November 29, 2020

Susan's Sailboats Quilt

By    8:32 AM // 3 comments
My friend Susan worked on this adorable sailboat quilt for quite a while. I'd hear about it when she brought me other tops to quilt for her. I was looking forward to seeing it when it finally came my way for it's finishing touch.
    
I was excited when she called to book it on my schedule.  This is the "before" quilting photo.
 
In process.
She made this quilt for the daughter and son-in-law who own a sailboat.  Isn't it fabulous!
The Waterworld panto was her design choice. It adds the perfect feel for the pieced blocks. The batting is Quilter's Dream 80/20 which I have available to purchase for my customers.   Thread was Glide Tar Heel on the front and Sky in the bobbin.
 
The backing she brought was a solid medium blue that shows off the stitching nicely. 
 
I'm sure that the daughter and son-in-law that received this quilt were thrilled and will remind them of warmer days and beautiful breezes on the water, especially while hunkering down during our cold, snowy winters.
 
There's no doubt that Susan is working on yet another fun quilt top that will come my way for stitching at some point in the future.  I can't wait to see what it will be.

November 23, 2020

A Pair of Mask Baskets for Erica

By    5:30 AM // 4 comments
This is the last round of mask baskets I made recently. They were for my friend Erica.

Her kids love rainbows and the striped fabric was the closest I could get. I chose a pale Sage print for the outside of the first basket.
And I used the striped fabric for the lining.
For the 2nd basket, I put the striped fabric on the outside.
The lining was this fun blue print with crabs, butterflies, sea shells, star fish and sea gulls.
I'm glad that they will help them organize their masks like they have for us.  We're going to be wearing masks for a while to come so we might as well have a place to keep them.
A few of my readers have asked where I got the pattern.  The one I've been using is the Cute Storage Pod that I found on the Fabric Editions blog.  It's easy and fast.

I've completed quilting a number of quilts for customers, have a bunch of my own holiday projects to hopefully get done in time and am one of the block designers for this year's Winter Frost Countdown to Christmas quilt along on the Moda Bake Shop so stay tuned to see what's happening next.
 

November 20, 2020

Ethan's I Spy Quilt

By    4:20 PM // 10 comments
My neighbor's two year old son Ethan was recently diagnosed with a serious but treatable kidney cancer and he's currently going through chemo treatments.  I wanted to make him a quilt to cuddle with while he's at the hospital so I whipped up a cute I Spy quilt.   
I delved into my cut brick scraps and used everything I could find that wasn't Pink and girly.  In my hurry to get it completed, I forgot to snap a "before" picture before I started quilting it but I did remember to take a pic when I finished piecing the top.
As has happened before, my initial stitching design idea didn't look as I thought it would so after some trial and error to find something better, I settled on the Sprung panto and used Glide thread in Tar Heel (a favorite shade of blue).
I know that he will enjoy searching for all the fun animals, patterns and other motifs included in the blocks while waiting for each treatment to be finished.
When the binding was done, I quickly snapped these photos, folded it into a bag and walked across the street to deliver it.  His mom was shocked, to say the least, but as I told her, that's what quilters do....we make something cozy to snuggle under that bring people comfort.
The only thing I didn't already have in my stash for this quilt was an appropriate backing fabric so after a little hunting online, I was able to find this really cute construction truck print.  I was thrilled when Ethan's mom told me he's obsessed with trucks. 
A nice Navy binding completed the look.   Jammer, who's now taller than me, got the honors of holding it up for me for this picture.
Little Ethan's treatment is going well and is expected to make a full recovery but in the meantime, I'm happy that I was able to provide him a little bit of snuggly goodness along the way.

 

November 6, 2020

Susan's Vintage Truck Hunter's Star Quilt

By    11:39 AM // 6 comments

My friend Susan also made herself a Hunter's Star quilt featuring adorable vintage trucks.

While the piecing is certainly great...

...it's the actual quilting that brings the whole thing to life.
This is what it looked like before I started.  It's a pretty top but it's flat and needs it's own type of bling, thread stitched in a fabulous design.
Here it is after the stitching was finished.  It definitely has a lot more character.
Whether it's an edge to edge design, custom quilting or hand quilting, every quilt top needs the stitching to add the much needed texture to the design.
Susan's panto choice for this was Holly Berries, which is a personal favorite of mine.
The backing she provided is a matching vintage truck flannel.
The stitching design added just the right amount of highlights to the backing so the adorable print can still shine.
With our cold Northeast winters, I know this quilt will be snuggled under for many hours to come. 
I always love to see what Susan brings me to stitch up for her.  I can't wait to see what's next.
 

 

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