Kim's Antique Quilt

My client, Kim, found this quilt in the back of a closet. It was begun by her grandmother decades ago. She had cut out the LeMoyne Stars with templates and pieced the blocks by hand. What a family heirloom!

I was happy to help get this project finished for her. I decided to use a swirly, whirly all-over pattern, because I needed to move freely throughout the piece to tack it down. Many of the hand-sewn seems were fragile and starting to open up, so I used a lot of quilting to give the quilt more structural integrity.

All quilting was free-motion, hand-guided on a longarm quilting machine.

Being a non-sewist, Kim hired me to assemble, affix, and finish the binding on this quilt. I attached the binding to the front of the quilt with my longarm, while it was still mounted on my frame. Then I removed it from the frame, trimmed off excess batting and backing, wrapped the binding around to the back side, and stitched it in place with my domestic sewing machine. Here you see the back side.

Follow-up: I LOOOOVE this photo that came from Kim. Her mom was pleased with the quilt!

Sarah's Foodgrains quilt

My quilting friend, Sarah, made this quilt to be raffled off at a family event, and all the money will go to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Isn't that nice? She used millions (well, okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but LOTS) of scraps to piece these hearts together into a lovely and very interesting quilt. There is so much for the eyes to feast on!

I applied a simple all-over design of loops and hearts for the quilting. I told Sarah I didn't think it would be worthwhile to spend time doing a lot of detailed custom quilting on it, because I didn't think you'd really SEE it, amongst all those bold prints and color/value differences.

All quilting was free-motion, hand-guided on a longarm quilting machine.

Here's the backside. Almost as cool as the front!

Rosemarie's Earth Tones quilt

I'm not sure what the actual name of this pattern is, but I'm calling Earth Tones, because I was immediately drawn to the color palette of this piece. Right up my alley. My house, my wardrobe, my quilts - they're all dominated by earthy colors - browns, golds, rusts, olive greens, navy blues. So, it was easy for me to work on this customer's piece and love it!

Not to mention that this quilt was VERY precisely pieced. Even though this was my first quilting job from my new client, Rosemarie, it is obvious to me that she is a very exact, very meticulous, very capable sewist. I haven't really done a scientific study of it, but this quilt might win my "lays the flattest" prize. So easy for me to work with, and when I laid it out on the floor to picture it, and there wasn't a single wave, not even a ripple, I was washed in a sense of complete quilting piece and contentedness. Quilting can be powerful stuff, you guys.

This all-over feather meander was free-motion, hand-guided on a longarm quilting machine.

Pair of Baby Quilts

I met a new quilty friend, Rosemarie, recently, thanks to a recommendation from a non-quilty friend who put us in touch with one another. And right off the bat, Rosemarie, brought me not one but THREE quilts to do for her.

I've had clients bring me what I suspect are "trial" quilts in the past - where they bring one they're not super attached to, to see how well I do with it, just in case I completely mess it up, they haven't ruined a beloved heirloom. And then once they like my first attempt, then they pull out the real show pieces and trust me with them.

And let me be clear, I don't mind this AT ALL. I completely get it. The marriage between piecer and quilter is a tricky match to make, and I don't hold it against anyone if they're hesitant at first and want to make sure we collaborate well. I always say, "we're speaking the same language".

But dear Rosemarie jumped in with both feet with me, and I adore that! I'll talk about the first two quilts in one blog post, because they were actually the exact same piecing pattern. She made them out of different fabrics, and I used different quilting designs. For the Cowboy Teddy Bears, I applied an overall woodgrain motif. And for the Pink Nursery Rhymes quilt, I went with some swirly feathers.

I'll talk about Rosemarie-and-Carrie's third quilt in my next post.

All quilting was free-motion, hand-guided on a longarm quilting machine.

Church Garage Sale find

A fellow-church-member of mine brought me this quilt top, which she had actually purchased at a church garage sale in Calgary - for $10!!!! It was a completed quilt top, accompanied by prepared and bundled binding strip, too. WHAT A BARGAIN!

I have no idea why someone would sell this beautiful piece instead of taking it to completion, but I think it was definitely a lucky find for my church friend. She chose simple stippling for the quilting, and I really enjoyed the therapy of meandering my way across this large quilt. It's been a long time since I've gotten to do an all-over stipple, and I really love to do it!

She also hired me to attach the binding to the front of the quilt, so that when I gave it back to her, it was ready for her to hand-stitch the binding to the back side.

A corner view of the binding.

And here's where the two ends of the binding meet up. All trimmed and ready to be hand finished.

Nadine's Black & Gold Quilt

This is just the 3rd quilt that my client, Nadine, has made. But it's obvious that she's done a lot of other kinds of sewing. She is a true technician. Points were crisp. Seams were flat. Everything was square and straight. It is a real joy for a quilter to work with something like this!

This is what I would consider a mid-level custom quilting job. Not too ornate. I did some differentiation in the body of the quilt by applying two different fill designs to alternating blocks, but I didn't go crazy making every single block unique and intricate. I added a little bling to the setting triangles around the perimeter, which I think turned out really well. Loved playing with a new curved "boomerang" ruler I recently purchased from Deloa Jones. 

All quilting is free-motion, hand-guided on a longarm quilting machine.

Every other block was filled with this swirl-feather filler that I learned from Judi Madsen via YouTube.

I tried a new-to-me fill pattern that was modeled on a design I saw by Christina Camelli. Beads on a string, with wavy lines between strings. A tiny bit time-consuming, but not bad, and I think the effect is worth it!