Tag: Piecing

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Finishing a Mothers Quilts part 2

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This is the second of three quilts that I recently completed for my customer that were pieced by her Mom.

In my imagination, her Mom was using up her stash or perhaps her scrap bins to make the three quilts as they are definitely scrappy. She tied all of her blocks on this one together with inset triangles and border with the same butterfly border.

I chose the pantograph Rhododendron which added softness against the angles as well as coverage of the piecing.

The backing chosen for this quilt is absolutely gorgeous and a perfect fit for this quilt.

I found this beautiful dark green fabric for the binding and cutting the strips on the binding added a little more dimension than cutting straight on grain would have given.

I personally like to make my bindings 2 1/4” and use the edge of my walking foot as my guide when attaching the binding to the front of the quilt.

When I make bindings for my customers and or attach them to their quilts for them to hand sew down I cut the strips to their preference as 2 1/4” can be a little more challenging to stitch down.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Sarah’s Star Quilt

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It’s so wonderful when I meet a younger quilter and see in them the excitement for quilting that I found in my early twenties for this amazing craft!

The Paper Pieced stars and chain blocks in this quilt really pop against the black background.

Sarah chose the pantograph Belly Bop, this design added to the modern feel of her quilt.

Her backing was so nice to work with, it was 60” wide so only required one seam for this queen size quilt. I asked Sarah where she purchased it and she told me it came from Ana Paula Brasil’s shop.

Sarah’s quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Murder Mystery Quilt

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I recently had the pleasure to add my touch to this amazing and very interesting quilt.

Its maker took part in the 2023 Murder Mystery designed by Whipstitch https://whip-stitch.com/blog/

https://murdermysteryquilt.com/

She did make some changes including fabrics, the shape of the dragons head and also added the sequins and bead embellishments to the dragon.

When we met to discuss her quilt, my initial thought was that the quilting design Star-swirl would be a perfect match for this quilt. I pulled various designs from my collection however once she saw Star-swirl that was her choice.

Quilting a pantograph with embellishments especially beads can be problematic however I have a technique that enables me to work with them successfully.

There are many interesting details, such as the hand sewn appliqué on both the dragon and the snake.

The backing is a stunningly beautiful blue.

Her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Mystery Quilts

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There are several quilt groups that meet in our city, these quilts are a result of one of the groups doing a mystery quilt project .

Both of these quilts were fun to add my touch to. This first one with its trains and the steam coming from the engine on the backing made me think of swirls…bear with my imagination…

Also adding a curvy or swirly quilting design over angular piecing is pleasing to the eye.

I love how this backing adds a fun touch to this quilt esp with the purple in the steam coordinating with the quilt top.

The same quilt, different colours…so soft looking.

The backing is a winter scene, I chose the pantograph Star Swirl playing on the idea of winter night with swirling snow and a starry night…the curvy quilting with some points also works so nicely on angular piecing.

Both quilts were trimmed and ready for binding at pick up.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Choosing a Quilting Design

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Many of my customers ask me to choose the quilting design for their quilts. More often than not as soon as I look at a quilt top I know how I want to quilt it.

My initial thought was wow, I love all of the colours in this quilt, how fun!! On closer inspection of the fabrics…all batiks had various shapes ranging from bubbles, dots, curls, swirls, flowers and leaves and more.

The pantograph Waterworld came to mind initially which surprised me to be honest as it’s one that I often use on baby or children’s quilts.

The more I thought about it, as I prepared the quilt for loading onto my Longarm, (which involves pressing the top and in this case piecing the backing) the backing colour confirmed my choice.

The next decision was thread colour, the fabric used in the border and sashing initially read black but it is actually a very dark blue with hints of a softer blue, choosing a baby blue thread worked perfectly.

The thread plays really well across all of the colours, there is some contrast on the border and sashing however it isn’t enough to jump out at you.

Joan’s quilt is trimmed and ready for binding.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

The Half Square Quilt and Bubbles

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When this quilt first arrived in my studio its maker said that it was a true challenge to make and she is an expert quilt maker!

I can see why as I too have taken on patterns where the directions for pressing do not cause the seams to oppose each other making for not so smooth piecing and when you are dealing with so many small half square triangles it can be frustrating.

However another beautiful quilt top was created and put together with a gorgeous backing it’s now a quilt.

Its maker requested the pantograph bubbles which you can see was a perfect choice. Using curves against angles is a fun treat to the eye!

I find that it is always worth the extra time to press both top and backing before loading the quilt on to the Longarm.

This step provides an opportunity for fresh eyes to look the quilt top over as well as making sure that there are no creases in the backing fabric or missed seams which can happen to the best of us and to catch any dark threads sneaking under light fabrics.

How gorgeous is this backing! This quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up.

Contact me at wendysquilting@gmail.com for Professional Quality Longarm Quilting Services.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Hannah’s Quilt

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Many quilts make a bold statement using colour and piecing however sometimes a simple quilt using soft colours can be just as striking.

The soft palette of gray blues and creams frame an important belonging that was placed in the centre of her quilt.

More embroidery will be added, in order to secure the beautiful handkerchief.

Hannah’s quilt was pieced by her Mom, Hannah chose the pantograph Bayside as it reminded her of waves and water.

A simple white backing added more softness to this special quilt as it will be heading off to University with a Hannah this fall.

Note…the backing used was a top sheet purchased at a thrift shop it stitched up perfectly.

Her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding when picked up.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Memory Quilts…

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When Darlene brought me these two quilts made with her Mothers house dresses it very quickly brought to mind my Grandma who we lovingly referred as to Grandma on the farm (my other Grandma was in the city)

Anyways my Grandma and many Women of her generation wore house dresses and saved their “good clothes” for when company came or they were going out. Anyways this job brought happy memories.

There are two quilts in this picture. Darlene chose the pantograph Two of Hearts…(an often requested design) as these quilts were made as a gift for family.

Some of the fabrics were seersucker… more memories of childhood clothes!

The backing fabric is the softest flannel, so nice to work with!

Her quilts were trimmed and ready for binding when they were picked up.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Quilt Full of Love!

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Just before our trip I was contacted by the daughters of a quilter that I knew of through guild and online. They wondered if I would help complete a quilt that their Mother had begun and sadly had passed away before completing it.

The quilt had been intended for her granddaughter.

I was happy to accept this project and let them know that I would check with a friend of mine to see if she would complete the quilt top for me while I was away as they hoped to have the quilt ready for the Granddaughters bridal shower.

Kim did a wonderful job! Due to the Grandmothers illness some of the blocks needed some work and some needed to be made.

The daughters had a card that their Mom had written to her Granddaughter and had it printed onto fabric for the label.

I attached the label onto the backing before quilting the quilt.

The pantograph Two of Hearts was chosen for the quilting…perfect for a quilt that has so much love attached.

Hot pink was requested for the backing which I found locally. It was also used for the binding.

I was told that the Granddaughter absolutely loves her quilt 😊💗

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

The Motorhome Quilt and Quilting

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A few weeks before our big trip I wanted to finish up a quilt for the Motorhome…I had one in mind that I had begun making in 2019 it started out as a kit from Craftsy back when they had their own fabric lines.

My customer quilts take priority for the most part over my personal projects especially the ones that I have pieced just for fun with no particular plan in mind for them.

The top had been completed as per the kit however it wasn’t big enough, thankfully I had collected some of the fabrics and had some scraps in my stash.

It was a generous twin size to begin with so it needed more blocks, I had almost enough of the background fabric and in the end I added in some solid white in a few of the blocks.

I also used the fabric that I had planned for backing for the borders.

I had some left over blue backing from a quilt of my Moms that I had quilted for her and used that for both the containment border and binding.

Adding some fun I chose the pantograph Bubbles for the quilting design. The backing is a wide back full of friendship quotes.

I truly believed that I would have time to stitch the binding on our trip and I did work on it here and there and did finally finish it before we got home…