Just before I moved I was the lucky winner of this wool kit from Crazy for Primitive Quilts and Gardens . Isn't it gorgeous!!! I'm so excited to start on it, I have never worked with wool before and the colors that were chosen for the kit are my favorite! Check out the little quilted card, isn't it darling! :) Thank you so much for drawing my name and sending it all the way to me, I will be sure to post a pic of it when completed. Actually the day I took this photo, I had planned to start it right away and the very next day we received word of our move. So back in the bag it went and it's packed away with my other kits awaiting the new studio. Oh, by the way, construction begins this weekend!!!!
Hello Hello!! Okay, for those who have thought I dropped off the face of the earth and don't care about quilting anymore...not to worry...I just moved! A move that wasn't planned very far in advance, it actually all happened within a few weeks, and a move that transported us a couple of provinces over. Another move for the man in my life, yup DH and his work. So, I'm an Albertan again! I had to leave my lovely studio, my quilt guild ladies, my new customers and friends... :( My studio now remains in boxes and Miss Millie is in pieces...a lot of pieces! Construction begins in a couple of weeks to build me my space and I should be up and running and quilting up a storm by November...(crossing fingers). It's been hard not to sew at all lately and I've even thought about setting up shop in my walk in closet....umm, ya, it's that big. So, if I can find enough supplies without disturbing the mound of boxes too much I may get my sewing table set up, and at least get working on some ufo's, like I don't have enough calling my name. After sizing up the boxes marked "kits", I'm feeling as though I should have followed my dear friends advice and marked those boxes "linen closet, upper shelf". The longer they stay unpacked the more likely they are to be found by DH...hmmm. Well, I'll sign off for today but I do have a few pics that I will post soon of some quilts that I finished in an absolute panic before I left and unfortunately not all booked in were completed :(
Pictured above is my second try at custom quilting for a client. Yup, I fretted over this one too. I wasn't as stressed over this one but I sure learned a valuable lesson on which way to load a quilt. PLAN FIRST, then load! As you can see this is a prime example for loading lengthwise...how much time I would have saved. Oh well, lesson learned. This fun quilt was first seen by my customer in a magazine and after hunting down the fabric all the way down in the states, she made it for her daughter as a gift. For the quilting I chose a ribbon motif for the orange circles, reverse loop meander in the white background and white border, a wave type pattern for the pink borders/sashings, a ribbon vine for the rectangles and a ribbon and loop design for the outside border. I used white, orange and pink cucurini thread for the top and pink cucurini for the backing. I used Pam Clarke's ribbon motif for the circles with the laser and the rest of the quilting I did freehand with just a visual beside me. So there you have it, second custom done!
My first official custom quilt! Now go easy on me okay. My new favorite saying is ... I can only get better! At first my client wanted all the star sections ditched and a flame pattern in the background and other blocks in a blue thread, oh and seperate borders. No problem ... right? Right before I got it out to quilt she popped in to say she wanted the flames to go right over the yellow border and out onto the outer border as well, okay no problem. Once I got it out and ready to quilt, the blue thread just didn't really do much for the quilt and would have looked terrible streaking across the yellow border. After a quick dive through my tickle trunk of thread I found a Rainbow called Salsa, bright red, orange and yellow ... where did that come from? Must have been in my little free pack of thread from APQS. Hmmm ... could it be more perfect? After a quick call to my client to make sure it was okay to plaster her quilt with a Rainbow, I jumped right in. Wow, custom quilting for a customer is scary! I had such anxiety over this one and made so many mistakes ... what was that again ... OH ... I can only get better! Right. Anyway, once it was done I called her right away and she came right down, which was good cause I wouldn't have lasted another day not knowing if she liked it or not. And she did, she loved it! Phew!!!
Customer baby quilt from Nancy Halvorsen's Winsome Baby book. Love the pattern. After searching everywhere for the Winsome fabric line I finally found it last Christmas in Yuma Arizona while on vacation. I brought a whole bunch back and made a quilt for my great-nephew Aron in January. Made it up and delivered it so fast that I didn't have time to take a picture. It was in the smokey blues and celery greens, lovely. Above is a customer quilt made for Hazel that I quilted up with a reverse loop meander with the odd daisy, heart and star thrown in. Love the colors she chose, such a cute quilt!
The bargello quilt below that I quilted for a customer, won the Peoples Choice Ribbon at our local quilt show this past weekend. As it should, it's beautiful! It must have taken her forever to piece that quilt, and she even chose all the fabrics herself! CONGRATS! You deserve it!
Pretty in Pink! This ever so pretty Bargello is a customer quilt that I quilted using the Cassaundra's Rose pattern with Pink Cuc thread top and bottom. No wonder I ran out of pink thread! :0) This was my first attempt at quilting a bargello and my very first time using super puffy poly batting. The batting stressed me out a bit, I was so worried about sewing puckers into the quilt...I have no idea how this turned out so beautifully. I let my customer know that if her daughter doesn't like it, I will personnally purchase it from her. How do we keep ourselves from getting so attached to these quilts that are in our lives for such a brief time. I love them all!
Here is a pic of the back of the quilt, it was a pretty pink batik.
