A Beautiful Scrap Quilt

A scrap quilt truly shows how well fabrics "play" together and shows us that there are endless combinations that work, and that work well. I enjoy seeing the various colours and fabrics in a scrap quilt and as I progress with my stitching across the top, I study the fabrics and visualize future possible colour combinations.

I especially enjoyed seeing the variety of fabrics Nancy used in this wonderful quilt - she has placed Christmas prints near kiddie prints, stripes next to florals, novelty prints close to Christmas prints...a huge selection of fabric themes with simply festive results. Her solid red border pulls it all together and a thick poly batt helps create a soft, cuddly quilt ready to brighten up any room. 

I used a simple stitch pattern to create a secondary design within the main body of the quilt. I quilted the outer borders with what I call my "fake" feathers, a quick feathery stitch that carries your eye around the quilt.

Marie's Christmas Quilt

My friend, Marie asked me to quilt this lovely Christmas themed quilt for her as she works on completing a number of her unfinished projects.

Like many quilters, Marie is involved in so many different projects that I sometimes wonder how she gets done what she does and although retired now, she still remains active in many charitable groups. While working as a nurse, she led a campaign to have quilts on every bed in the oncology unit at the George Dumont Hospital here in Moncton. She orchestrated all stages of completion of these quilts and she even looked after the necessary washing and mending that came with strenuous use. The small part I played in this project was to create hand lettered labels for each of the quilts.

So, now in her happy retirement, Marie is actually getting to a few of her own quilting projects, although still in between a lot of her other community based activities. This cheerful quilt was recently on my long arm and Marie has added the binding using the same blue snowflake fabric, making that one Christmas quilt ready for next year. Fortunately I was inspired by the wintery view outside my window as I quilted it.

Tomorrow we are expecting even more snow.

Chocolate River Comfort Quilt

I belong to two traditional guilds. One of these quilts meets every second week during the day and the meetings are working based. Most members bring their sewing machines while others focus on cutting fabrics, or on hand work. Everyone brings their lunch and there is a short business meeting while we eat. I am discovering I like this format and although I am not keen to drag my machine most days, or perhaps just while it is winter, I organize something simple to work on beforehand and enjoy spending some time catching up with my quilting friends. 

This group has decided to create one quilt each year for charity and this year the finished quilt is to be donated to the local women's shelter in memory of Ree Defina who should have been joining the group this year, but who passed last August.

Two members, both close friends of Ree, organized the making of the top and members pieced the blocks at one of our meetings. The top was sewn together and I volunteered to quilt it. I kept the quilting simple because we all know that many hands make light work and I have learned the best way to enhance multiple sewers is to use a simple quilting design. I used my favourite Glide thread with a 20/80 batt. The colours chosen for the quilt were Ree's favourites and the finished quilt has been donated and is hopefully bringing comfort where needed.

Superwoman in Training

I redeemed myself the next day. I started early, stayed focused and didn’t give up until the quilt was done. I was tired at the end of the day as I finished sewed the binding on by hand, but I was pleased with my results and felt back on track. Well, not completely on track, that might be asking too much, but it was another project checked off my list.

We were hit with freezing rain on Wednesday and our road was not passable until after 2 pm, so my plans for the day were put on hold. Ah well, staying home gave me the incentive, as well as the time, to piece and quilt and sew.

At the end of the day I had this..

It really doesn’t ripple on the edges - it’s just the way I draped it over the edge of the bed for photos.

A quilt my daughter asked me to make.

It has been carried by friends to Halifax and tomorrow it will travel a little further to be delivered to its new owner.

The true color is more like in the photo below on the bottom left corner. 

It’s a surprise gift for someone who has been generous and loving and treated my daughter like one of her own.

Like most of my projects, I seem to think I am going to be able to make exactly what I want with limited amounts of fabric. (Do I really have to wait until Christmas Day to open that 3D printer, Santa??) As it turned out, I had to get creative with what I had and the result was a bit smaller quilt than I originally planned. But, at 48 x 68 it is still a lovely size for keeping cosy and the minky (from Marden’s!) will add to that warmth factor.

Interestingly, in this rather small project, I used fabrics from Sew Sisters, Hamels, Mardens, Avonport Discount and thread from Barbados and New Maryland! Cotton top, poly batt, minky back, Glide Thread and my free wheeling on the needle.

It’s bright and cheery and I hope it is well received.

Another Client Quilt

There have been quilts coming and going, sometimes so quickly, it barely registers that another one is finished. I realize my presence on my blog has been infrequent at best, but that is only because of a busy schedule. 

But, without further ado, here is a quilt I longarmed for Marilyn, a fellow Greater Moncton Quilt Guild member and a new member of SAQA.

So many quilters are extremely generous souls and Marilyn is no exception. This is a quilt she has made to be donated and I know it is being well loved and appreciated.

I have always been terrible at remembering the names of quilt patterns and fabric lines and this habit of mine continues apparently, but if you ever want to know what they might be in a particular quilt I include in a post, just leave me a comment, or email me and I will find out for you. 

I quilted this in a free form feather style ala Angela Walters with lots of echoing and used my favorite Glide threads, top and bobbin. I can’t say enough good things about this thread. The service at Fil-Tec is great, the thread is so wonderful to work with and the colors are simply perfect. They have just released a small selection of new colors and I am itching to order a few more to add to my rather extensive stash..

Flowers and Hearts Church Fund Raiser Quilt

This is a lap quilt a local church group pieced for a fundraiser this fall. They were going to tie it, but when I heard about their project, I offered to quilt it because I thought they might be able to raise more if it was quilted.

The before photo

They allowed me to quilt as I chose, so I picked a couple of design elements from the fabric and used those to quilt in my free styling, makes me happy way.

I assumed some lucky little girl would end up with this cute little quilt, so I quilted flowers and hearts in an all over pattern. I used my favorite Glide thread top and bobbin and used a wonderful shade of green called “Turf".

I received a lovely thank you card from the St. John’s U.C.W., so I think it met with their approval.

The finished quilt before binding.

I hope they are able to generate a nice tidy sum in their fund raising efforts.

Scrappy Log Cabin Variation - A Client Quilt

This lovely scrap quilt started out much larger than the size it is here. Sandra reconsidered its dimensions, took it back home and the second time I had it to quilt, it was somewhat reduced, though still a generous king size.

Because there were two distinct color ways in this log cabin variation, I wanted to use matching thread for each section as opposed to an all over design in one color of thread. So, in order to achieve the look I wanted, I stitched in the ditch around the off-white sections and then quilted the two sections separately, but always using the same color bobbin thread.

This meant the quilt was rolled and re-rolled several times, but I feel the result was worth the time and energy.

I quilted a free style flower, leaf, swirl combination in the dark logs and then stitched a smaller leaf design in the off-white, lighter sections.

I purposely left space around the ditch lines because I wanted to maintain drape and avoid having the quilt become too stiff.

There were quite a few hours put into this quilt between Sandra and I, but I think we both feel the result was well worth the extra effort.

A Client Quilt of a Musical Theme

This quilt was such an absolute pleasure to work on.

The piecer, Elaine, is a very skilled seamstress and she did an wonderful job creating this beautiful top as a gift for her grandson on his graduation from high school. Music plays a prominent part in her grandson's life now and will continue to do so, and thanks to his grandmother, he will have this lovely themed quilt to keep him cosy as he begins university this fall.

Elaine told me she liked my swirls and leaves, so swirls and leaves it was! As I free styled over the musical instruments on her carefully pieced blocks, as well as on the pre-printed panels, I tried to create movement and what I imagined to be beautiful music flowing from the horns, pianos and stringed instruments.

I quilted this with a variegated Rainbow thread on the top and a honey gold Glide in the bobbin. I didn’t get a close up of her backing fabric, but it was music bar-lines with notes and treble clefs.

  

A Client’s Beautiful Batik Floating Star Quilt

I love being given free reign on the quilting on a client’s quilt. I absolutely love free styling a quilt top!

This lovely floating star was a blissfully beautiful quilt to work on.

Each wonderful block was made with a different batik fabric and I just so enjoyed admiring each one as I quilted the top.

Claudette did a great job piecing this large top (96 x 106) but unfortunately I really couldn’t get a photo of it in its entirety. Weather and my circumstances made it necessary to keep it inside to photograph.

If summer ever does arrive here in the east, there will be many shouts of graitude. For now we try to make ourselves feel that a high of 17 degrees really is warm and that the rain is refreshing. Meanwhile I wrap myself in three layers and dream as I quilt as to where we can go this winter that is hot and dry. And that is hosting a quilt show, of course!

For those who might be interested, I quilted this with Omni thread on the top, a polyester thread from Connecting Threads in the bobbin, and Claudette provided me with a Quilters Dream Cotton Batting.