Black Stack and Whack

I apologise for the poor quality of these pictures (the color is not right) but the weather hasn't been cooperating. The best way to take a picture of a quilt is to turn off overhead lighting and not use a flash. For me the best time to take picture of quilts is late in the morning when the sun is not shining directly in though the window but is bright out. The sun has not been shining here lately.

This quilt belongs to a member of our local guilds and she is known as the 'Queen of Stack and Whacks". Can you guess who? She suggested to me to just put clients initials as she enjoys trying to figure out who's quilts I'm posting.

I'm getting much more comfortable with my new cross hatching rulers but they are time consuming. I did CC in the Irish chain and pinwheels and a ripply water effect in the black background.

Happy Halloween!

I love making Halloween costumes. My son was going wear his older brothers grim reaper costume ( you know the one all the grade 6 boys wear since all there friends are wearing them and they don't want to be different ). Anyway I was able to suggest something more original for Daniel as he hasn't quite hit that stage yet. First he wanted to be R2-D2....and when i showed him some pictures of what i could make he thought they were too babiesh. Okay, next....he wanted to be a Lego Minifigure ( the lego people) but specifically Boba Fett from his Star Wars lego sets!!! Okay....NO... so next i suggested a lego brick and he thought that was great and I thought that was a realistic costume to make. So seven coats of paint later...TA DA.....a red Lego brick!! I even painted the back to look like the bottom of the brick.
Can you believe this is my baby that I brought to the guild xmas party 10 years ago!!

Batting Available Soon!!

This is my friend Eileen's Mystery quilt and she used the same layout on hers as I did on mine.

I have been ordering new pantographs to keep up with all the Mystery quilts I have been getting as I want them all to be quilted differently. This panto is called Clematis and I used a blue varigated King Tut thread on the top and navy So Fine on the bottom.
If you look carefully on the backing picture you can see a lot of white batting fluff, I think the batting was Bamboo and I find it is very linty and beards through the backing. Not a fan of Bamboo eventhough it feels very nice to the touch.

And speaking of batting I just placed my first order for Quilters Dream Batting today and will let you know when it arrives. I should have a list made for my local guild members soon with the types and sizes of batting I can order and prices...I have to wait and see what the shipping cost is before I can say what the final price will be.
This isn't my surprise thought.....that is on backorder!! Have to wait a few more weeks for that.

New Logo!!

So here is the secret little project I have been working on for MONTHS!! I never thought a simple thing like a logo would be so hard to make. It could have gone in so many directions, it was very hard to decide with all the choices. I have a very talented friend to thank for this logo design but they would like to remain anonymous and I will respect that so please don't ask who it is. Now that I have my logo I can finally order the 'special' item I want to give to my customers when I return their quilt to them. Hope to have that surprise by the end of November.
I am busy making Halloween costumes this weekend. My nine year old is going to be a Lego brick so not much sewing involved just a lot of painting!

Underground Railroad Quilt

I ordered a new set of rulers for my longarm and received them this week. They are for cross hatching and they are fantastic! I had been saving this quilt, that belongs to Rae, to try them on as it is the Underground Railroad Quilt. I wanted to quilt it in a traditional style and give it a hand quilted feel. So i did a lot of quarter inches stitches, used the Pumpkin Seed stencil for the sashing and cross hatched the border.

I have been working on a secret project for my business but I'm not going to show it to you just yet!

Stay tuned!

Cabin Quilt

At first glance you may think this is a Christmas themed quilt but it really is cabin/woods themed fabric if you look closely. My client made this quilt for her cabin and I'm sure it will get a lot of use. I tried something new on the squares, instead of basic continous curves I give it a twist and it looks like a twisted star (see second picture). I also was able to use a variagated cotton thread (red, green and gold) and it blended in beautifully with the colors in this quilt.

Flourish

I have really surprised myself with how much I enjoy quilting with Pantographs. At first I thought I would just use them once in awhile but I think they have a place in my longarm quilting business. It looks like I have only being quilting with pantos this month but I have done a few customs jobs just can't post them yet.

This quilt belongs to my neighbour and I traded this quilting job for the beautiful boat bookshelf in my shack. I think that was a fair trade, hope she does too.

The panto on this one is called Flourish and i used an olive green thread.

Mystery Quilt number.....

...okay I think I have lost count but I haven't quilted two the same yet. It is amazing how different they look with different fabric choices. My client chose beautiful shades of browns for her quilt and I found a brown thread that showed up nicely on the light and dark fabrics. I'm always thrilled when I put those first few stitches into a quilt and realized I got the thread color right. I must admit many times I have started a quilt only to pick out the stitches because the thread wasn't right.

I used the Whirlygig panto on this one and you can see the whole pattern nicely on the back of this quilt.

Sunrise

I woke up to a beautiful sunrise this morning. My house faces east and this is the view off my deck looking into our little bay on Schist Lake.

Jelly Roll

Here is a great way to use your jelly rolls or Bali Pops! I used a medium green thread and the Ruffle Flower pantograph on my clients quilt. I have always loved the combination of purple and green, I think it reminds me of a garden....or maybe my favorite purple suede mini skirt and green blouse I use to wear in the late 80's! ( I loved that outfit!!)

Whirlygig

I have a client who loves working with Batiks like I do and so I ordered a few new Pantographs with this style of quilt in mind. This one is called Whirlygig and the large scale of this design with it's points and swirls really complements the piecing on this quilt.

On Friday I was curious how many people read my blog since many of you will not post comments ...yes I'm giving you a guilt trip but since you don't comment I'm not worried i'll get one back :P

So my solution was to add a counter to my page. I added it Friday night and as I started to write this post (Monday afternoon) the counter was at 99......yah, i'm not alone!

Belladonna

Now that fall is upon us with it's cool breeze and changing colors of the boreal forest I am settling back into my shack. No hibernation for me, I seen to be finishing quilts faster than I can post them. A client from Alberta left her quilt with me this summer while she was staying at her cottage and said "no rush, it's for the cabin here and we won't be back until next summer". Here it is September and it finished... I'm surprised I waited that long :)

The pantograph is called Belladonna and it is becoming one of my favorites.

Thimbleberry Number 4....and I know there are more.

I must admit that even thought this quilt is very large I do enjoy quilting it as it has so many possiblities. I also realized that if I just do one a month or every two months I enjoy the process more. My client used a solid fabric on the back and not the busy print that goes with the collection and it is so nice to actually see the quilting on the back of this one.

I'm really enjoying this leafy feather design above, there are so many variations of feathers and this is one of my favorites right now.

Log Cabin Quilt

The local quilters will recognize the blocks in my clients quilt as they were from a guild BOM a few years ago. This is a special quilt in my eyes as it has a very special story behind it. The blocks belonged to Florence, a guild member that passed away a few years ago and her friend Blanche (and other guild members) have spent many hours over the years completing all of Florence's unfinished projects. Florence was an avid quilter so you can imagine how many unfinished projects she would of had! This is the last one. Blanche did a beautiful job putting it together and I'm so glad that I was asked to quilt it.

Back to Work

It's the middle of September and summer has finally decided to show up, making it a bit difficult for me to get back to my quilting studio. Part of me would rather be sitting on the dock with my feet in the water but as you can see I did get back to work. School didn't start until the 10th so i do feel behind on my quilting, so I'm assuring my clients that if their quilts aren't ready that's okay!! I have quite a few that were dropped off at the end of June so I'm starting those first.

These photos are of a clients Mystery quilt and she arranged her blocks differently than mine. I find this pinwheel layout calls for an all over design. I wanted to mention thread color here as I have been told that some longarms don't like using different color thread on the top and bottom. I don't agree with that. I used a bright blue/green on the top and a dark brown on the bottom and as you can see in the last picture if you get the tension adjusted just right there are no 'pokies' of top color on the backing. Any light areas on the back are just bits of batting poking through not the blue top thread.

In non-quilting related news...my oldest son just turn 13 today, I am now the mom of a teenager!!