Teal and Bronze Cowboy Quilt

Carol made this quilt for a grandson. I think it will make a great companion for any little cowboy. I kinda wanted to keep it for myself! I love the combo of turquoise and brown. These prints and panels are so gorgeous and bold!

I quilted edge-to-edge paisley, in true cowboy fashion. Ordinarily, knowing a quilt was intended for a boy, I might have steered away from such a flowy, rounded shape, and picked something squarer and straighter. But the best cowboy shirts seem to feature paisley. I figured, if it's good enough for Gene Autry, it's good enough for me (and Carol's grandson)!

I've always loved the juxtaposition found in western prints/designs. Rough, tough cowboys in sparkly, floral, paisley-printed "nudie suits". My grumpy, gruff husband carries a navy or red paisley-printed handkerchief every day, and don't even get me started on his crazy pearl-snap shirts! But I digress. My point is: this quilt will be great for the little buckaroo!

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

Lattice Floral Quilt

This piece makes me happy. How can you see all those bold floral prints and NOT feel a little more cheerful! The lattice layout is gorgeous. Renee said the quilting design was up to me. I elected to go with an edge-to-edge design of free-flowing feathers. The prints (colors and values) had such strong variation that I new the quilting design really wouldn't show up much. No sense investing a lot of time and effort into something that isn't gonna be distinguishable.

But if you look closely, you can see the quilting pattern. I love how the feathers spill out like vines of flowers. I'm not gonna lie... I just LOVE feathers!

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

Check out this great extra-wide backing fabrid. Longarm quilters LOVE fat-backs or wide-backs. No seam to plan around. And when you get the extra fabric back with the finished quilt, you get fun quilt-quality fabric that you can use for binding, or in an upcoming project. BIG fan of fat-backs here!

Butterflies Quilt

Here's a great, modern quilt with log-cabin butterfly blocks. I love the vibrant batik fabrics throughout. Applying a simple-custom approach, I worked serpentine into the white inner border and sashing strips. Swirls in the outer border and the butterflies. Orange peal in the corner stones and pieced inner border.What a nice piece!

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

Renee's Poppy Strip Quilt

I just love Renee's strip quilts. These are such fun pieces to feature gorgeous fabrics. I love quilting an edge-to-edge design into these quilts, because they become a sort of "white noise" - a nothingness that spills out over the quilt, giving it texture but letting the fabrics be the feature. Since there were several floral prints in this fabric line, I quilted a floral design. Great job, Renee!

Little Whales Quilt

Fun little breath of fresh air for me, after a couple of really detailed projects (check 'em out here and here!). This will go to a little baby boy, and it's super cute. The fabrics are ultra-soft flannels and minkies. Sylvia and I decided to use high-loft polyester batting, to give it a bit of structure, since the flannel fabrics were so drapey and limp. But large-scale, loose stippling will keep it fluffy and cuddly. It's gonna be warm and durable and great for an energetic little boy! Good one, Sylvia!

Linda's Snowman quilt

This is the second quilt of this kind that I've gotten to work on. The first was the class sample for Rumpled Quiltskins. I had fun trying to change it up a little bit to make this one unique. Nothing major, because my client liked the first one, but just a few differences here and there. I have to say, I kinda love how it turned out!

My quilty friend Linda made some subtle changes to the pattern when she pieced/appliqued/embroidered this one. And I got to improve on some ideas that I started in the original. For one, I repeated the snowflake pattern in the outer borders, but last time, I was sad they didn't show up better. So this time, I used TWO threads in my machine.

Even with two threads, I STILL wish the snowflakes were more prominent. They took a long time to trace and stitch. Maybe if I got to do another quilt like this, I'd try using something thicker - maybe like a DNC floss or doily thread. I'll have to do more research. Or perhaps I would use a totally different colored thread for the surrounding filler - like red or something dark.

Some small-scale swirls in the border, surrounding the snowflakes. And diagonal candy-cane strips in the inner two borders, treated as a single border. Loopty-Loops in the gray sashing strips.

I did a LOT of outlining in the snowman blocks. Around every single tree and snowman and scarf and mitten. I think it gave the details great definition.

This is one of my favorite parts - where this tree travels through TWO squares. Snowman propping it up in the bottom square, and squirrels playing on it at the top. So fun and whimsical!

These neighboring snow-people are giving each other Christmas gifts. Cute!

Pieced backing. Had to share a pic!

Campers Quilt

This little cutie came to me from my client Lorna, and it's a store sample at Rumpled Quilt Skins in Okotoks, AB. Lorna is so great at getting the most out of her sewing machine's decorative stitches. All sorts of little embellishments were used for details on the campers, and there were more added after I gave the quilt back to her. Buttons on the tires, clothespins, mini pillows, etc. Be sure to stop by the shop and see the real thing!

The pattern is called "Campers" by Amy Bradley Designs.

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