Tag: Scrap Quilts

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

Finishing a Mothers Quilts part 1

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Somehow it’s mid November! The leaves have all fallen and the last few mornings have been frosty but for the most part the daytime temperatures have been mild for this time of year.

Where have I been? Busy quilting for the most part.

I have completed several jobs and some I do not have permission to share yet. One was a large queen sized quilt with scallop edges that I hand stitched the binding down…

And then….

One of the true joys in Longarm quilting for others is helping to finish quilts that have a lot of meaning to the owner. This fall I had the pleasure of finishing 3 quilts that were my customers Moms final quilts along with my customers first quilt.

I will write separate blog posts for each starting with this one of her Moms.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love scrap quilts and this one was no exception. There are several fabrics in this quilt that were not quilting cottons and some appeared to be from some time ago reminding me of my childhood. Ok the 70’s

This quilt required a little TLC and I did my best to add extra stitches where needed.

I recently read a post from a Longarm quilter on Facebook about a quilt she was working on that some of the seams didn’t quite meet and wondering why any quilter would miss that. One response was perhaps the quilter is aging and her eyesight isn’t what it once was.

I happily made the necessary repairs hoping that one day if that is me someone might come along and do the same.

Having quilted for others for almost 20 years I have learnt many ways to tackle issues that come with some quilts. Special quilts that need to be completed.

I did consider removing the final border and reapplying it but reconsidered due to all of the bias involved.

Instead I made gentle pleats as needed and hand stitched them down after quilting.

My customer brought me the 4 quilt tops and requested that I choose the backings which I did and ordered them with her approval.

Sometimes using the same fabric for the binding just works.

I carry Hobbs 80/20 on the roll for customer quilts, I do my best to get the very best price that I can so that I can pass that along.

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

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

Postage Stamp Progress

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I began piercing my Postage Stamp quilt in January… personal piecing time is at a premium these days which is one of the reasons that I chose this project.

It does at times make a bit of a mess in my already at times messy looking studio but then creativity can be messy!

My piecing time is usually after I turn the Longarm off for the night… and allow myself an hour or so to play.

The project began by cutting strips of scraps 1 1/2” and sewing them together alternating with Kona White until I had 9 strips together and then cut those units into 1 1/2” strips. Playing with so many different fabrics was where the mess was mostly made… this was followed with evenings of putting together groups of 9 strips with the rule of no same fabrics in a block.

Once I had enough 9 strip units together I tucked away the strips etc into a tote…until the next time I needed to put the 9 strip units together.

I find it relaxing to have some simple sewing to do and this project fills that need right now. I haven’t decided how big to make this quilt or who might want it…or should it be made into smaller quilts…it will come to me at some point.

I counted the blocks the other day and I have 53 finished.

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

Summer Fun Making Pouches

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I saw a reel on Instagram for the Holland Pouch by Center Street Quilts and liked it so much that I bought the pattern!

The pattern has three different sizes, it’s well written and is easy to follow.

I had fun playing with scraps and also quilting it with my Juki. The Zippers by the yard with fun pulls a fantastic to work with.

I love how this one turned out…

This led to making a smaller pouch to match…

And an even smaller one…

Not pictured is the fourth even smaller one.

The Holland Pouch was so much fun I made another one…

My little sewing buddy Kaija and I have been busy making pouches when she has been here this summer… we made a Holland Pouch first (not yet pictured) then this week a smaller pouch. She loves the idea of making smaller ones so that will be next week’s project!

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…

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Travel and Quilting (part 2)

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Spring in Thunder Bay has arrived and I always enjoy watching the greens evolve in our yard. We arrived home just in time.

We/ mostly Erik have been busy in the yard and I have been busy in my studio.

Jen brought me her first quilt, we chose the pantograph Forest Floor adding to its outdoorsy cabin look. (It is a gift meant to be used in her friend’s camp…( in Thunder Bay cottages and cabins are referred to as Camps)

Jen’s quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up!

Now a little more about our recent adventure

St Augustine is known for being the oldest City in the US. We both drank from the fountain of youth!

We chose to stay in KOA campgrounds for the most part as it made planning the trip a little easier and also because for the most part you know what to expect.

Our next stop was in Bradenton Florida for a night. This KOA was on a farm and was so interesting to walk and cycle around.

Many of the campgrounds had cabins and covered wagons to rent for those without an RV.

The next morning we were headed to Bonita Springs where we had booked a one week stay at Bonita Terra. We have friends who spend the winter there and it was so nice to visit with them and to check out a 55plus resort.

We had the use of a golf cart!! I loved driving that around though I especially loved being able to walk my 10,000 steps in the morning on the shady sides of the canal roads.

The pool area and club house we are lot of fun!

We spent time exploring Fort Myers and Marco Island as well as Bonita Springs.

This Banyan Tree was amazing! I can picture children having a lot of fun playing around and climbing a tree like this.

I was sad to leave this area of Florida but also excited to experience and see our upcoming destinations.

On our way to our next Campground (Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Campground in south Miami) we drove through the Florida Everglades.