Snowman Quilt #3

It has been snowing here for the past two day but the sun came out this morning.  I shoveled the ice again as I could hardly see where I had cleared it off a few days ago.

This is the guild third Snowman quilt and we will use this one for an In-House raffle at our Quilt Show in April.  I tried a new batting on this one, it is Quilters Dream Poly Select, the guild bought a whole roll to try.  It makes a much softer lighter quilt and I think this will be great for the guilds quilts as they donate so many and you never know how they are going to be taken care of.  I don't think I would recommend this batting for my clients larger bed quilts as it is not very strong and is quite thin. But for kids quilts that get washed a lot it would be fine.

I used a panto called Flurry. The pattern is called Perfect Ten and the fabric line is called Makin' New Friends. 

Proof I do binding once in awhile for guild project!

Here are the other two quilts the guild made using this fabric. We purchases a 36 fat quarter bundle of this fabric line and got three quilts out of it. Not bad eh!

Intersections

This is Raye's quilt and it's the first quilt she has made using batik fabrics!  She said she didn't know why she waited to so long to try batiks and really likes how they look.  I would have to agree!

The pattern she used is called Intersections by Cheryl Malkowski. It was a free pattern from Timeless Treasures but I couldn't find it on their site anymore. But I did find it here on this page for you to download.

I used Dream wool batting and So Fine thread on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin...in two different shades of beige :) 

I picked Whirlygig for the panto as this is going to be used as a couch throw quilt.   Using a light density design like this one with the wool batting makes it soft and cozy to cuddle with.

They're Coming To Take Me Away..Ha Ha!

That's right, I can hear them coming....it's The Quilt Police!!!

Once they see what I did on Robin's Mystery quilt I'm sure they will be after me.

My crime...using black thread on top and bright yellow in the bobbin. That's right I did it!  I'm guilty :)

I am slowly learning the advantages of matching thread top and bottom but sometimes I just can't bring myself to do it.  Robin bought a beautiful yellow fabric for the back and to use black thread on that would be a bigger crime in my opinion.  I like to match my bobbin thread with the backing fabric...there I said it!

Yes if you look really close you can see some black dots on the back but that can be okay if you know your client will be okay with it.  I set the tension so the yellow would not show on the top.  I knew Robin would be fine with how it looks and she was.  She knows after it is washed some of that will disappear and that most people don't look at quilts like quilters do and will never notice.  But I do have other clients that would go nuts with the dots and I would have just suggested to them to get a black backing instead. I am lucky to know my clients well.

I think we all have our different views on the subject of matching top and bottom threads and I don't think there is one right answer.  It all depends on the quilt, the client's preferences and the quilters experience. 

Am I crazy...don't be afraid to tell me, I can take it ;)

Did a little shovelling and sweeping and now have a new spot to lay quilts.  The sun is just above the trees at noon so this is the only place to get a good picture this time of year.  There is a good 4 inches of ice near the shore so enough to hold my weight.  

This is Mystery quilt #13.

Rhapsody is the panto I chose as it matches the design in the printed fabric.

Leaves

This is Marg's Block of the Month from a quilt shop in Saskatoon.  She brought me a package of Hobbs Tuscany wool batting to use and I was surprised at how puffy it was. It was the exact look she wanted, light and fluffy, so it worked very well for her quilt. I do find Hobbs batting are not always consistent in thickness throughout the batt like Dream Wool is but once they are quilted you really can't tell.

Marg likes quilting designs with leaves so I pick Bushberries for the center panto and free hand quilted leaves in the outer border to match the leaves in the center.

I really like the color of sashing she used for this quilt so that is the color of So Fine thread I used for the center. I used a darker green in the outer border.

A Little Kick!

This is Alene's Block of the Month quilt from our local quilt shop in 2005.  While I was quilting this one I wondered if there were any more out there just waiting to be quilted, or still just blocks or even worse... cut pieces of fabric still in their baggies with the month written on them?  So I am going to ask (dare) my local quilter to look and see if they have this one and see what stage is it in?  Consider this me giving you a little kick to rediscover what you have hidden away.

I used the Feather Curls panto for the centre quilting and free hand feathers in the border to match. 

'Check out the Stars".....on Ice!

This is my next quilting project using a mix of commercial batiks and my dyed fabrics.  I saw this quilt on Desley's blog here called "Check Out the Stars" and just fell in love with it.  I love blue quilts and since I have a lot of blue hand dyed and snow dyed fabrics I thought this would be the right design to use to start cutting into them.  Desley was great to send me a rough outline of her quilt so I could figure out how to make it.  I hope one day she finds the time to turn her designs into commercial patterns, they are amazing.

 These are frost crystals that formed on the ice last night.

They are about 1 inch long.

The lake was completely frozen over this morning as it got down to -21'C last night. 

Good bye water, see you next in May!

Just To Be Different

As you can see I am still determined to take pictures of quilts on the dock, even if it is out of the water and covered in snow!  :)

We had a bit of snow this weekend so it is feeling like winter now. You can see the ice is starting to form on the outer edge of the bay.

You might remember me posting this quilt when I had the center done back in September. This is our guilds Scrappy Squares project and I now have the borders on.  Well I had the borders on then did some picking as I wasn't happy with how they were designed.  Since I had already sewn it together I did a quick fix and am much happier with it now. I didn't like how the original design has two squares together in the corners so I got rid of them and replaced them with more background, just to be different. :)
I'm expecting to see a few of these through my door next year.

Before

After

What a difference in the landscape since I took the 'before' picture 3 weeks ago.
Now how to quilt it?

Mystery Quilt #12

I can now say I have quilted a dozen guild Mystery quilts. Looks like mine will make it a Bakers dozen when I get to work on it in Dec.

Bev chose gold and burgundy for her color palette and the print fabric has an Aztec design so we agreed that quilting Spiral Squares would provide a compliment to her fabric.

Gold coloured So Fine thread top and bottom.

The print on her backing fabric is a diamond pattern that goes really well with this quilting design.

I call that a planned accident :)

First Snow!

Usually the first snowfall of the year is greeted with my grumblings in October but for this to be postponed to Nov 6 there are no grumblings from me this year!

The snow has also supplied a nice setting for Blanche's stunning quilt that she made for her granddaughter. The pattern is called Midnight Sun by Jinny Beyer.  You can find the pattern in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Love of Quilting.

She wanted very simple quilting with a fun bright coloured thread.   So I used the Fascination panto and a bright purple Lava thread. This is the same panto I used on the Black and White quilt from the last post.

What's Black and White with Swirls Allover?

Cheryl's fabulous quilt!

This is the largest quilt I have done on my longarm and I don't think I could fit anything bigger, it is King size.

We originally discussed doing straight lines or a design with random squares but since it already had a very linear design I usually prefer to soften the lines with swirls.  Also the backing is flannelette and i didn't want to see 'waves' between each line (caused by flannelette stretching)  if I quilted rows of straight lines.

So we went with a simple swirl design.

Cheryl added two pieced rows to the backing that run from the top to bottom.  Very cool design element.

It finally happened!

I knew this day would come and I had a smile on my face the whole time I was quilting this quilt.   I have a friend who I have quilted many quilts for and she as stated more than a few times that she doesn't like feather designs, they are not her style. I respect everyone's personal taste as we are all drawn to different things but since she is a friend I couldn't help but tease her about this over the years.  But lately she has been saying how one day I might just convert her especially after seeing some of the feathers I've done on other guild members quilts.   Well guess what...she picked a feather panto with no pressure from me.  Eileen finally gave into the darkside and let me quilt feathers on her quilt :)

The panto is called Come Dance with Me. The leafy feather mixed with a few curls really looks great on the extra large Maple Leaf blocks, good picking Eileen!  ;)