Lady Madonna Quilt

One of my good friends is in the process of adopting a baby. She made this quilt for the birth mother. It is BEAUTIFUL. It is called "Lady Madonna" by Abbey Lane Quilts.

I took the flower design from the center of the quilt and replicated it randomly throughout the background. Then I echoed everything, the flowers and the applique pieces.

In the center, I quilted around the small white flower center, the outside of the pink petals, and the outside of the black petals. She used a 1/2-5/8 inch batting, so the center fluffed up beautifully. I did not quilt on any of the rest of the pink applique pieces, so they puffed up a lot, as well.

She used this beautiful minkee on the back. It is so soft and smooth. I used black thread.

Meandering Feathers

My client "M" brought this hidden 9-patch quilt over for me to quilt. She just wanted a meander, she said, but if I wanted to do something different, too, it would be okay. I have done so many normal meanders that I was a little bored, so I started to play around with different ways to meander.
I finally came up with this cool design: a HUGE meander was the spine of my feather.

Then I echoed the feather to fill the rest of the quilt top.

It turned out really cool looking. And didn't take very long at all.

It is a great way to dress up a quilt, just using a simple meander. I used an eggshell colored thread.

Pleased to Present:

Okay, so I have been working on these for a few weeks now, about a month actually, and am proud to present my Banners of the Month!

I've been desiging, in my "free" time, wallhangings for each month of the year. I only really have 1 finished, but I've been working on several at once.

The first one I have mostly finished, except for the last half of the binding, is July's.

HERE IT IS:

I used a variegated red/white/blue thread for the white border around the flag in the center. I freehanded flags and loops. In the blue stars behind the "JULY" I quilted stars and loops in a navy blue. I also used the longarm to finish the applique edges of "JULY".

I used a navy blue and echo quilted around the star. I used navy blue on my domestic machine, along with a decorative stitch, to applique the edges of the white star. Around the flag I did a squiggle outline.

I know it's just a wallhanging, but I couldn't resist putting this super-cute fabric on the back. The color looks more orange in the picture because of the lighting in my living room, but I promise it's really red.

AND PRESENTING: AUGUST

I just finished piecing together August's wallhanging. YAY! I don't have the letters appliqued to the bottom strip of yellow because I don't have a printer at home to print the letters out with. Anyway, I am hoping to get it finished tomorrow. Since it is just a wallhanging, I'll probably just back it with some muslin and then use the leftover hot pink to bind it with.

I'm currently working on January's as well. I have most of it pieced and can't wait to unveil it!!!

Patterns will be available for sale soon, most likely on etsy. I have to finish drawing up some things for them, but have most of January's and July's patterns written. I am so excited!!

So, anyway, just wanted to introduce my lovelies to you all.

Feathers, feathers, everywhere!

This one was the second quilt I did this month for my client, "M". It was huge! But it turned out really nicely. It took me about a week to complete the quilting, which surprised even me, because I did a lot of quilting on it.
There were 99 blocks on this quilt. I took sets of 4s and quilted a feather 'x' motif through them. Then I meandered throughout the background.

In the border I did a long feather. It streched from the middle of the short sides of the quilt, around the corner, and ended in the middle of the long side of the quilt. This made two continuous, long feathers in the border. It looked really cool. There was a smaller border that I did a continuous squiggle in.

I love the way it looks on the back of the quilt! I used navy blue thread, and she provided me with wool batting, which quilts up beautifully, so the end effect was really quite splendid.

The feathered 'x' is a design I came up with in one of my "doodle sessions" as I call them, and is available for use in other quilts if desired.

Racing

This cute quilt is for another of the ladies up at Gracie Lou's. It had such cute fabric. It was all racing themed, with several flame fabrics in the mix.
It has black Minkee on the back. I used a black thread,and quilted flames across the quilt. It turned out so cute!

I had tried to find a flame pantograph, but nobody had one like I wanted, so I ended up freehanding the flames with the quilting machine. I had originally drawn several designs out on paper, but ended up just using them as a guide. I also used the flame fabrics as a reference for how I wanted the flames to turn out. For the most part, the flames are all a continuous pattern across the quilt, with several small flames quilted in empty spaces.

Custom quilt

A client came in and wanted a quilt done custom for her son, who will be leaving soon to serve an LDS mission in Brazil. She wanted pictures of Church related items, his name, his mission, and their family quilted onto the quilt.

She used two pieces of fabric, no piecing involved, to make this great gift for her son! The binding fabric was made from the remnants of the backing fabric, and she had me bind it for her.

Above: the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible.

Above and Below: Her son's favorite LDS temple is the Mt. Timpanogos temple in American Fork. She had me quilt a picture of the temple (below) and then I wrote the name next to it (above).

Above: The CTR (Choose the Right) shield

Below: She wanted a house with a stick-figure family, and dog, with names written underneath. Instead of making the missionary a stick figure, I put him in a shirt complete with namebadge, and pants.

Below: In the center of the quilt I wrote "Called to Serve" his name, and his mission.

Not pictured: Along the top edges I wrote "Families are Forever" and "I will go, I will do". Along the left edge I wrote "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and along the right edge, towards the bottom I wrote "Return with Honor". The bottom edge has a saying that the client brought in that she liked: "God's gift to us is our family."

It turned out really cute. It was only 45 x 63. Not too big, but small enough that he could easily pack it with him from one area to another.

If you would like a custom quilt like this one done, please call me or contact me via email.

Nicole's Wedding Quilt

Nicole, my husband's cousin, is getting married on Friday. She brought me this super cute quilt, made out of fabrics that match her wedding. She is having horseshoes as part of the theme of the wedding, and wanted me to quilt some into the quilt if I could.
In the background, behind the horseshoes, I quilted a tight meander. All the quilting was done in a pink (Old Rose) thread that matches the top and bottom fabrics PERFECTLY!
I quilted horseshoes in the pink/white stripe fabrics, and in the pink/white flower fabrics. It turned out really cute!

The horseshoes were all done freehand, and are available for use in other quilts.

Pinwheels

I have been really busy recently, and have been putting off posting. Sorry! Anyway, I have finished a few quilts this week, and this one was one of my favorites.
She wanted swirls quilted in the pinwheels.
And clouds and wind quilted in the borders.
I love the backing fabric she picked. It is such a cool color. And I love the way the quilting shows up on the backing.
Especially the borders. The quilt was huge, but it turned out so cute!

The clouds and wind border is an original design, and is available for use on other quilts.

Zinnias

This is the latest quilt I have done for Shasta at Gracie Lou's Quilt Shoppe. I really wish that the pictures showed the colors better, because this quilt was so beautiful! It was mostly maroon, tan, and dark brown. It was very geometric in design, which was really cool.
Shasta wanted me to do an all-over pattern that matched the floral print fabrics. The flowers in the fabrics were zinnias, so I did a variation of the flowers, and then did a continuous vine with leaves throughout the rest of the quilt. The leaves closely resemble the leaves in the fabrics.
She wanted to use minky on the back. It turned out so cool! Before I had seamed the backing, we all thought it looked like a giant fur coat. It was this beautiful plush dark brown minky with stripes.
You have to look closely, but I LOVE the way the quilting looked on the back. It was a very cool look.
The Zinnia pattern is an original quilting design, and is available for use on other quilts. The zinnias range in size from small to very large, as do the leaves.

Theme on "Ohio Star"

Sometimes I do quilts that will go on display in our local quilt store. The owner, Shasta, is friends with my in-laws, and she is a very nice lady. A few weeks ago she gave me this quilt. It needed to be finished, and then she wanted a larger floral motif in a wheat colored thread quilted on it.

Above: leaves and looping vines

Below: floral part of the motif

This pattern will be placed in my Original Quilting Designs book, and will be available for use on other quilts. This pattern is mostly done freehand, so it will not be exactly the same as the pictures above.

"Nest"

My client, Joy (not her real name), brought me another cute quilt to do last week. She used fabrics from Tula Pink's "Nest" and it was so fun and bright. She didn't really know what she wanted done with it, but she wanted something to tie the fabrics in with the quilting. She picked a really pretty bright yellow thread color (I think it is Goldenrod, and it was definitely a good choice for the quilt). The thread matched perfectly with the yellow in the fabric line, and even on the non-yellow fabrics it didn't stand out too much or detract at all from the quilt itself.

After much drawing, doodling, and some serious thought, I decided on a pattern. I took one of the themes from the fabric: and egg in some leaves, and adapted it little. I then quilted it in half of the blocks of the quilt. To fill in the empty space, I did a medium sized meander.
Above: the egg pattern.

Below: The meander, and the fabric that inspired the quilting design. You can see I left out the leaves that went up the sides of the egg, and adapted the leaves in front a little.

This pattern will be placed in my original quilting design book, and is available for quilting on any size quilt.

Paisley's for Joy

I have a client, we'll call her Joy, who always has fun, beautiful quilts for me to quilt for her. Last week she brought me this beautiful quilt to do. She said she wanted a paisley/floral motif all over, and not too tight.

I did some research, and found a picture of a journal someone had made. On the front of the journal was a group of paisleys all glued together to form a flower. That was my inspiration for the design I quilted into Joy's quilt.
I finished the flowers the same way I finished the paisleys, to make them look like they belong together.
After the paisleys and flowers were quilted into the top, I filled in the larger unquilted areas with a loose meander. I was so excited to show Joy her quilt when she came to pick it up, and she was so happy with it.

This pattern is an original design, and is available for quilting into any size of quilt. The flowers and paisleys vary in size and orientation, and are placed at random throughout the quilt top.