T-Shirt Quilt

This is Lucinda’s T-shirt quilt that she was made with her daughter Taylor’s sports T-shirts.  They represent all the teams, camps and cross fit gyms she has participated in since she was 13 years old.  What a great way to preserve those accomplishments and memories!  She asked for simple quilting so I used Fascination for the pantograph.

Lucinda brought a Navy Cuddle backing so I suggested we use Dream Puff batting to give the quilt a soft cozy feel and it would add less weight than the Blend batting.   I used Monopoly thread on the top and grey Bottom Line on the back. The reason I picked grey for the back was she added one extra T-shirt block to the back and I didn’t want the stitching to distract from the block by using Navy thread.  And with Cuddle you can never see the thread colour so it worked out great!

The invisible Monopoly thread worked well across all the T-shirt logos.  There was some thread breakage due to the different thicknesses with the prints on the T-shirts but over all I would use that thread again on a quilt like this.  I have to be honest, this was the first T-shirt quilt I have ever quilted (and I have been longarm quilting for 9 years), so I was a bit nervous to finally quilt one.  But I was really lucky that Lucinda stabilized all the T-shirts well and that used sashing between the shirts. I have been told that T-shirt quilts quilt up nicely when they have sashing to stabilize the whole quilt.

Batik HST Quilt

This is Diane’s HST quilt and it is made with beautiful batik fabrics!  She said she started with a pattern and then changed it a bit and made the HST blocks larger (finished 7”).     I quilted it with the Deja Vu pantograph using light pink So Fine thread on top and blue Bottom Line on the back. 


She brought a beautiful blue wide backing from Up North Quilt Shop in International Falls , MN.  It is great having a quilt shop so close, it is only 30 minutes away, only down side is I have to cross the border to get there but I’m getting use to that!  The shop carries a large selection of Wide backings so I do not need to carry that many anymore and the owner, Missy and staff are so friendly!   So make sure you check out this quilt shop when you are in Northern Minnesota, you won’t be disappointed!


This weekend Tim and I went for a drive to see if the local lakes had froze yet.  Its been getting above freezing all week so most of the snow is gone but still cold enough at night to start making ice.  I was happy to see that there was ice on the lakes but Tim wouldn’t let me venture too far!   I was just near the shoreline on 4” of ice and was able to get a few picture, just wish the sun was out!  Hope to be able to access this area when the snow falls as it would be a perfect spot for quilt pictures! 

I Believe in Snowmen

This is Sandra’s I Believe in Snowmen quilt by Bunny Hill Designs.  Sandra does beautiful Redwork and her hand stitches are lovely!   I had a lot of fun quilting this one with feathers, loops, snowflakes, swirls and cross hatching.   I used a new thread to me, Microquilter by Superior Threads, and it is a 100wt thread so is almost invisible stitching across the embroidery with the cross hatching.  I’m very happy with how it stitched, no thread breakage and worked well with Bottom Line on the back.

We don’t have a lot of snow left around here as we have had a warm spell, suppose to reach +8’c tomorrow so I’m sure there won’t be much snow left by the weekend.    But I did find a small spot with some snow left to take a few pictures.

Here are some close ups of the quilting and redwork blocks.

I have been told that Schist Lake has frozen over. I have really missed watching the lake freeze this year so I have been keeping on eye on the river each day to see when it will freeze over.  The strong current creates a lot of cool pressure ridges and I enjoyed listening to the sounds the ice was making.

Stars

This is Evelyn’s Star Quilt and it will be a gift for her grandson.   I stitched in the ditch around all the stars so they would shine as the focus and quilted free hand swirls on the navy background to add texture.  The backing is a Fireside so I kept the quilting lighter to keep it soft and cozy!    I used navy So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

Rolling Stars

This is another one of Gail’s quilts and its called Rolling Stars by Whistlepig Creek Productions.  Gail’s fabric choices gives it a modern feel so I used Bayside for the pantograph.

I used a light teal So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

The snow here is melting so it was an indoor photo shoot.  I’m probably the only one here wishing the snow would stay and for colder temperatures! 

Kensington Kaleidoscope Quilt

This is Gail’s Kensington Kaleidoscope by Quilt Moments and is a type of Stack and Whack technique using four layers and cut into squares. The four squares are then used in the center of each block.  The fabric Gail used for the Stack and Whack cutting is the same fabric as her border fabric, its just perfect for this project.

I chose Dragonfly Pond for the pantograph, Quilters Dream Blend batting and gold coloured So Fine thread as all the fabrics have a metallic print.

Viking Quilt Addition

Back in August I shared pictures of the Viking quilt I was working on for my sisters birthday.  If you might recall it had a blank block in the center for a special design and that is now complete!  Had to add a badass Viking Queen in the mix.    This pattern is called ‘Islendingadagurinn’  by George and Wendy Van der Walt from Fabriculous and they had mentioned to me after they released the pattern that they might design a female block.  So I pestered them all summer to design the lady Viking and after a few tries we ended up with this.  She had to look like she had meat on her bones and messy hair like the guys!  Love it!  Now to figure out how to quilt it.

This week we were busy adding cabinets to my quilting room.  I had posted this picture on IG last month asking which countertop do people like with the grey cabinets.  Most said the lighter ones but as you’ll see I don’t listen well!

I liked all of them but my gut said go with the dark and I’m happy I did as I love the contrast against the grey walls.  Tim also installed a florescent light over the cabinets as it will be my cutting station.

Lights off.

Lights on!  Nice an bright for working.

Finally found the right spot for my snow dyed piece and the counter top goes great with my smaller ironing pad. I just love the Lewis & Irene fabric I used for that, the collection is called ‘Threaded with Love”. 

Mahjongg Quilt

This is Yvonne’s Mahjongg quilt and she used beautiful gold and silver fabrics with a large floral print for a focus.   I picked Always Ivy for the pantograph, Quilters Dream Blend for the batting and Lava thread that has a variegation from grey to gold.

It looks lovely on my new couch too!

So I am slowly getting back to work and have started on the quilts on my waiting list. Thank you to all my client that have been to patent during my move and are willing to mail your quilt tops to me.

We had beautiful sun-dogs in the sky later yesterday afternoon and I took this picture from my deck.  The sun is down by 5pm so it is really starting to feel like winter around here.

Blue and White Star Fling

This is Cynthia’s Star Fling quilt and she used shades of blue for the stars against a white background.  Looks so crisp and wintery on the snow!  We had about 15cm of snow fall this weekend and I was told this was early for this amount of snowfall here.  

I used the Wave on Wave pantograph with white So Fine thread.  Batting is Quilters Dream Blend.

Nice to see the sun as this fall has been very rainy and cloudy.

Thought I would share a few pictures of the quilt  hanger Tim made me this week for my sewing room! 

He used a 1x4 and oak baseboard  and we purchased Cam Clamps from Lee Valley to make it an easy release system.  That way I can change the quilts out by myself and it can be done quite quickly. I just pull back on each cam clamp and that releases the pressure and out comes the quilt top.  The boards just hang from the wall on hook and eyes so I can easily take it down from the wall.

During our snowfall this weekend I noticed some deer in the field beside our house.  Turned out to be 6 deer and a buck.  I was able to get a few pictures even though the sun had gone down already. Thank goodness for street lights!

Here is the video I was able to get of them all bounding away!   https://youtu.be/EfymzkIF204