Other Work

I quilted 3 more tops for Jeannie in October (?). One was a very large flannel quilt, about 80 x 104. It tested the limits of my frame set-up, but it worked.  She alternated framed squares of a theme fabric with courthouse steps blocks. It was soft blues, greens and cream, and came out really nice. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it.

The other 2 were wallhanging sized. The log cabin star is quilted simply because of all the seams. It looks patriotic to me, but the colors were hard to match to thread.

This one had been a mystery quilt done in our old work group. I mainly quilted straight lines to emphasize the design elements.

But then I decided to do pebbling in the background. It's not very visible unless the lighting is right. 

Fall Quilting

My friend Jeannie contacted me to see if I could do some quilting for her. She and her mother have been busy finishing up old projects. These are the first two I've finished and handed back to them for binding.

This one was from the Western Washington Shop Hop in 2010. A mix of pieced and applique blocks, with embellishments and prairie points before the outside border. I tried to emphasize the folk art look with the quilting designs. 

The cats are from a Debbie Mumm quilting cruise to Alaska in 2006. Debbie Mumm and the instructor both signed it, as did Jeannie and her mom, Jackie. And Jeannie asked me to sign it too. I quilted lines suggesting cats faces and tails, and different patterns suggesting fur. Only the texture shows, because I used matching So Fine threads. That was so that the quilting thread wouldn't cover up the writing. 

Curves Quilt

My friend Jeanne, who was in our Safeco-based quilt group, asked me to quilt this wallhanging for her. She cut and pieced the top in an AccuQuilt workshop. It was perfectly flat, something that I find difficult in tops with straight piecing, let alone curves like Drunkard's Path blocks.

The background is such a busy print that we knew that no quilting would really show up. So I used a thin blue thread and quilted sort of parallel wavy lines throughout to hold it in place and provide some texture. On the yellow, red and green mottled prints I used So Fine # 30 (formerly Brytes) in 6 different colors. 

The outer patches have a spiky fern design.

The center area is where I went a little crazy. I wanted it to stand out even against all the strong colors, and I wanted it to be asymmetric, free-flowing, organic in nature. It started with only single stitching lines, but that wasn't reading strong enough, so most of the outlined shapes got stitched over 2 more times. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I think Jeanne was too. 

Dog Quilt

I've finished quilting this for Trudy. Now it will go back to her for binding before being donated to the Humane Society auction.

I felt this was a fairly masculine looking quilt, so I didn't want to do anything too frilly or swirly. I just did back and forth fill on the vertical sashing, and wishbone loops in the horizontal sashing. Then there are circles in the dog print - they mostly don't show, but give a different texture in those areas. In the outer border, I modified a figure eight design, making the center longer and straighter, and putting an indentation in the ends to make it look like dog bones. It works better in some areas than others!

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts, for finish it up Friday.

Quilted

I finished quilting Carol's round robin top. Round robins are challenging to quilt, because I feel the different borders need different treatments, and that requires stopping and starting as you move down the quilt. It could also mean quilting with different threads, but I try to minimize that.

I used a variegated thread for most of the quilt, but switched to a tone on tone yellow for two of the borders. Here I had finished quilting most of the quilt, but needed to go back and add a little more in the green and white border.

The whole quilt. At 62 x 62, it's a little too big for me to photograph on my design wall, but you get the idea.

A closer view of one corner. The two outer borders are such busy fabrics that the stitching barely shows. I knew that would happen, so I did a loopy, swirly design for texture. 

Latte quilt

I finished quilting Melissa's Latte quilt this week. I used Superior's Lava thread on the top in #246, Krakatoa (Orange-green-black-gold variegated). This was a mini-cone that came with my Avante. I don't know how many yards were on this sample cone, but I used almost all of it. I had never tried it out before this quilt, and Superior's new top tension gauge and suggested tensions were very helpful. On my first test, I showed a tension above their recommended range, and the thread broke within two inches. I adjusted the tension to be within the range, and it worked beautifully. Only had 1 thread break during the whole quilt.

I used Superior So Fine in #425 Brown Sugar in the bobbin as it worked well with the top thread and was a pretty close match to the back fabric. You can see some of the designs and texture here.

More Quilting

I did finish quilting the previous quilt, but I haven't gotten around to putting the binding on. I'll have to get on that soon, so it can count towards my finished quilts for 2010.  But I offered to quilt this boy's quilt for my friend Carol's grandson. It's very dynamic with bright primary colors and black and white. It also has a really cool alien print as the outermost border. I quilted some continuous curves, some zig zags, some spirals and a flame border.

Here the finished quilt is draped across the frame. This photo was taken tonight after I got it off the frame, so it's kind of dark.

The back is this really fun robot flannel.