Harry Potter for Dean

Dean contacted me via e-mail. Here is what he said "My wife wants a Harry Potter comforter for a king size bed, Unfortunately they are only made in full size. I did purchase two and took them to an alteration shop. She suggested a duvet which looks nice but does not work for us."  When Dean brought them to me, they had been made into a duvet, with one of the comforters cut in half, and then sewn to the sides, and a section added to the bottom.  I took the top apart from the bottom and removed the zipper.  I was able to re-use the backing, but needed to add a section to be able to attach it to my leaders.  Quilted with Monopoly thread in the top so that the thread color wouldn't compete with the colors in the quilt.  Quilted with "mimbari" quilting design.  One of my own freehand designs that is named after a species from the Babylon 5 TV series.  It was really fun to puzzle out how to make this work, mostly in trying to get the quilt top straight on my rollers.  I'm used to woven cotton fabrics, and this was made from slippery polyester, so it wanted to slide off the machine and not stay where I wanted it to.  Now I have such an urge to watch all of the Harry Potter movies.

 

 

1/2 square triangles by Amber

Here is Amber's second quilt that she left with me.  All done in lovely batiks and simple 1/2 square triangles.  Makes a really effective quilt. 

Amber and I were discussing how to quilt it, and I asked her to describe her feeling about the quilt.  She commented that it felt "calm" to her, so that led us to quilting it with a pond water meander.  Imagine the ripples that you get on a pond when you toss a pebble in, and that's the quilting design. 

   When she came to pick up her quilts, she said that she wasn't going to start another quilt yet, that she had some other things to do first.  I was rather disappointed, as I had really enjoyed these two quilts.  Then she said that she had started another top, but doesn't know where it will go yet, so isn't ready to think about quilting it yet.  I only hope that when it's final destination is known that she'll let me help her to finish it.  Such pretty quilts!

Amber chose a Lava variegated thread for the top, and So Fine! for the bobbin.

 

 

Hexagons by Amber

I love hexagon quilts, but I will only hand piece them.  Strangely that is so much easier than to piece them by machine.  I don't have to deal with "Y" seams, and look at the collection of them that Amber has here!  I also love the gradation of  color from light to dark. 

Here are the threads the we used.  Glide "Hawaiian Blue" and Bottom Line in the bobbin

The backing really shows the quilting.  I did continuous curves in the hexagons, a leaf design in the first border, and randomly stitched in the ditch on the outer border.

A close up of the font.

Coffee Quilt by Patty

I think that Patty found a bolt of coffee print, and made her own panel quilt with this one. 

Quilted with the Swirls board by Circle Lord.  I know that I drink too much coffee, but when quilting this quilt, I just wanted to have a cup of hot coffee in my hand.  The dumping May rain didn't help either.

Patty chose "Freedom" from Superior Threads King Tut collection, and I used the same So Fine! color in the bobbin as in her Chicken quilt.

Chickens by Patty

Am I the only one who channels Bugs Bunny, and thinks "Penguins is practically chickens" when I see this quilt?  Can't be.  I am guessing that Patty found a panel of chicken fabric and used these for the blocks, then the perfect chicken footprint for the background.  The minute she pulled this quilt top out I knew that it needed the "Chicken Wire" panto.

A couple of the different panels

As I was quilting this quilt, and listening to my old Country music CD, the last track was "Chicken Reel" by Les Paul.  Check out the link, I'm sure you know the tune.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Reel

Two shades of red "So Fine!" thread to quilt this.

Grey and Teal by Sharon

Sharon had made a quilt for her son's girlfriend and chose to use wool batting.  Turns out the her son is allergic to the batt, so he can't snuggle underneath it with her!  Good to know in case you make a quilt for someone who is allergic, only to find that they can't use your lovely gift.  Only one photo, wish I'd been able to take more.  This quilt is quilted with the Vanilla Cream panto, Warm and Natural Batting.  Machine bound with the "chevron" stripe fabric so that it looks like it is cut on the bias.

 

"Library" by Becci

Ack!  She's never sent a quilt out for quilting before!  The pressure!  I love the quilt!  Becci has a friend who is a librarian, and will be receiving this lovely quilt.  Haven't you always wanted to do this yourself?  Gotta love that it looks just like a set of book shelves.  Mostly they are standing upright, but there are a few that are stacked, or leaning against others.  The vase in the middle is a perfect addition.

All the books are SID, and every once in a while I quilted a design in the "spine" of the book.  The grey with the diagonal  lines, and the yellow with the birds both have quilting.  All quilted with monopoly thread to give texture, but not distract from the piecing.  Becci also chose great fabrics, so many of them really looked like the spines of classic leather bound books.  The background was quilted with a vine and leaf design to tie in with the fact that books are made with paper which comes from trees.