Antique Wholecloth

My friend Ineke brought me this antique quilt top to do for her sister Rita. She and another sister had trimmed it up and put the borders onto it

It was gifted to Rita, so little is know about it, but after examining it, I could see that it was very well hand-appliqued, with the tiniest of stitches.  There were some also less-pretty stitches, indicating that another person had also contributed some time to the work.

If you think this is a machine satin-stitch, look again!

And from the back you could see part numbers, printed on the cloth, showing where the pieces were to go.  Obviously, this was a kit quilt.
 











It was a great opportunity for me to practice some wholecloth designing and quilting, which was a challenge, yet quite an enjoyable experience.

I used a water-soluable blue marker to mark the quilting designs.  I love the way the quilt quilted up, and how nice it looked on the frame, but because of the amount of blue marker used, it needed a washing, and then it became the antique it really was!

We used a bamboo batting .

Rock 'N Roses Quilt

I made this quilt for my niece, supposedly for her graduation, which was last June, but she only took ownership of it a couple of days ago, while she watched me put the last stitches into it.

 I used a Rock 'N Roses panel from Northcott Fabrics, and a few of the coordinating fabrics.

 

I made an error into an opportunity.  I needed to insert the big black spaces in the center ends in order for the borders to fit properly, so I used that space for some freehand curls.  I loved the way the Rainbow threads stood out against the black.

 

Christmas Past!

Hi everyone in bloggerland!  Again, it seems forever that I was here.  Seems life gets busier and time flies by. 

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!  I said good-bye to the last of our houseguests this morning, and this is the first time I've been alone in ages!  It was an exhausting December, but well worth it!  I am thankful that I have family and friends to get together with.

Just wanted to share with you what projects I've been working on recently. 

 I had some time to work on ideas that have been smouldering in the back of my mind. 

We'll start with the woven quilts.  At our longarm meeting in November, we played with making a woven background from "Simply Stunning Woven Quilts" by Anna Faustino.

I started with 2 fat quarters of shaded fabrics

This is how it looked after the initial weaving.

I satin-stitched in between the lines, and played with Carol Taylors circle techniques.

 

 

 

 

 

I fused a photo of my son Brad onto another one of the weavings.

Tuli

Brad got this wallhanging for Christmas, while my son Jeff's girlfriends got this one of Tuli, her dog.  I didn't quilt hers, as there were up to 6 layers of fusible, so I guess I can't call it a "quilt"!

 For my son Jeff, I started this wallhanging last year, and finished it in time for his Christmas gift. 

I can't wait to make some more me-time for quilting!

Spokane WA Quilt Show 2011

Last weekend I attended the Spokane Quilt Show.  I took as many photos as I could, and have posted 755, and still didn't get all the quilts!

Lots more quilts to go onto my "to-do" list!

Enjoy the slideshow on the right.

Still catching up

I had a look at my list of quilts to blog about, and I am still so far behind!

I bumped into a few of the clients at our local quilt show, and I hope they don't think their quilts aren't worthy of the recognition!

So, I'll resume with Bev's first quilt.  She is a natural-born quilter, I'd say, as she didn't use a pattern, she just made up the layout on her own, and I was very impressed!

She used a Laurel Burch fabric with all it vibrant primary colours, and we chose to use a bright variegated thread, with a whimsical stars and loops pantograph across the whole thing.

Bev has since donated the quilt to a charity quilting group to use as a fund-raiser.  She has a very generous heart, common to well-seasoned quilters!

Nelson Quilt Show 2011

Yes, it's been awhile since I posted last!  I was busy enjoying the last of summer, and busy quilting in anticipation of our local quilt show.

I'm putting up another slideshow in the column at the right, so you can check out the quilts via my web album.  

Maybe later I will have time to make some comments regarding the quilts. 

Hope you enjoy the show!

My first quilt from a MAN

I know there are many men out there who quilt, it's just that I don't know any personally!  At least, until Ron came along. 

He is an adventurous sort of fellow, and when his daughter suggested he make a quilt, he took her up on the challenge.  It took him a couple of years, but since she was getting married this summer, he just had to have it finished!

What I can't believe though,  is that the quilt consists of hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces, of all white and white-on-white fabrics!  How grueling that must that have been!  Even an accomplished quilter would find that difficult to do!  It was a big one, too, 98"x113"!

Not only that, but he hand-embroidered the label on the back, too!  (Sorry, I forgot to get a photo of it!)

 Ron just wanted it simply quilted, with Polydown batting inside.  Turned out very cozy-looking!

He did an amazing job!