Ellen's Woodland Quilt and Impermance is Going to Road to California!

Well I don't know about you but I am beyond ready for Thanksgiving!  Turkey and family and a break from social media for a day.  I have a tendency to get glued to my phone during the day laughing and connecting with folks.  Facebook seems to be the hub of the quilting universe so of course, being that quilts are kind of like, my life, I spend a lot of time there connecting with folks I might otherwise not ever have the opportunity in "real" life.  I don't know if there's something in the water or if it's because it's an election year in the US, but boy oh boy is social media lit up....and over just about everything.  :)  This quilting girl will be lurking at the quilt photos but I think I may need therapy to work me through any of the discussions happening there at them moment.  So you may find me a little more chatty here on the blog for the time being.

I just finished Ellen's Woodland quilt.  Didn't it turn out lovely?  I sure think so.  I really had fun quilting this.  Seems the latest quilts have been super densely quilted so it was fun to lighten it up a tad but still get such great design and texture.  This is the style of quilting that really brought me to quilts in the first place...so this was just an absolute pleasure from start to finish.

We went with one layer of Hobbs 80/20 for this quilt.  In the top I used an Ivory shade of So Fine by Superior Threads and Omni in the bobbin.  There was no mystical magical reason for the thread combination other than they were shades I had that worked best with the quilt as a whole.  Turns out the So Fine really did a great job creating delicate texture in those printed fabrics. 

Photographs can be deceiving - on one forum where I shared photos of this quilt it appeared to some viewers that the shirting/ticking print stripe blocks were left unquilted.  They are in fact quilted - with very simple lines.  I think any design would have been difficult to show in those spaces, but the lines in particular like to stay hidden depending on the angle the camera points.  Look closely and you can see not a single block was left unstitched!  :)

We went with cross hatching here in the white negative space behind the applique.  I think it looks so nice. This quilt isn't frilly at all so though I love feathers I wanted to keep from getting too feminine in this area.  I'm really happy with the outcome and I think my client is too!  (Yes, if you close up you can also see that the markings are still there.  I pre-mark all gridlines before I load up the quilt top.)

Again, the applique's are large but I didn't want to stray from the simple feeling of the quilt.  I think we did alright!  :)

Of course I always love to show neutral backings.  I was a bit nervous every backtracked line would look awful with that thick Omni thread but surprising it looks really lovely!  Wheew!  That's a huge sigh of relief to me!  The backtracking is well hidden and the blending thread really makes this quilt look like it is double sided.

So much fun to work on.  Thank you Ellen!  I have a few projects in the works that cannot be shared - but soon!  Really looking forward to spilling the beans!

For now I'll leave you with my bit of exciting news for the holidays...my quilt Impermanence is GOING TO ROAD TO CALIFORNIA!  I found out last week that it was accepted to this highly regarded juried national quilt show.  I'm thrilled.  Over the moon!  This will be the second quilt I've had juried into Road, but the first that was a real bonafied quilt made just to show.  I'm kind of starting with one of the biggest and most difficult for the first show, but it just worked out that way.  The biggest thrill is to "hang" with all my quilting rock star idols.  That is a really amazing feeling.  No photos of the front online for now as I'm saving the "reveal" for after show judging.  I wish so badly I could make it out there - but I have no doubt that one of these days I will.  If you're going to Road and see my quilt there...be sure to say something!  I will be tickled to know you saw it!  :)

Barbara's Quilt Finished

A little late to sharing, but yay!  Barbara's quilt is finished and by now should have made its way home.  :)  I had so much fun quilting this - and I know I say that frequently but I really do love my job, and I really DO enjoy quilting quilt tops up for folks!

Barbara had been concerned that her top might be too plain for fancy quilting - I'm so glad she decided to send it along despite that concern.  The truth is, for most of us machine quilters who do a lot of custom work, the simply pieced tops are our FAVORITE.  The ones that have a lot of negative space give us the most opportunity for creativity.

Barbara sent along a few photos of quilting she had see online and requested something with a similar feeling.  I can at times recreate quilting, but often times it works best for me to see a photograph of what you like and then create something new and fresh but with a similar feeling or style.  So that is what we did here.  Because the photo she sent was a tad difficult to draw directly on I opted to recreate her blocks and share with her my ideas for each section of the quilt.

 

I almost always ask for the tiniest bit of creative freedom even when a mock up is approved.  Just like any plan, sometimes ideas look better on paper than in reality.  Or, what happens more often with my work, is that I think up little details to improve on a design as I'm working.  Sometimes those little gems are what really set that quilting design off.

Barbara requested two layers of my Hobbs 80/20 batting.  For most show quilts I like to use wool layered over Hobbs, but I find that 80/20 in double layers quilts up very nice too.  Wool is slightly lighter and has a filling quality that 80/20 doesn't.

I used Glide in the top and Bottom Line in the bobbin.  I do love this combination for appropriate quilts.  As a general rule I prefer a fine top thread for dense quilting - but this quilt in particular has dense and medium/light areas of quilting and I wanted the heavier thread to compensate in those areas with less quilting to give it a more even feeling.

All in all I am very please with how this one turned out!  I think I always spot a few things with each quilt that I will do slightly different on the next...but I still think it turned out quite drool worthy!  :)