrive.

Stitching Impressions

All aspects of longarm quilting

Tag: Charity Quilts

Keeping busy…

Strip by strip…

A Modern Charity Quilt…

A special Kitty…

100th post!

Stitching along…