Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Lorna's Nursery Rhymes

SUCH a cute quilt design here! Each block was an embroidered nursery rhyme theme. I had so much fun working my way through my childhood favorites! Exquisite stitching, color sections, and layout made this one a dream to quilt. It didn't need much. I love how it turned out!








Lorna's Snowmen

I've gotten to work on this quilt a couple times in the past (here and here). This one had a simpler layout, but was no less awesome! I put some windy swirls in the outer border, and just did some tacking down throughout the body of the quilt. Bring on the snow!







Lorna's Animals

Lorna is better at embellishment than anyone I know. Almost every quilt I've worked on with her has had some kind of bell or whistle. This adorable quilt featured furry fabrics, mesh that made it appear as though animals were underwater, felts, and LOTS of decorative stitches! I just did some tacking down in the sashings and outlining in the blocks. This quilt didn't need much quilting. It speaks for itself!








Darlene's Mom's set

This quilt and tablerunner came from the mother of my client, Darlene. She wanted something simple and flowing, in a blue thread. So I went to town with a good ole stipple. I also attached the binding to the front of the quilt, so it was ready for her to finish by hand when she got it back. It's a large quilt, so it will be nice that she won't have to wrestle it through her sewing machine to affix the binding.







Jennifer 3/3

Another beauty from Jennifer. Jennifer told me she likes feathers (so do I!), so I put 'em to work! Feathers with a string of pearls in the border. Feather wreaths in the blocks. Some orange peel and ribbon candy sprinkled around, and finished off by attaching her binding to the quilt front. I think I love it!










Jennifer 2-sided quilt

Here's Jennifer's second quilt of the first three she brought me. But actually, it's kinda like a "two-for". She used a pieced quilt for the top, and for the backing fabric, she used a pre-printed panel. So, really, this quilt is reversible! Score!

There are two reasons this piece "works" as a two-sided quilt:
1) edge-to-edge quilting - There is no way that I can use a custom quilting motif that will suit the top of the quilt, and also the bottom (if the bottom is "pieced"). Edge-to-edge suits BOTH!
2) backing design that does not have a "centered" layout - the panel Jennifer used for the backing fabric is kinda whimsical and un-ordered-looking. That's perfect! Without going to an insane, hair-pulling amount of planning and effort, I have very little chance of getting a top and bottom to line up perfectly. So, a custom-quilted treatment to the top may very well be off-center to the bottom. The seams on the top will not match up perfectly to the seams of the bottom. I can not consistently guarantee that the border of the top will match up with the border of the backing. So a haphazard back is best for a double-sided quilt.












Jennifer 1/3

This is the first of three quilts that a new client, Jennifer, brought to me. She didn't really have any specific requests, but wanted this one to be custom quilted. Since the blocks of the quilt top were pretty traditional, I went with some traditional quilting motifs: feathers, orange peel, loops.

She pieced her backing fabric out of large scraps, which is always a fun way to use up scraps. I added her prepared binding strip to the front of the quilt, so that it was ready for her to hand-sew to the back when I returned it to her.