Dragonfly Pond

Stack and Wacks seem to be a very popular quilt this month. I have three to do and just finished the first one with the Dragonfly pantograph. It worked very well with the butterfly and dragonfly theme fabric used in the pinwheel.

Now I have a comment about extra wide backing fabrics. When you get it cut off the bolt there is a good chance that it will be quite off square because of the two folds. Buy extra to accommodate this, like 8" extra, as i just cut that much off on a clients quilt backing when squaring it, luckily she had bought extra so there was no problem attaching that backing to the longarm frame. Those of us in Flin Flon have been very lucky over the years to have Marg cutting our backing, she always made sure it was straight but now that her store is closed we are finding other stores are not so careful.

This picture shows how off the edge was. (Note: the cutting mat is not square to the fabric, i just threw it under so i could cut.) I rarely use my mat for measuring, I always use my rulers for squaring.

Batik

While I'm waiting for my next thread order to start my March quilts i took this opportunity to finished my second batik quilt. I had enough fabric left over from the quilt that is hanging in my shack, to make another one. This one i quilted with a swirly vine free hand design.

I have caught up with all my quilts that needed quilting so i better get piecing again. I finished 4 of my own this month plus 8 client quilts.

Applique Quilt

This is a clients first hand applique quilt and it is wonderful. I wanted to make sure when i quilted it that it had a hand quilted look and i think i accomplished that by stitching 1/8" around on each applique piece. Then i had fun with some free hand quilting in the sashing and borders.

Baby Flannel Finished

While i'm waiting on a thread order i thought i would work on a few of my own quilts. I'm trying to find a balance between quilting for others and squeezing in my personal quilts on the longarm.

This is one of the baby flannel quilts i had posted pictures of a while ago. I used the Double Plume pantograph on this one and still need to find flannel for the back of the second one and i'll probably free-hand a design on it.

On a non-quilt topic....i just got a crack right across the windsheild of my CR-V...damn those stones on the highway. I think it was one of those Ravs driving by...they are notorious for throwing rocks!

5 ugly fabrics equals...

...one ugly quilt! This is the Trend Tex Challenge Lori and i worked on for Quilt Saskatoon 2009. Don't get me wrong, i loved working on this quilt and i love the design but i sure wouldn't have anywhere to hang it in my house. The fabrics are just too bright for me. Now Lori and i had a theory about this challenge...not many people use only the 5 given fabrics, they will added the extra 3 that are allowed. So we figure we have a better chance at winning something if we are in a smaller group of quilts, the Trend Tex award goes to the quilt that only has the 5 fabrics in it, so we have a shot at that.

Anyway, the quilt has been mailed and were are now planning our next project together...this time we are seeing PURPLE!

Come Dance with Me

Come Dance With Me is the name of the Pantograph i used on my flannel quilt. I still haven't quilted the two baby quilts i made with my fat quarter winnings as i am still looking for border fabric. But i did find fabric to finish this quilt that is also made from my fat quarter win. I think i'll keep this quilt so i have a sample of my panto work to show people.

Magic Tile

The magic question with this quilt was 'how to quilt it?" My client and i had many conversations and changed our mind a few times over this one. We finally settled on black thread and stitch in the ditch. Once i started it i wasn't happy with the 'in the ditch' so picked it out and stitched on the black and that was much better. You can see the stitches in the closeup photo, the top two colors are the 'in the ditch' stitching and the bottom two are stitched on the black.

I love how this quilts looks on my bed too!

Stipple

I love to stipple quilts and when a client gave me 3 small quilts and said "Stipple them all, i love the look of stipple" i was delighted. Stipple is one of those patterns that i can do relatively well with little thought because of the amount if have done (...insert 'practice' speech here...) and i can enjoy looking at the clients quilts instead of being on the pantograph side of the machine.

The Trend Tex quilt if almost done. Just needs one more quilting design added and it is ready to show at the guild meeting next week. It is definately not a quilt that i would normally make but that is the reason Lori and i enter these Challenges.

Trend Tex Challenge Fabric

Lori and I are at it again. She made me order the Trend Tex Challenge Kit and i got it last Friday. As you can see the fabrics are pretty wild and the theme this year is "Roots". We had a month to brain storm ideas and yesterday drew up our pattern. Our goal it to finish it for the February Guild meeting to so we can show everyone before we say goodbye to it. The Trend Tex Challenges are wall hangings that are donated to the CQA to be auctioned off at Quilt Canada in Saskatoon this year.

No, i'm not telling what we are doing, you'll have to wait until i post a picture after the meeting.

Feathers!

So i would like to say how hard it is to quilt feathers and how time consuming it is but that would be a lie ....it is fun and relative quick to do...but don't get me wrong there was 'picking' involved in this learning process. You know i like to preach 'practice, practice, practice' when it comes to quilting and i'm glad my client said is was okay for me to try something new (for me) on her quilt. The only thing i used a stencil for was the three center designs, i can't do a feather circle...yet :)

Northwoods Reversible

A few years ago our local quilt shop offered a BOM called Northwoods. It was a very popular quilt and this is the seventh that i have quilted for clients, the second on the longarm. So i was interested in seeing how it looked with a pantograph as all the other ones were stencils on each block. I used a Maple leaf pantograph in keeping with the woodsy theme and was very happy with the results ...and so was the client. What was really neat about this quilt was the client had 5 extra blocks so put them on the back and i think it looks great on boths sides.

Flannel Flower Quilt

My client corrected me when i referred to the stars as stars...."they're flowers!" Okay, so my challenge with this quilt was to turn stars onto flowers so others can see this too. And how do you do that ...by quilting hearts on them of coarse! I think it the heart shaped petals look great and i would have never thought of that if they were just boring stars. I like it when clients have ideas too ....instead of just ' do whatever'.

Something to note, i'm finally learning how to take pictures so you can SEE the quilting.

Finally Cutting Into My Winnings!

Last year a friend and i entered the Northcott Quest of the Cure block contest and placed third. Part of our prize was $1,000 worth of Fat Quarters which turned out to be about 330 fat quarters. We had fun spliting up the fabric and even put aside some for a quilt we will work on together and then donate to a local charity.

Yesterday i finally dug into my box of winning fabric and picked out 12 baby flannel fabrics. Using the Yellow Brick Road pattern i was able to make two baby tops. I still need to find borders and backing but since i don't need any baby gifts right now i can wait until my next trip to Winnipeg. I think i'll be using the Yellow Brick Road pattern a few more times as it used up all the fabric ...no leftovers. I hate leftovers, i usually sacrific them to the fabric gods...with a trip to Paradise (our aptly named local dump). If you've seen my quilting space you'll understand why.

2005 Block of the Month

This is the fourth 2005 Block of the Month i have quilting for clients...and i'm expecting another one soon. It gets challenging trying to quilt them differently. It is hard to see in the picture but i did a feather design in the navy setting triangles and the blocks are custom with in the ditch, free-hand and stencil work.

Race Car quilt done!

When my 9 year old son saw this quilt on the frame his eyes went wide!!

What a great kids quilt, i really enjoyed working on it...that is until i took it off the frame and saw 2 large pukers on the back. So i picked and resewed and it looks great now.