Lynn's Cabin Quilt #2

Yesterday I shared Lynn's Cabin Quilt #1. This is the second of the quilts she purchased at a Montana Mennonite sale. I'm assuming it was a "scrap buster" - a quilt constructed of scraps from lots of other quilts. Quilting my way through it was like playing a game of I-Spy. It will be a great quilt for their family cabin!

Lynn's Cabin Quilt #1

These quilts came to me from a neighbor who is NOT a quilter. She had been at an auction and found two quilt tops that she thought were beautiful. The auction was a fundraiser event, and these quilts were pieced by Mennonite women in Montana. Lynn and her husband have a vacation cabin nearby in northern Montana, where their family and friends enjoy quality together time. These great quilts will adorn beds there. Thanks for entrusting them to me, Lynn!

Check back tomorrow for pics of Quilt #2.

Sharissa's Daughters' Quilt

My client, Sharissa (in Massachusetts), recently sent me this quilt top to finish for her. It was pieced by her young daughters, as a gift for one of their former babysitters. They picked out the fabrics and pattern themselves. Helped with the cutting and piecing, too. I love seeing youngsters interested in this craft!

For the quilting motif, Sharissa wanted an edge-to-edge pattern, so that the quilt blocks and colors were the real attention-getter. So we agreed upon a simple woodgrain plan. She also sent me an assembled binding strip, which I attached to the front of the quilt, using my longarm quilting machine. After removing it from my quilting frame, I trimmed it to a clean, raw edge, ready for the girls to hand-sew the binding to the back side.

I'm told that the happy couple received their gift last week and liked it - I'm not surprised! Good job, ladies!

Mish-mashed Log Cabins

I love this colorful quilt from my client, Joy. I'm not sure what the name of the pattern is, but it reminds me of log cabin blocks - except they've been slashed on the diagonal, matched up with a different block, and sewn back together. A nod to tradition, but with that funky edge that I love in much of Joy's work.

I applied an edge-to-edge treatment of overlapping swirls. I love the way these swirls appear to stack up on each other. I also was happy to help Joy with binding. She gave me yardage (uncut) fabric, and I turned her top into a completely finished quilt. I used a tool that I acquired this summer and have been having a ball making quick work of great bindings!

Joy's Broken Compass

One word for this quilt - WOW! Joy did a BANG UP job on this intricate piece. Look at all those dramatic angles! Look at all those perfect points! I assume paper-piecing was involved, and I'm glad I wasn't the one who pieced it. But I'm SURE glad I got to quilt it!

I don't know what the pattern name is for this quilt, but the starburst shapes throughout remind me of half of a mariner's compass. So I'll nickname this quilt "Joy's Broken Compass". All the more punny, because most of the quilts Joy has brought me to work on were from her times on quilt cruises. I sure hope the cruise ships didn't have broken compasses! Ha!

Okay, enough for the corny humor. Joy told me to do whatever I wanted on this gorgeous piece. I went with dot-to-dot quilting in the center, along with some overlapping swirls, and some simple stitch-in-the-ditch. Double "wave border" in the light teal strips. Ribbon candy in the sky blue areas. More dot-to-dot ruler work in the blue and purple borders - which was VERY time-consuming, but I think stunning. I told Joy I wasn't sure I was ever gonna find my way out of this quilt. Maybe MY compass is broken! I'm sorry - it was just laying there waiting for me to make the joke. I'll stop now!

Notice the FINISHED binding on this piece. Joy brought me raw yardage fabric, and I turned it into a bound quilt, so that when she received it back, it was finished and ready to use. More info about binding options available on my Services & Pricing page, if you scroll to the bottom.

Rita's Blue & Gold Beauty

This great cuddly quilt was the first project I got to work on for a new client, named Rita. I love these colors - so vibrant and fun! She wanted loose stippling edge-to-edge, which, I have to say, is one of my favorite quilting motifs. It was the first free-motion-quilting pattern I ever attempted, and I will never get tired of it!

Rita also had me apply "effortless binding", so that it was completely finished when she got the quilt back. Ready to cuddle and love!

Renee On The Fly #2

Here's the second quilt on this quick-turn-around order for Renee from Washington. I think these overlapping wavy lines kinda look like skate tracks on ice. They add a gentle texture to the colorful 9-patch quilt top, without making an already pretty busy piece too over-the-top. I also like how these mainly vertical lines keep this quilt cuddly and supple. Should be good for the cold winter ahead!

Renee On The Fly - #1

My quilting friend, Renee, recently contacted me to see if she could drop off a couple quilts. She lives in Washington, but she was visiting family nearby for a few days. So she figured she could drop off her quilts, and then when they were finished I could mail them back to her, as we'd done in the past.

But since her quilting requests were so simple and straight forward - edge-to-edge quilting, my choice of motif - I suggest that we try to send them home with her finished, on this very trip! I was able to leaf-frog her order ahead of others (feeling confident the owners wouldn't mind) and did this two-quilt order on the fly! She dropped them off to me immediately upon her arrival, and I texted her a few days later to let her know they were ready for her to pick up. Yay! I love it when a plan comes together!

This quilt was a lovely Irish-chain-like pattern, with lots of great colors and prints. For the quilting motif, I used overlapping swirls. I think it's fun and funky and great!

Carol's "Tis The Season"

This was a fun variation-version of the quilt I showed you yesterday. I love the deep red fabrics in this interpretation by my client, Carol.

I loved putting the holly and berries in both of those red borders. They were exactly the right width for this whimsical treatment. I put pine boughs and pine cones in some of the squares, along with ribbon candy, and snowballs/Christmas tree bulbs ornaments, in others. I echoed around the embroidered words and the featured embroidery in the outer border. Then I filled around them with serpentine lines, which really made those un-quilted areas pop.

Happy Christmas, Carol! Thanks for letting me quilt this piece for you! Stunning!