Memories of Provence-Part 6

The quilting is complete. Hurrah!!! This post looks at the final borders and the center.

For the checkerboard border, I just couldn’t make myself quilt each little 3/4″ square. So I treated the border as 2 four patches on the diagonal and quilted line dancing. I also quilted line dancing in each triangle.  The last border has piano keys. Easy and I like how I can slightly adjust the edge of the quilt when trimming.

   
   
It makes an interesting diamond pattern on the back.

  
Other than the background quilting, I left the center quilting until the end. I like to repeat motifs and I wasn’t sure what I would quilt. So the center square is quilted with line dancing, sid, and leaf feather.  

  
The feather star has feathers and point to point straight line quilting.

  I repeated the leaf feather in the applique and of course, the flower center begged for pebbles. The large leaves needed veins.

   
  

Line dancing was repeated in the baskets.

   
 
The quilt draped over my Longarm.

  
Well, it’s done. Always a relief to get to the end but always a pleasure to see it hanging at various venues. Guess I’ll have to buy a bunch of tickets and see if I can win it back. Sure would look good on my bed!

Thanks for stopping by.

Linda

Room For All-In My Garden and In My Heart

I have finally come up for air. This quilt has consumed all of my quilting time for a long time. No customer quilts, no other quilting projects though we moved my sewing and Longarm rooms to the other end of the house. But that mess is a post for another day!

I have debated whether or not to fully express what this quilt says to me. But decided to do it, no matter the response for I have become personally aware of the closed hearts of some.

This quilt was born out of an idea when I was sitting at my kitchen table last summer watching the birds fly in to the bird bath. There were so many of them and in the middle of it all, a bluebird decided to take a bath. It didn’t matter that he was bigger and “different” from the goldfinches. There was room for him too. Even the squirrels are welcomed. I realized this was a picture of the heart I have for people. My family and friends consist of members that are different in looks or background or views but no less loved. So there is room for all in my garden and in my heart. Sometimes this is a work in progress, but, with God’s love, I will continue to grow.

Quilt is fusible, raw edge applique, edges stitched on the Longarm, dense quilting. Without Steam-a-Seam 2, I couldn’t have made this. I had a drawing from several photos but didn’t have exact placement or flowers. Since the fusible has a sticky back, I was able to stick pieces on the background and then rearrange them until I was happy. The squirrel crossing sign is a photo of the sign in my garden printed on EQ printer fabric and then stitched.

Enough talk. Here’s the quilt.

It is done for now. But I might get my box of beads out and see what happens!

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

4 Patch Kaleidoscope Quilt

The last quilt to come off my Innova longarm was made by my good friend Marian. It is a 4 patch kaleidoscope in lovely blue and brown. I’ve never made a kaleidoscope quilt but if I decided to take the plunge, this is what I would choose. Lovely.

Pantograph is Pretty Paisley.

Pretty backing too.

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Customer’s Shirt Quilts

Judy recently lost her husband and although she wasn’t a quilter, made two quilts from her husband’s shirts with a friend’s help. One is an Ohio State t-shirt quilt and the other one is a golf shirt quilt. She’s a quilter now!!

I used the pantograph Simplicity on the t-shirt quilt.

Since the golf shirt quilt had plackets and collars, I quilted a freehand overall meander to avoid those areas.

I’m sure these quilts will be a sweet remembrance of Judy’s husband.

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Hugs and Kisses Quilt

This quilt is my last quilt as leader of the Guild’s Quilts of Love (aka Heart Quilts) program. Members make blocks which are assembled into quilts and given to members who lose a love one or who are in the hospital. I’ve been doing this for five years and have spent many hours working on a total of 51 quilts. Between my longarm business, increased physical fitness activities, and a desire to make quilts for myself (imagine that!), I needed to free up some time. I’m also very tired of “hearts.”

So this last quilt only has one small heart. It’s the Hugs and Kisses quilt tutorial from Christa’s Quilts. Click here to view the tutorial. You’ll notice as you scroll down that she has already finish another quilt-a-long and is about to start yet another. You might want to visit her store where an awesome sale is going on.

For quilting I did a freehand overall of hearts and swirls. I did the hearts the way Nichole Rivera does on her YouTube video, “Bottom’s Up Hearts.” First time I’ve done a freehand overall and it won’t be the last! I also experimented with swags with the hearts inside. While it stitched out fine, choosing to do it in a double border with high contrast fabrics, was not the right place to use it.

Here’s several pics.

Swags and hearts

The backing fabric was donated by Joyce and it is just perfect for this quilt. See the Eiffel Towers?
Another Guild member will bind it as it will be delivered to the new Quilts of Love chairman, Sandra, and her committee tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Blue Danube

Blue Danube brings to mind a number of appealing images-a piece of music, china Mom used, a river. Now I also envision this lovely quilt made by Carolyn who participated in our Guild’s mystery quilt challenge.

Pantograph is Camillas.

Just lovely.

Thanks for stopping by.

Linda

Striking High Contrast Quilt

Ann’s quilt in purples and white is one of my favorite combinations-high contrast in my favorite colors. She used a variety of each color which adds interest in a striking graphic pattern.

The pantograph is Whirlygig. Enjoy!

I used Omni Pearl White thread.

Thank you Ann for letting me quilt your beautiful quilt.

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

September Get It Done

September??? I have no idea where the summer went and in terms of sewing, I didn’t get much done. But then when I look at what my husband and I did get accomplished in other areas of our life, I’m okay with that. 2000 square feet of sod laid, longarm assembled, longarm room recarpeted, longarm room painted, sewing room tables painted and constructed, reorganization of two very full sewing closets. Bought new truck (way more time consuming for me than I anticipated). Whew. That list makes me tired.

As for the challenge at Patchwork Times, I did okay there too.

August Goals
1. Assemble Quilt of Love Hugs and Kisses Quilt – Finished. See pic below.
2. Get more of snow embroidery done – Made good progress because of all the time in the car.
3. Finish stitching on Wm Morris appliqués – Didn’t happen.
4. Finish sewing blocks for Scraps and White project – Yes and no. I finished sewing blocks for the originally planned size but when I put it on the design wall, decided I liked it more than I expected. So I’m going to make it king size for my bed.
5. Make more birds – Didn’t happen.

September Goals
1. Quilt Quilt of Love Hugs and Kisses Quilt.
2. Get more of snow embroidery done.
3. Finish stitching Wm Morris Appliqués.
4. Finish sewing blocks for Scraps and White project.
5. Make more birds.

That’s funny. Even though I made progress in August, my list has the same projects.

Here’s the Guild’s Hugs and Kisses blocks all assembled and a border added from pieces of the fabrics the ladies used. I’m in a quandary re the quilting. On the one hand, I’d like to try something modern and dense, but then I really shouldn’t spend a great amount of time on it. Maybe I can find a compromise between dense custom and pantograph.

See the Christa’s Quilt Along button on the right. Click that for instructions for this quilt along with a lot of other fun stuff.

See the little heart in the bottom right corner? Since this isn’t the typical heart quilt for the Guild, I added that so it would have a heart on it!

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Longarm Cord Solution

I’ve got this thing about electric cords. Don’t like them. Especially don’t like them strung across a wall, snaking across the floor, or draped over an end table. Sometimes it can’t be helped but before I give up I’ll try every idea I can find.

My husband installed a cord traveling system on my Gammill using conduit, but that wasn’t going to work with my new Innova since it has a center leg. Couldn’t find ideas on the Internet so the cord was on the floor. That was not a good thing. I stepped on the power strip button and momentarily shut the machine off-twice. I wrapped the cord around my ankle-twice. My husband stepped on it twice and then couldn’t move the machine! After that happened, he said he’d come up with something.

The solution was to insert a bolt in the ends, just inside the back edge. A wire is wrapped around one bolt, attached to a turnbuckle at the other end which is attached to the other bolt. Super simple.
I happen to have some rings that hold cafe curtains so we are trying those but you could use simple shower curtain rings the put the cord through.

Here’s pictures.

If you have any questions, let me know.
Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Sweet and Manly

Two customer quilts are on display today.

First Kay’s sweet purple, green, and white quilt made for a couple. Kay requested “no flowers.” So I used Popcorn Pantograph. Lovely isn’t it.

Next up is Vicky’s quilt for her Dad. I love the fabrics she picked out for a man’s quilt and how the color changes from top to bottom. The pantograph is Pretty Paisley. Looks fantastic.

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda