Commissioned Quilt

I really wish I had been able to get a picture of the complete quilt. It was so cute! This quilt was commissioned by a client who wanted to give her daughter a snuggly blanket for her birthday. The quilt ended up being about 107 x 107. It was HUGE!
I alternated different sizes of daisies in the red and white border blocks.

In the green ladybug border blocks I did a daisy on a stem with leaves. (I quilted it so that no matter which way the quilt was facing, the daisy was standing up)

Then in the center panel I did a loop with flowers.

The back was the same red as the border blocks.

The fabrics used in this quilt were all supplied by the client, and were flannel and minkee. I used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting, and quilted it with red thread.

If you would like me to do a quilt similar to this one, please call me, or email me at designsbylaurajo@gmail.com for pricing information, or with any questions you might have.

T-Shirt Quilt Services Now Available!

NOW AVAILABLE!!

T-Shirt Quilts

Bring me your shirts and I'll make a beautiful keepsake out of them! T-shirt quilts make a great gift, or are just a great way to get use out of all of those sports/activity t-shirts you or your kids get/got in school.

T-Shirt quilts cost $14 per block. This includes:

Interfacing

Sashing Fabric

Backing and Binding Fabric

Piecing the Quilt Top

Batting

All Quilting Services

Binding

All Labor

T-shirt quilts take approximately 2-3 weeks to complete from start to finish.

Please note: If you would like minkee on the back of the quilt, there may be an additional charge due to a higher cost of materials.

Bring your shirts to me and let me do all the work! The quilt pictured also uses button-up shirts. These shirts work wonderfully as well as the t-shirts. Sorry, I am currently unable to use the thicker polo shirts. Thinner, lightweight polo shirts are able to be used, however.

Email with any questions: designsbylaurajo@gmail.com

Jacks Be Quick

I bought this quilt as a kit from Gracie Lou's when the first opened back in July. It has taken until today to finish the quilt! This morning, before leaving for work to quilt it, I sewed the last bit of floral border on! Talk about procrastination!! The pattern is called Jacks Be Quick.
I absolutely love the fabrics that came in the kit. I quilted an all-over floral/loop pattern.

This backing fabric was such a great find! One of the ladies at Gracie Lou's pointed it out to me when I was looking at muslin. It's like 118 inches wide or something like that (maybe it's 108 but I can't measure!) It was really nice to not have to seam the backing for this quilt, since it was so big. And, I have a nice bit of fabric leftover for some small project on down the line.

White House Steps

This fun variation on the log cabin (white house steps, I believe it is called) is a Christmas present for my 87- year old Grandma H. She has had a bad bout of poor health lately, and can't do much anymore, so I thought that making a nice, big comfy quilt for her to keep her warm while she sits in her chair or on the couch reading or watching church movies would be just the thing!
I alternated between squiggles/in the ditch quilting, and loops/flowers....except on rows 2 and 4. Apparently I got a little messed up in my figuring, and I quilted squiggles/squiggles in the last block of these two rows.

I used a dark brown (I think it is called Chestnut) colored thread. The quilt turned out really nice, even if I did mess up the pattern!

Black, white and yellow

This cute quilt came to me pre-bound, which made it really easy to load onto the machine! She wanted it quilted similarly to the shop sample at Gracie Lou's. I used many of the same elements, and threw in a few additional ones.
It turned out really cute.

Photo Quilt - #3

This one was for one of the ladies up at Gracie Lou's. She did it for a family member.
I stitched in the ditch around the star squares, and did a tighter meander in the patchwork squares.

I did a leaf/floral motif in the border.

I used an eggshell colored thread. (I think that's my favorite thread, can you tell? hehe)

Wedding Table Runner #2

This is another of the charm pack table runners that I did. It is for one of my cousins, who is getting married later this week.
Using an eggshell colored thread, I did a meander across the entire quilt.

Be-Attitudes

This quilt was so fun to do! My client wanted it quilted like the photo on the pattern. This was a challenge for me, as there were several elements I had never used/done before, but it was an awesome learning experience, and the quilt turned out so cute!
It's the "Be Attitudes". The pattern is by Nancy Halverson. I seriously want to make myself one of these now! If only I could find the pattern!

This block with the cute owl was one of my favorites. I quilted as closely to the photo on the pattern as I could, using a wheat colored thread.

This is the back of the quilt (upside down, sorry!).

Christmas Quilt

This quilt was one of my DH's cousin's. She just wanted simple quilting on it.
I did a large meander in an eggshell colored thread, being careful not to cut the people in the panel's faces in half!

9-patch

This quilt is so cute, and was so fun to quilt.
The fabrics my client used had a floral pattern in them, that reminded me of this flower that I quilt:

I did an all-over loop with the flowers, in an eggshell colored thread.

Flower Bedspread Quilt

This super cute quilt is for the daughter of a lady who works for our local city government. It is a surprise for her for Christmas. Her mom was sneaky and told her that they could make the quilt, but that because of the minkee for back was a little more expensive, they couldn't get it right now. Then she went out and bought it and brought it to me to be quilted!
She also brought a roll of really puffy poly batting for me to use. It was probably around 1 inch thick. It was a challenge, combined with the minkee, but it turned out so great!

I did big flowers in the blocks, and a leaf/vine motif in the border. I used eggshell colored thread. The back is that really cool bright green minkee with the swirl pattern in it.

Photo Quilt - #2

This is another photo quilt I quilted for a customer.
I used a wheat colored thread, and just did a medium sized meander around the pictures.

Surprising

This quilt was for two little boys, sons of ladies I am friends with (who happen to own and work at Gracie Lou's Quilt Shoppe). The boys are, I think, 8 years old. They did an amazing job on this quilt! It was for one of their teachers for Christmas.
I did a large meander all over. It had a soft, plush brown minkee back. Oh this quilt was so beautiful! I'm sure their teacher will just love it.

I would also like to note that it was one of the boy's sister who made this one. I think she is 8, too. What talented kids! Seriously, I couldn't sew to save my life until I was about 19!

Yummy Cupcakes

This totally delicous, cupcake themed quilt was for my client "Joy".
I stitched in the ditch around the squares, and then did a loop with flowers in the border. She didn't want the squares to be too puffy, so I stretched the quilt as tight as I possibly could.

I used a hot pink colored thread. It's called "Swiss Beauty". Don't know what hot pink has to do with Swiss, but it looked really good with the fabrics she used.

Diamonds and Flowers

This is a quilt that my sister-in-law did for Gracie Lou's Quilt Shoppe. It was such a cute pattern. I knew I had to do something special with it. This is what I came up with:

I randomly quilted large petaled daisies with large spiral centers. Then I echoed around them. I quilted clear out to the edge of the quilt, and every inch of fabric is quilted. There are no large spaces, except for inside the beginning petals of the flowers.

Here is a picture up-close of the front. And here is the back of the quilt. I love how if you use the right color thread and the right quilting design that it shows up so well on the back! I used eggshell colored thread to quilt this.

Wedding Table Runner 1

Remember when I talked about doing a table runner out of charm packs? Well I made two table runners, and here is the first one all quilted.
I did a basic meander in a natural colored thread.

Baby Quilt

This was such a cute baby quilt to do! The chenille quilts up so nicely, almost like minkee, and looked so fun in there with the regular fabrics.

I used a natural colored thread and did a meander with stars.

Photo Quilt

I did this fun quilt for the daughter of one of my clients.

She had hot pink minkee on the back, so I used a hot pink thread in the bobbin, and a light yellow on top. I wanted the focuse to be on the photos, not the quilting.

I did a continuous loop with flowers. It turned out really cute.

Charm Pack table runner quick tutorial

Today I threw together two really fun charm pack table runners. Hopefully I will be able to quilt them by Christmas, as they are for wedding gifts the weekend after Christmas.

In case you are wondering how a charm pack table runner can be "thrown together" it is quite simple.

Step 1:
Pick out your fabric. If you are using a pre-cut charm pack, it should say how many squares are included. One of the packs I used had 38 squares, the other had 40.

Step 2:
Decide how big you want it to be. I wanted to utilize as many squares as possible from the pack, so I found the common factor (a little rusty on my math...but whatever times whatever equals the closest number to the number of squares in the pack).

For the pack with 40 squares I had several options: 4x10, 5x8, 6x6 (not using 4 squares), 3x12 (not using 4 squares), 2x20... I went with the 5x8. I didn't want it to be too long, in case the recipient didn't have a long table.

For the pack with 38 squares I also had a few options. However, since 38 can only be divised by 19 and 2, I had to go with something that didn't use all the squares: 4x9, 6x6, 3x12. I went with a 4x9.

Step 3:
Lay out your squares into rows, and arrange as is pleasing to you.

Step 4:
Sew blocks together into rows using a 1/4 inch seam.

Step 5:
Sew rows together to create a quilt top.

Step 6:
Decide if you want a border or not. If you want a border, measure your quilt. I used a border on both of mine, and I wanted it to be 2 inches, finished. I cute my strips 2 1/2 inches wide, and 2 of them were the exact length of the quilt. The other two were the length plus 5 inches (2 1/2 on each side for the other two borders). Add your borders to your quilt.

Step 7:
Layer top, batting, and backing. Quilt as desired. I think I might either quilt in the ditch or do a meander or floral pattern across both of mine. I will be sure to post pictures when they are finished!

This is a really quick and easy pattern, and makes a great quick and easy gift for any occasion!

Flower Power

These two quilts were so fun to do! This first one was a nine patch with sashing and a border.
I did a medium continuous loop/flower design across the whole quilt in a light pink thread.

For this one, since it was made out of much larger squares, my client wanted it quilted a lot looser than the first.

I did the loop/flower pattern, but on a much larger scale. I also used the same light pink thread. This thread is cool, because it is almost white when you get it on a quilt, but it also has the pink still in it, and it goes well with any color really. This quilt had a bright green backing, and the pink looked so cute on it!