Ann's Gift Quilt

       One of my best friends has taken up quilting with some assistance from me. She is an accomplished home dec seamstress (I am not). She asked me if I would quilt this quilt which is a present for her son and daughter in law. I do not usually quilt anyone else's work as it is too nervewracking. I did this for her, although it was queen size and double sided. Most of the quilts I longarm are about 60 x 80 finished.
      We went over designs and sketched out ideas. The hard thing is she made a second quilt top for the back. While the idea is lovely, you can never center a back top so it coincides with the front one. I told her to add a lot of white fabric at the sides. The designs are not going to match up. Ok, she got that finally. I did not have any trouble quilting over seams. The front top did not lay flat enough, so that was always a struggle. Her batting had a hunk cut out and I had to remedy that on the long arm because I did not see it when loading. I used fusible knit interfacing strips, ironing it on while on the longarm. I trimmed it, but she bound it. They are getting it for Christmas while they will be here from Perth, Australia.

The Front

The Back

A-Mazeing quilt

      I quilted a quilt from someone else because they asked and I could do it. She blogged about it here. It was a Maze design. I had to stare at it for a while to figure out what would look best for the color and requests she wrote. I decided to do different motifs in the different colors. I used Gray Glide 60 for the top thread and DecoBob Dove Gray for the bobbin. Gratefully, it gave me very little tension isues.
     The binding was a flange binding. I sewed it on the back with PremoSoft gray and the front with YLI monofilament, clear. I washed it then and immediately bagged it, packed it, and it arrived clear across the country just as it was supposed to. The best part was it was exactly what was wanted, whew.

The front before washing

The back

When washed, the texture shows much better

Special Project Reveal- Why Free Motion Quilting matters

     There are many reasons to work on special projects. Like a company gives you new fabric, a milestone event in a loved one's life, a extraordinary inspiration, or a challenge to move you ahead. 
     I believe that the quilting on the quilt needs to be part of the fabric pieced design, like paint fills around the lines on a pages. I look at the quilt and try to determine what the quilt needs stitched in. Personally, I don't like all over designs because they ignore all the  beautiful piecing going on. I realize I am in the minority. When I choose a top, I try to find an overall theme, topic, motif, or expressive line. 
     When Deanna from Wedding Dress Blues posted how she had a quilt that she did not know how it could be quilted, I emailed her and told her I would take it on. I don't quilt for others, but this was a challenge I wanted to gift. 

Deanna's quilt in her blog

     I looked at this quilt as a flower garden in vertical rows. I thought the bright vertical strips would be a tall column of leaves in between the flowers. The pastel areas, I made free form leaf designs that curve and curl to break the linear grid. I did not want to quilt over the flower star shapes, so I did swirls around them up to the edges and made a flower center which I varied for each flower. When this is washed, the star flowers will pop up from the background. 
     I quilted this in Mocha Glide on the top and Mocha Premosoft in the bobbin. I used a titanium needle and no problem with the batik or multiple seams. I did not trim it, but folded into a priority box and mailed it back to her in Utah (I am in Buffalo, NY). 

Whole quilt, untrimmed

Vertical leaves columns

Flower center detail

Back, busy fabric, hard to see quilting

Quilting on back

   She has not received it yet, so I am hoping she likes it. 
I hope I explained and showed that quilting can be an effective design element along with the piecing and elevate the whole quilt. Now back to my stack of quilts hanging in the balance.

     I

Frozen warms the little girl

     I have got to say it- Disney is not my idea for a quilt. But my granddaughter, 2, asked me if I could make an Elsa Blankie. I bought the panel in Houston at the Quilt Festival as well as the big border snowflake fabric. I cut off the annoying pink border and added three. I used a heart design in one border, snowflakes in another and swirls in the last. I free motion designed the panel according to what the image was. I changed thread colors for the hair and clothes. 
    Of course she loved it because of the Disney princesses. She put it to use right away.

All done! Used the colorwash binding I auditioned for Circle Dance

Freestyle quilting

Border quilting

My daughter helping her niece fly

Mother and daughter cuddling

Some quilt progress

     Finally, the Red, White and blue quilt, 60 x 60, from the Cozy Quilt Pattern is done. I used the walking foot to do the straight line quilting in the diamond shape. I have difficulty with it because it has a tendency to put some pleats in the background fabric. I never have trouble when I FMQ. Any suggestions? I did the borders in free form red stars.

    I layed out all the blocks for the diagonal variation using the animal skin jelly rolls and numbered all the rows and blocks. I have two of them to piece, but I only took a photo of one because the other was on the floor. 

   I also finished a half sheet watercolor painting of my hydrangeas in the snow.

My most hated tool

    I am not sure why, but lately for every stitch I make, I am ripping out twice as much. I do not have a seam ripper that I like. I have tried a bunch, but they all are a pain. They need a thinner point to slip under stitches easier and are easier to hold. What would really help is not having to use one at all.

Not as easy as the delete key

     One item I have had an incredibly awful time with is FMQ the Big Leaf quilt I made. No matter what machine, what thread, what needle, it kept skipping stitches. Finally, I washed it to get rid of the spray basting (June Tailor which I never use), and it quilted better, but some of the batiks keep shredding the thread. Lots of ripping and muttering.

Still not done

    Just a note to think about: the Hands2Help Challenge from Sarah Craig at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. The button is on my sidebar, and I will be a guest blogger in May detailing the Exploding Squares quilt for you.

Batik scrap scarf

   I love scraps, tiny batik ones too. I have made some small wall quilts with them and I decided to try a scarf. I used 60" x 6" of sticky water soluble interfacing on my table and added background scraps, light blues. I overlapped and layered them. Then I added greens for leaves in separate areas. Last, I added colors for flowers. I was thinking roses, but I am not sure that is how they will turn out. Before I layered another water soluble interfacing piece on top (ran out of sticky water soluble), I drizzled a little washable Elmer's glue. Where the drops were too big, it ate through the top layer of interfacing. Hmm, better think that out better next time.
  Then I free motioned densely over all the scarf with YLI invisible thread on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. Then, using blue Glide thread, I FMQ the blue background, the green thread over the leaves. I am debating about dissolving the interfacing now, and then FMQ the flowers so I can see them better. I tried to photo the steps so you could see the process.

Laying out the background

Continuing to add pieces

Lengthwise

 

Layering leaves and flowers

Flowers down the length

Free motion with Singer 15, works like a charm

Blue thread being added

Green thread on leaves

Work, work, work = fun, fun, fun

   Lots of different things going on. I labeled and bagged all my UFOs and put them standing up in a bin under the counter. I sewed all the blocks for the You've Got Mail quilts. One layer cake made 2 quilts, 4 blocks by 5. I tried to use all the cool color ones in one, and the mostly warm in the other. It was grey today, so I don't know how well I did. I used blue painters tape and labeled all the rows so I could stack them for sewing. One fit on the design wall, and I had to lay the other on the floor.

The warmer blocks

Cooler blocks

      All finished quilting Emma's Star! Ready to put in a tote bag and wait for someone who needs it. I have another one (Emma's Star) all cut out waiting to piece. I used patterns from Free Motion Quilting. Thank you, Leah Day. I would never be able to be the quilter I am today without your tutorials and blog! The designs I used were Bubble Wand, Flowing Lines, and Basic Chevron. I bought her book and use it to plan out what I am going to use on a quilt. Then I go to her site and watch the video to practice it out. I started using Isacord because of her, but now I also use Glide because it is USA made and works so well.
     I also want to thank Lori from The Inbox Jaunt for excellent FMQ tutorials that I have used at times.  And for sheer production of comfort quilts, Sarah is the queen to me at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Emma's Star

     I finally found fabric for my daughter's tote. It is probably not the first color choice she would take, but I think the design is and I think the color goes with her hair and being a chemistry college professor at Allegheny College (read proud mom).  The tote is going to be a challenge for me. It has a zipper (gasp) and I have to change up the pattern (yikes).

Local Quilt Store fabric comes through

     Last, I would like to show I finished the Christmas cactus watercolor. I always enjoy Wanda's photos of her cactus and I told her I would post a photo of this when done. I owe her gratitude for her knowledge and kindness to me.