March 11, 2017 by sewgratefulquilts

Batik Beauty

Another lovely quilt from Sharon. All those luscious greens and blues.

Lush leaves pantograph with marine blue thread.

Thanks for stopping.

Linda

March 11, 2017 by sewgratefulquilts

Orange Creamsicle Quilt

That’s my name for Marian’s quilt. The whole time I’m quilting it, all I could think about were the creamsicles I used to buy as a kid. They were soooo good. Marian chose swirls and orange thread. Perfect for this quilt.

I laid the quilt over my longarm so you don’t see all of it.

Garden Swirl Pantograph

Backing

Luckily I didn’t have any creamsicles or I might have eaten 5 of them.

Thanks for stopping by.

Linda

October 6, 2016 by sewgratefulquilts

Customer Quilts

I’m excited to share a couple of customer with you. This is another sweet quilt from Sharon with Popcorn panto. Sorry for the slightly out of focus.

Carolyn has been finishing quilt that a dear friend made that recently passed away. Here’s the blue one also with Popcorn panto.

Liz’s scrappy star is so detailed and complicated. It amazes me. If you scroll back through pictures you’ll see another one of these. She made 2 of these large quilts!! Bayside panto.

Thanks for stopping by.

Linda

December 16, 2015 by sewgratefulquilts

Fun Customer Quilt

My friend, Karen, made this quilt for Christmas for an adult son. She had been collecting black and white fabrics for years. Then at the Guild retreat in October she started construction. It’s such a happy quilt without having all bright, in your face fabrics. I love all the different black and white designs. There’s letters, swirls, squiggly lines, creepy crawly things, dots, and of course, Star Wars. Then to top it all off with the flying geese with a punch of color. Just delightful.

Quilted in black thread with Star Swirl pantograph.

The backing was a batik in a spider web design.

Thanks for stopping by.

Linda

April 28, 2014 by sewgratefulquilts

Classical Beauty

Once again my customer and friend, Mary, has pieced a beauty. You would have to see this quilt in person to appreciate the precision of her piecing. The border print has a small circular motif at the edge and the seam is exactly the same distance from that motif all around the quilt. The miters on the borders match exactly. I can’t begin to even figure out how to piece this accurately.

Here’s the entire quilt.

The embroidered blocks had a bit of rippling from the embroidery. So I put a piece of Quilters Dream wool the exact size behind the embroidery and stitched a very fine McTavishing. Ripples gone.

Center block has continuous curve, curved crosshatching and feathers.

The blue border has a simple zig zag.
Here’s more of the embroidered blocks. Flying geese have line dancing and feathers. Blue and white border print around center block has scallops.

I quilted a freehand feather meander in the quarter square triangle blocks. Really doesn’t show in pictures. I really love the chevron border top and bottom. Straight lines in the centers and curved crosshatching in the triangles.

The last border was a challenge for me. It’s very wide. I divided it by stitching a straight line in a little white line in the print all the way around, on both sides. Whew. That was tough!! Then after trying 4 different freehand designs and ripping them out, I stitched 1/2″ double piano keys. Everything else I tried ended up showing up and then disappearing in the print. The result was muddy and confusing. So I decided straight lines worked best. The two sections on both sides got zig zags.

I’m pleased with the results. Repeated designs tie the quilt together and all are appropriate for a classic.

Thanks For stopping by.
Linda

April 11, 2014 by sewgratefulquilts

Lost City – Cuzco Quilt

This pattern by Kate Spain uses her line of fabric called Cuzco. It is easy to imagine her inspiration being the Lost City of Cusco. When I research this Inca city, I found the pictures showed walls that went across the mountain, almost horizontally. So I thought the quilting should reflect the Inca influence.

Quilt top was pieced by my friend and customer, Lynette.

Thought I would try taking some photos outside since the light in the house seems dim. But then, the trees were creating shadows.

I used Rainbows variegated thread, with colors that are in the quilt, to quilt double lines following the piecing lines. Also used the Rainbows to stitch an Inca cross called Chakana in this area. In between those lines I quilted double lines and the white area with white Sew Fine thread.

Since I pebbled the center circle, I repeated these circles in several other different areas.

The large white area kept telling me to quilt something with vertical emphasis. So I divided the space into three areas and filled them with swirls and a design I thought was very “Incan.” You can see instructions for this design at Feathered Fibers. She calls it “Sprocket.”

This quilt was quite a challenge for me since it is my first modern quilt that seem to ask for extremely dense quilting. Frankly, I told a well known modern quilter that I was “freaking out” about it. Not far from the truth. But in the end, I practiced several ideas on my computer, went with my instincts, and watched the design develop as I drew in the lines. Didn’t turn out too bad! JIMO

Thanks for stopping by.

Linda

April 7, 2014 by sewgratefulquilts

Classic Bluework Embroidery Quilt

This lovely bluework quilt top was made by Carolyn. She told me to do what I wanted and I was in a feather mood. So I stitched around most of the embroidery, leaving some of it not stitched to give it dimension. Then I stitch a frame and filled it with my version of McTavishing. I added some leaves and flowers here and there. The area outside of the frame was feathered. The border has swags with feathers and 1/8″ straight lines.

All quilting done with Sew Fine in an off white. That helped me to see where I had stitched.

A few of the blocks.

The border

Thanks Carolyn for giving me the opportunity to be in feather heaven.

Linda

March 17, 2014 by sewgratefulquilts

Customer Quilts

Three more lovely customer quilts.
First up is Martha’s with Camellias pantograph.

Next is Betty’s quilt in tan’s, brown’s, grey and gold’s. Really gorgeous colors. I used a golden yellow thread and Feather Fancy pantograph. The photo doesn’t show the beautiful depth of color because it’s such a dreary day.

Last and largest quilt at king size is Judy’s. She used beautiful fall colored fabrics with a brown border. Pantograph is pretty paisley. A pantograph that is turning out to be popular.

Thanks quilters for letting me quilt your quilts.

Linda

February 17, 2014 by sewgratefulquilts

Bargello Quilt Finished

I’ve been working on Marlene’s lovely quilt in between caring for my husband who is sick with the flu. Luckily my husband is improving and I was able to finish quilting. The colors and design of this one are stunning. Marlene requested leaves and curls. So I used Rainbows Safari variegated thread in the brown/gold areas and quilted a leaf and curl free form design. The blue area is quilted with a curl and feather design in an Omni blue thread. The border also has Rainbows thread with a leaf and curl vine.

Enjoy.