In reading the news this morning I realized that it was for some yesterday was a big day football wise!
Betty’s Football quilt was on my machine over the weekend.
We chose the pantograph new wave playing on the curve of the ball. isn’t it amazing how just the right straight angle teases the eye to see curves when they don’t actually exist?
Choosing a thread colour on a quilt like this isn’t always easy, in a case like this I chose a silver grey so that the stitching wouldn’t jump off of the lighter areas of the quilt showing only fragments of the design. Of course is takes a bit of braveness to quilt light thread on navy!
A few months ago my Granddaughter Minka 3yrs asked me if I could make her an all pink quilt. I had made a pink baby quilt for our Granddaughter Olivia’s arrival last summer.
I still had a fair amount of pink fabric left from that project to start another…I did purchase more fabrics when Minka’s Mom suggested a pink quilt for Romee as well.
Sometimes it’s just fun to make quilts with squares and to make them as scrappy as possible. These quilts are fun! I also added pink fabrics from my Moms fabric stash.
Minka’s
The quilts are similar, though they have different backings and bindings and Minka’s has some butterflies from fabric that she especially liked. Minka’s quilt was quilted with the pantograph Hearts and Blooms.
Minka’s backing…those paw prints on the binding are so cute!
I ordered the fabrics from the quilt shop https://road17n.ca for the backings and bindings…when I opened the package I was so surprised to find a gift of 5 good sized sample pieces of more pink fabrics so they were added into the quilts as well.
Romees Quilt
The adorable backing for Romees quilt made choosing the binding a little more of a challenge, I am really pleased with my choice. this quilt was quilted using the pantograph Two of Hearts.
Over the Christmas holidays Kaija came to visit a few times and has begun making her own pink quilt. Hopefully over the summer she and I will have more time to make her pink quilt! Kaija requested that we make hers together.
Sometimes I am asked to find a backing for a customer quilt…this week my friend Betty and I went to Fix Sew and scissors to take her machine in for a repair. While there I noticed the fabrics that they are selling for a friend and they had a perfect fabric and at a great price!
As sometimes happens the quilt maker had planned to quilt this piece herself and had fused batting to the top and it wasn’t budging.
We decided to leave it attached and add another layer of Hobbs 80/20.
Adding the pantograph bubbles was a fun and perfect fit for the quilting!
More often than not I am asked to choose the quilting design when quilts are left with me. In this case I had a few ideas and sent them to my client. She chose the pantograph Tickle Too…a fun to quilt design that adds swirls and feather plumes to dance all over the quilt.
This design has a perfect density for a bed quilt.
The quilting really shines on the back doesn’t it!
We have been experiencing normal deep freeze winter weather here for the last week or so ago. For the most part winter weather doesn’t bother me.
I do love a bright sunshiny January day and yesterday was one of those days!
I am over due in sharing this special quilt that was made during 2023 for my daughter Mary. It has a lot of significance personally and was a joy to make.
After quilting the quilt with the pantograph Butterfly Charm and a beautiful variegated thread, I added additional quilting with my domestic machine and wonderfil Glamore thread to add more glitz.
My daughter loves purple and butterflies and she told me that she had wanted a quilt with this quilting design from the moment it first arrived in my studio so many years ago. When she saw the quilt as a kit on a Keepsake Quilting Catalogue she quickly requested it.
Her son Liam asked to make the label for this special quilt and he did a fantastic job!
Starswirl is a beautiful pantograph design, it has a really nice flow to guide my machine over creating a beautiful even density of stitches over the quilt.
The stitches are so pretty and really shine on the blue backing! The daylight was not overly cooperative yesterday, the first picture is a truer image of the green in this fun quilt.
The quilt is trimmed and ready for binding. This quilter is making quilts for each grandchild and saving them for when they are grown.
My view this morning…I love the snow laden tree look!
I am almost finished binding the second of the two pink quilts!
A couple of posts ago I shared a picture of the backing fabric being prepared for this quilt.
In my opinion it is well worth the time to do things well. This includes pinning and making sure that my end result is a beautifully quilted quilt that lays flat without puckers or pleats. I know that there are short cuts, however I also know that shortcuts can result in issues that I am not happy with.
It’s a wonderful feeling when I finish a quilt that I know that my customer will feel proud of.
The backing:
Joan has been using her stash to create fantastic quilts!
I really enjoy a good splash of colour in my studio!
Her quilt is trimmed and the binding prepared and ready for pick up.
What are you working on? Do you use your scraps?
Most of my quilting time is spent helping my customers complete their quilts. I do however schedule in time for myself to piece.
I like to have a few projects on the go at the same time, do you?
My current fun is the scrappy postage stamp quilt which I will be working on for a while!
Now that the holidays are once again ready to be tucked away and added to memories of Christmas pasts, I am ready to get back to sharing my work!
My longarm has new wheels and is ready to get back to work!
Preparation is key to great results! I often piece customer backings and as I have mentioned before there is no additional cost for this service.
In my opinion most backings when piecing yardage look better when the pattern is matched and so I do take the time if there is enough fabric supplied and my customer wants it done.
Preparing both the top and backing with a good pressing, also enables me to double check before loading just in case there might be issues that can be corrected easily before quilting. Loading freshly pressed backings also assures that there won’t be puckers or pleats in the quilt after quilting.
As I enter my 20th year of Longarm Quilting for customers, I am looking forward to continue helping others to complete their quilting projects.
Let’s start with my morning view!!! That looks more like it for this time of year ☃️
Somehow the week between Christmas and New Years has flown by! Not without a lot of fun. We had Grand parenting days. While there was no snow so no snowmobiling, Erik took the kids on Quad rides instead.
If I haven’t mentioned it before we have several trails throughout our property, we really enjoy them and visiting the pond as well. Well the Grandchildren love the trails!
Grayson decided that he wanted to learn some sewing and asked if he could learn to hand sew! Maybe this was inspiring
The second of two pink quilts
Grayson even got Pappa involved in the sewing!
Grayson is getting really good on the machine as well, working on the bag that he is making
Kaija discovered my newest scissors and enjoyed snipping scraps and cutting out the sloths from a trimmed piece.
Kaija and I made a bag together, she likes to use the foot petal while I guide the fabric. She loves choosing the fabrics as well. it won’t be long before she is using the machine.
She was really silly when I took the picture…how scary does that marker look. She is really careful about colouring though.
Minka and Romee joined in one afternoon! Grayson and Pappa built a fort for the girls. They made full use of it and had a lot of fun together.
I love this picture my daughter sent of Minka’s fort at home, she is inside with a quilt sleeping and using Romees quilt to cover the fort! I love to see the quilts I make in action!!
Today is the 19th anniversary of my Longarm quilting machines arrival, I also like to call it her birthday. My Millennium is an amazing machine and I have a special treat for her that I will share soon.
Welcome December 21! The first official day of winter…I may come to regret saying this but where is the snow? The weather forecast for Christmas Eve and day are for above 0 Celsius. This might just be my first not white Christmas in Thunder Bay.
I am finishing up my Christmas projects this week. This little pouch along with another were my fun task last night. I love making these little projects and they make fun gifts.
Wendy’s Quilting and Life 