Dresden Fans by Susan

An update.  Susan decided, and I agree with her, that it needed background fill, so I put her quilt back on and added a tight meander in the background areas.

I so admire people who do applique to begin with, but then to do it by hand is even more impressive in my book.  Yes, all those little wedges are sewn together, then hand appliqued to the background and the centers added as well.

I'm not sure if this quilt is "finished" or not.  I can't decide if it needs a background fill in the spaces between the wreaths and the plates, so I've emailed Susan to ask her opinion.  If she says yes it needs fills, then I'll update this photo.

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In addition to all the applique, the outside edge of the quilt is made up of pieced triangles.  Wow.  Well done.

Animals by Veda

Two sweet baby quilts that Veda dropped off for quilting.  The elephant is made up in flannels, so very soft and cuddly.

The giraffe is cottons, but with a great giraffe print on the backing too!

I love his/her (?) expression.  Both were quilted with the "African Pull Toys" panto, but I couldn't get a decent shot of the quilting to show.  Trust me, it really works.

Log Cabin by Carin's relative

The second of the quilts from Arkansas.  Much later than the appliqued flowers, probably circa 1980's to my untrained eye.  All cotton fabrics though, not polyester or double knit from the 1970s.  Quilted with an edge to edge design of hydrangeas using poly batt and machine bound.

 A close up of a block, and the backing with the hydrangea panto and teal thread showing.

Appliqued Flowers by Carin's relative

Long story.  I'm doing a service call, and my phone, which never rings, rings.  I heard her say that she had 2 baby quilts to quilt.  When I called her back later on, it's was 2 queen quilts.  Oh. a bit of a difference.  She's also not from Oregon, as I had assumed, they live in Arkansas. 

Story I got is that mom Carin and daughter Kathleen live in Arkansas, but the quilts will be going to an aunt in Oregon.  I think that's how they picked me to quilt them.  Kathleen isn't really sure who made them or when, but  I believe this one is original 1930's fabrics, some of which were "repurposed."  As in the background fabric has obvious lines old stitching lines where something had been taken apart, and then resewn into this lovely quilt top. 

This block has a small stain, not unusual for something of this age. It's hard to see, but in the closeup below, the original hand basting stitches are still in the yellow center.  I found a few of these blocks.

 I tried to keep the quilting traditional to the quilt top, so SID around the flowers, then a tight meander for a background fill.  This allows the flowers to pop up off the background.  Feathers in the sashing strips that "grow" in the same direction as all the flowers.  Quilted with Hobbs Wool batting, and So Fine! thread.  What a lovely memory for the family.

"Purple Abstract" by Kristin

 No pressure here, but Kristin brought me this quilt, but has never sent a quilt out to a longarmer to be finish for her before.  Usually she quilts all her own quilts by herself on her domestic machine.  This is a bed quilt for her mother, and Kristin enlarged the design to make it the size she needed.  Appliqued flowers and leaves, all SID around them.

 The leaves were given spines for stability.

Love the ombre fabric.  One that fades from darkest to lightest across the width of the fabric.

French Braid by their friend

Lisa and

Lisa and Rachel are two amazing and lovely women who when I first met them, didn't even know how to sew.  Know Lisa teaches classes in the French Braid quilt, and Rachel has recently finished law school.  This quilt top was made by their friend who was taking Lisa's class.  Sadly, she became ill and passed away before she could finish the quilt.  While she was in the hospital, Lisa and Rachel took a piece of fabric and had their friend sign her name in pen on the fabric.  Lisa then embroidered over her signature with thread, and now it's preserved with the quilt.  Quilted with an edge to edge design of dragonflies and leaves. What a lovely memento of a dear friend.

"Animals" by Donna

Donna contacted me via email about quilting a quilt, and then pulls this beauty out of her bag.  First, it's just adorable!  "Where did you find the pattern?" I ask.  She has designed all the blocks herself.  Oh my!  I hope that she'll work on getting the pattern published, I'd love to make one for some future child of someone's.  So, so sweet!  We talked about how she wanted it quilted, and Donna ended up taking the top home with her to mark specific quilting designs on the blocks.  I have stated repeatedly that I can quilt, but I can't draw to save my life.  Each block is SID around the outer edge of the animal, and there are swirls that alternate directions in the sashing strips.  Outer border has a daisy meander with hearts in the four corners.

 

Kitty has some swirls going through her body.  All the animals also have embroidered eyes.

 The zebra got intersecting lines through his white stripes, and two little flies in the background.

Its' a sheep!  With curly wool!

The dog says "Woof Woof."

 Elephant with his trunk wrapped up and over his body, then the quilting makes the water that he's spraying.

Bamboo leaves around the giraffe in case he needs a snack.

The Bunny gets a carrot!

 The whale has fish swimming under the edge of the water.

 Snowflakes on the penguin.

 Bamboo leaves for the panda.

The lion is so wonderful as he is that he's only SID.

Grey Wholecloth by me

Plan A.  I'll load up a two pieces of extra wide quilt backing, and cut one down to be the size of a twin bed, quilt it in lots of different playing around designs, and then give it to the police.  What really happened.  I got it cut and loaded and started to play with it, but then got bored, so took it off and put on something else.  Then this would get reloaded as a sample quilt for people testing out my machine, or during a beginner class.  I finally just added some fills, cut it short and bound it by machine.  Off to the police with you too!

 

I did like the playing with my new rulers from Christmas though.  The spines of the feathers are from the scallop edge, then filled with free hand feathers and piano keys on the outside edge. Could have been straighter.

The 90 degree angle is another new ruler, then moved it slightly to get a "channel" between the two rows.  A swirl of feathers to fill and off we go.

"I don't remember" by me.

Poor quilt.  I don't even remember the name of it!  It's old, something I pieced when the Heart to Hand quilt shop was still open.  This quilt has been stuffed into my quilt check in bag for literally years, and I finally decided that it wasn't doing me any good, so it needed to go and do some good.  Off to the police with you!

I do like my playing around with the quilting designs though.

"Here Kitty Kitty" and "Mr. Soft Ears" by Me

My friend Anne has a neice who is going to have twin girls.  Any excuse to make a quilt, or two.

Anne has a lovely dog, Talon, who is represented by "Mr. Soft Ears."  Talon has the softest ears I've ever felt! "Here Kitty Kitty is for the cats that live where the girls will live.

A detail of Mr. Soft Ears. Can you see his whiskers?

Outer border from the front and the back below.  I've got rulers, let's play with them!

Detail of Here Kitty Kitty.  I tried to quilt in things that cats like to play with.  Feathers in the border, bubbles, and then some "fur" in the body of the cat.  The arches in the border, below, are more playing with my rulers.

Thimbleberries by Linda

I wish I knew how many Thimbleberries quilts Linda has made.  I'm not even sure that she knows.  This is her most recent delivery to me.  Quilted with the Log Cabin panto.

Kathy's son's quilt #2

 This is such a great pattern!  When you pull the quilt top out and have it loaded on the machine, you think "cool quilt."  Then when you get it all finished, and hang it up, you realize that it's Really Cool!  Love the fabrics and how they interact and the quilting design.

A close up of the top middle row.