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!  :)

Jane's Border Creek Station Mystery Quilt

I finished Jane's Border Creek Station mystery quilt late last night and I'm so very pleased with the outcome!  I was a little nervous with the density of those pebbles but I think with the striped/piano key border quilting it turned out very even.  I love the texture this gives - Jane sent her own Tuscany Wool batting and it always quilts up beautifully.

The back is so pretty - almost a whole cloth in itself!  I really love neutral backings that show off the pretty quilting...they also show off the mistakes too...but let's just pretend I live in a world where I never ever EVER make those!  :)

Above is the full view photo that Jane sent me - along with a bare bones mock up I sent her.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do - and I wanted to get her opinion on pebbling before I went through and drew pebbles all over this quilt!  Luckily she is a gal who enjoys pretty pebbles just like me!

I did one border with this flourish so that it looks as if the quilting is traveling out and around and framing the quilt from this one point.  I really love it!

I used darn near a full 3,000 yard cone of Bottom Line thread on this quilt - fresh and new from the package!  There might be enough left on the cone now to fill two or three bobbins...those pebbles take up a lot of thread.  

I'm so happy with the way this one turned out.  I've got the feather itch now though - and good thing too as the next quilt is going to be full of them!

Wanda's Lone Star Wall Hanging

A little late to sharing this one as I've been so crazy busy here.  (I always say that - I'm sure it's annoying by now!)  The Husband surprised our little family with a trip to Niagara Falls over the weekend...just a quickie over night stay on the New York side.  We have gone several times to the Canadian side before they required a passport to visit...but now it would cost a small fortune for our entire family to go so - New York it is!  It was actually really fun to see the American side of the falls and there was no shortage of things to do.  This week football has started for my 9 year old and the 4 year old will be a little cheer leader.  School starts next week and tomorrow is the Husband's birthday...and of course I have to do school shopping yet and a full schedule of quilts...so as I said...BUSY!  LOL!  :)

Here is the quilt I finished up right before our mini-vacation...this belongs to my quilting friend Wanda who I met through Connecting Threadz...she is a wonderful lady and her quilting is just beautiful!  You'll have to take a peek at her quilts in her albums when you find the time...

I free handed the little swirls with disappearing ink in each of the corner blocks - then stitched over them and pebbled around them to give a trapunto look.

As with most of my custom quilting I used Bottom Line thread by Superior Threads...it is my absolute favorite thread for quilting.

Wanda provided me with Warm and Natural cotton batting...I was actually really  happy with the texture we achieved!

A little sneak at the back because I rarely show it.  I try to keep things neat as possible - but I'm human and hiccups happen.  My backs are much cleaner and neater than they were in the beginning...I make every effort to keep them as clean as the front!  This is a bit like showing my underwear in public...  :)

I really had fun with this one.  I am kind of obsessed with modern quilts at the moment but I won't deny that I adore traditional quilting.  These sort of really traditional patterns are my absolute favorite to quilt.  :)

...and I'll leave you with a photo from our trip!  If you haven't noticed...I've lost quite a bit of weight!  I'll do an update on that when I have a moment.  For now, I'm working on two quilts for my client Darlene that I know you'll love to see!

Darlene's Feels Like Spring Quilt Finished!

I absolutely loved quilting this one!  It was so much fun thinking up different backgrounds for each of the appliqués.

The pattern is called "Feels Like Spring" by Smith Street Designs.  Darlene Gerber is the owner and top maker.

The quilt was quilted entirely with Bottom Line Thread by Superior Threads.  It is quickly becoming my go to thread for custom work.

We used a layer of Hobbs 80/20 batting layered with Hobbs Tuscany Wool on top to make the appliqué's pop.

Because of the intricate detail of the embroidery on the appliqué's there is actually NO quilting on the flowers themselves.  Luckily, there was so much detail around the small leaves and petals that I was able to squeeze in and still give a close tightly quilted feeling.   The use of double batting and a lofty wool on top helped to keep the unquilted areas very full against the densely quilted bordering designs.

This was such great fun to work on!  I'm going to guesstimate 50-60 hours quilting time with two weeks on the frame.  I moved a turtle's pace truly only finishing three or four blocks some days, only because of the wear on me with carrying baby Olivia.  :)  I think I would have moved much faster if I weren't big as a house!
I didn't start out intending on adding quite this much detail - but it was so fun and turning out so lovely I kept adding.  I think the finished quilt is fantastic!  I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to work on such a lovely quilt.

Now I am off until July but I will still be posting my own work.  I am looking forward to a few months off to enjoy baby and work on my own projects!

Barbara's Roseville Album - Finished!

I am thrilled to share that I am finally finished with Barbara's Roseville Album!  Here are a few photographs...

I think it turned out really fantastic - I am thrilled!  I have a few small details to touch up before it returns home - it has been a HUGE undertaking but I'm thrilled with the results.

 I used gray and white Invisifil thread by Wonderfil for the entire quilt...I went through five water soluble markers.  Marking the quilt top took me an entire day - around 10 hours - and another day to day and a half to bury threads, remove markings.  I'm running on coffee and diet coke at the moment so it's time to take a rest!!!  Wheew!  But I was thrilled with this so I had to share.  :)

Susan's Quilt - Finished! Oh and my hair is blue...

Yay!  I finished Susan's quilt yesterday - wheeeew this one took a little while!  :)

I stitched in the ditch around each piece of patchwork and each border and we went with a loftier two layers of batting.  Boy did that make for great texture!  Every small white area was filled with a unique design...

I have also been sharing pictures on Instagram and Twitter.  If you search #pumpkinpatchquilter you will find me!  :)

It's been CRAZY busy around here!  I'm so thrilled and honored that quilts are coming in - I can't tell you how great it is to know that someone has enough faith in you and your ability to send their quilt clear across the country for you to quilt.  I absolutely LOVE quilting - and it just means the world to me.

Exciting news other than quilts?  Well, I haven't worked on my projects AT ALL!  LOL  I did set aside some time to work tonight on my own projects and I did put myself into the schedule.  It just hasn't come around yet.

Oh yes!  I got to meet Darlene from I Quilt Scarlet and Gray!  What a sweet and talented lady!  She lives not too far from me and stopped by for our guild meeting on Monday night when we had Suzi Parron.  Boy was that a fun time!  Suzi was wonderful - she is a great speaker and she really  motivated many of the women to want to start our own Barn Quilt Trail.  I think my two tiny barns need a barn quilt don't you?  Here's a photo of Suzi with her books...I tell you she just seems like the kind of lady you could sit and chat with for hours!  :)

Let's see what else - I did do something silly!!  I dyed my hair!  BLUE!  Not all of it, just the ends...and I put it up in a bun or a ponytail on top of my head and you can't see it anymore...but it is cute!  Pretty blue to go with my pretty blue nail polish!  LOL

Here's the pretty and altered photo thanks to Picasa!

The real version!!!  I had worked all day and my daughter's eyes were just about to shut...not the best photo!!!  But, you can see my blue hair!  LOL  :)

What have you been up to?  :)