Split Nine-Patch

Denise brought me another top to quilt up for her. 

I was surprised when she told me it was a split nine-patch!  This is definitely not the usual way I have seen it laid out, but it works!

 

She used a lovely paisley as her main fabric, so I chose a paisley pantograph pattern to quilt it with. 

Forget-Me-Nots and Dragonflies

Bernice sent me these two quilt tops to finish up for her.  She gets Hobbs Polydown batting and likes things lightly quilted.

The first one is a sweet forget-me-knot design, that I just free-handed some flowers inside her own.  Lots of fun! 








The second one was made up of many different dragonfly fabrics.  I started out meandering loops and dragonflies in the big, open blocks, then using the fabric for inspiration, did the border with dragonflies and ferns, and then I accentuated the pinwheels.  I might have gotten carried away and over-quilted it abit for her taste, but I'm sure she will be pleased as the polydown is such a soft, fluid batting for a fluffy polyester!

Melinda's Heart Bargello Quilt

Molly brought me this gorgeous Bargello Quilt top she made. 

The Pattern is called "Melindas Heart" by Heidi K. Farmer. 

To decide what to quilt on it, I took a photo of the quilt top, then printed it out on a few regular sheets of paper, and started to doodle some ideas.  The amazing 3-D nature of the quilt design popped out right away, and I was able to distinguish where I wanted the feathers to go, etc.  I also used a water-soluable blue marking pen to draw out all the feathers and lines I wanted right onto the quilt top, so I wouldn't have to spend time thinking about it while it was on my quilting frame.  So most of the work was done before it even got on the frame!

I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Kids Will Be Kids

This is the second quilt top Roberta brought to me, done in the same pattern.  It is Called "Kids Will Be Kids", the boys version, whereas the first one she brought was the girls version, probably about a year ago.

The pattern is by Helen Weinman, from "The Quilter" Magazine Nov '08. Roberta ordered the fabric kit from whoever offered it for sale in the magazine. 

It was a lovely collection of coordinating flannels with little cars, trucks, boats, planes and "beep-beep" text.  So cute!

I just happened to aquire a new pantograph called "Automotion" by Lisa Thiessen, which had cars and trucks all over it, so it suited the quilt perfectly!

Batik Beauty

Donna brought me this gorgeous batik quilt top she made.

Lovely "organic" colours and prints, and a perfect Northcott Stonehenge wide backing to tie it all together.

I used a nice variegated thread with a leafy pantograph, and Hobbs Polydown batting.

Castlegar Quilt Show

A couple of weeks ago, a local guild put on their bi-annual Quilt Show.

It happened to fall on the same weekend as our Guild Retreat, so I took in the Quilt Show in during it's final hour! 

I was inspired and amazed at the talent shown by the ladies in Castlegar!

And I'm also proud to know that I started my own quilting journey there with them, some 20 or so years ago!

Most of the quilts were quilted by a longarm buddy, Debra, at Flamingo Quiltworx.  Awesome work, Debra!

this Quilt won Best of Show, as well as the CQA ribbon I believe.  By Verna C

Guild Raffle Quilt, designed by one of their own members!

By TJ, a very talented artist, lots of thread painting

Another work by TJ

Commemorating the Vancouver 2010 Olympics

Debra's Blooming 9-Patch

Here are a few of my favorites, but please visit the slideshow in the right-hand sidebar, for many more!

Christmas Tree Skirt

Ineke brought me a Christmas tree skirt she wanted quilted.
She still calls herself a beginner quilter, and wasn't feeling
ready to tackle it on her own machine, so I got a chance to play with it.

Continuous curves, e's and l's, and Holly leaves in 2 borders

Left the center unquilted in preparation for it to be cut out

Star in the corner, echoing the star in the center

Chinese Lantern

Catherine brought me a Chinese Lantern quilt for me quilt up.  She had a wonderful assortment of Asian-inspired fabrics, probably bought as fat quarters, and was a great way to incorporate them all into one quilt.


This is the 3rd quilt of this type I've had to do, so I wanted to quilt something differently than the others. 

Catherine requested something very simple and light, and Hobbs PolyDown batting.  She was happy with the result.

Funny thing is, this "simple" quilting job takes twice as long as an all-over pantograph, with all it's starts and stops and advancing and reversing the quilt, and burying the threads, which takes up so much time.  I have to charge more for it than for an allover design, which always seems so hard to do !

Lemon Creek Retreat

Recently, our guild held their annual quilt retreat at a rustic lodge in the country.






It was my first time attending and now I know why it's on most people's to-do list!  We didn't have to cook or clean, the food was great and the accomodations cozy!  And the company was awesome! 

The table I worked at with these ladies

Dinner being served!

Chris is checking on what I'm doing

My machine sewing project was working to finish these oak leaves I've had on the go for a couple of years.  They pattern comes from Quiltmaker Sept-Oct '02.  Several women from the guild had made these.  It was a good take-along hand project, gluing down the edges of the leaves to freezer paper, but I decided I was going to machine applique them onto their bases.  Then, I had to cut them in half and re-sew the blocks together.  I'm still in the midst of removing the freezer paper, and I can either make one single-sized quilt, or two lap-sized ones, but I'm leaning towards the lap-sized ones. 

Me at the final show-and-tell

Here is what I have up on my design wall so far.

I'll update you on my progress later!

Also, there is a Lemon Creek Retreat album in the right sidebar, if you'd like to see others projects.

Quilting Workshops with Pippa Moore

We recently had Pippa Moore ( http://www.pippamoore.ca/ ) visit the area, and she stayed to give a workshop on her African Sunshine quilt, a version of the New York Beauty block. 

 Here, Sharon sits with her fabrics
 



Pippa combines all our blocks and shows us how they can be arranged.

 We are surprised to see how all our different colour combos looked great together!

 Pippa brought some fabrics and kits and buttons from her "little quiltshop on wheels".  It's called "Kitambaa Designs" and can be found on the internet as  http://www.pippamoore.ca/kitambaa-designs.htm .

 Pippa stayed and gave a talk and slideshow at our guild meeting, after a yummy potluck dinner!

 She showed us some of the quilts she made from the African fabrics she imports and sells.

 She has an on-going project with a group of African women, teaching them how to sew, quilt and sell their products to the tourist market.

 Pippa was a source of inspiration and we all had a great time!