My client Linda made a new quilt for her grandson's birthday.  He picked all the fabrics.

Evidently he loves Orange and Purple.  I don't know if he also chose the pattern she used to piece the top but it's a variety of Friendship Stars in an Irish Chain setting.

Linda had a tough time choosing the stitching design.  I steered her to the Caldor pantograph and though she wasn't sure, she trusted my judgement.  Being that this was for her grandson, we wanted a design that looked more masculine and modern.

I think the Calder pantograph gave this quilt just the right feel, perfect for a young man.

The outside photos shows the actual colors so much better than the inside shots. Due to her arthritis, Linda struggles now to sew binding so she asked me to trim and bind this quilt for her.  I used the leftover strips she brought to create the scrappy binding.

There's lots of lovely texture that helped make this quilt shine.

The backing fabric is a fun print that looks like chicken tracks on the ground.

Linda brought her grandson and his mom when she picked it up.  He was beyond thrilled.

I was happy that I could help Linda finish this gift for her grandson.  I know he will love snuggling with this special quilt made by his grandmother's loving hands.

Along with her Batik Mountains quilt, my client Sandy also brought this wonderful Mountain Skiers top for me to quilt for her.

It started out as this fabulously pieced top.

Sandy had a unique request for the quilting.  She wanted vertical freehand wavy lines of varying widths similar to the quilting I had done on the sailboat wall hanging I stitched earlier this year. Her intent for the quilting was to have it mimic the lines in the snow created as skiers made their way down the mountain.

I loaded the top sideways on the frame to make stitching the wavy lines easier.  It worked well.

The thread used was Glide Linen on the top and in the bobbin. Sandy was thrilled with the result.

Quilting is always fun when my clients bring me such interesting projects to help them finish.

I truly enjoy the variety of tops that my clients bring me to quilt for them.  It certainly keeps the job interesting.  This is the batik mountains quilt that I helped my client Sandy complete.

This is how it looked before being quilted. The large variety of batik colors and prints she used makes this quilt visually dynamic.

I believe she told me these blocks were paper pieced.

Sandy was sure of the look she was going for and quickly chose the Modernish pantograph for this quilt, along with Glide Sterling thread for both the top and in the bobbin.

The stitching design definitely kept with the modern vibe of this quilt and kind of reminds me of waves of wind as they pass along the mountains' peaks.

Sunshine helped me out with the photo shoot outside where the colors showed much more vibrantly.

The backing was a solid gray which showed off the stitching.

We both love how this turned out. 

Stay tuned to see the other quilt Sandy brought me to stitch for her.

I've completed another project on my To Do list (I can show it yet as it's a gift) so I was able to reward myself with making another block for my Swoon quilt. 

These are so fun to make.  Lucky for me I've also completed 2 other projects so I'll be working on 2 more Swoon blocks soon.

Don't you just love it when a client brings you a project that just sings to you. That's what this one did for me. Charmaine pieced this absolutely gorgeous Asian Half Square Triangle top that I had the pleasure of quilting for her. 

Here is the "before" picture.  There are so many gorgeous Asian prints in these blocks that I was staring at this for a long while before I got to work. It was mesmerizing.

See what I mean?  The prints shine when paired with the Black tone on tone print that she used. This strongly temps me to pull out all my Asian fabrics and make my own version.

After the first pass, I liked how it was looking already.

It didn't take long before it was done.  Thankfully it was a nice sunny day so I could get the pics outside. You can't beat the natural light to truly show off  the beautiful colors in this quilt.

Glide thread in Medium Gray was the right choice for the top thread so as to show the stitching some without overshadowing the piecing.

I had just purchased a new panto design called Ginseng by Patricia Ritter and Marybeth O'Halloran which couldn't have been more perfect for this quilt.

The backing is a beautiful Geisha print in Yellow.

In this picture you can better see the details of the backing fabric.  Glide thread in Light Tan worked well to not outshine the print.

I really love how this quilt turned out and so did Charmaine. 

As always, I can't wait to see what fun project Charmaine brings me to quilt next.

Once I put the final stitches in the binding on my Bella's Garden quilt, I got to reward myself by making another block for my Swoon quilt.

Aren't the colors so pretty?

I've got a long way to go on this project but I'm already getting a little excited.

I'm sure you've heard the old saying "the shoemakers' kids have no shoes". That's what it's been like here, at least regarding our own bed.  While I've made plenty of snuggle quilts that reside on the couch and get used by all of us regularly, our own bed was neglected for far too long.

I'm a little embarrassed to show you the "before" picture but I'm so happy with the end result that I want you to see the huge difference my new quilt makes.

I had purchased this quilt from a store when we moved into the house, to have something to put on the bed until I could make something prettier.  That was 11 1/2 years ago. I grew to really dislike the color scheme and I was long over the brown curtains.  The headboard needed to go to.  We bought it at a huge discount 28 years ago because of a small chip on a leg that no one could see and it wasn't our style any more.

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen some of the photos I've shared of the process of making my new quilt.  It all started with this stack of fabrics I purchased exactly 10 years ago this month. It's Bella by Amanda Murphy.

When this line came out, I immediately fell in love with the color palette and the prints.

After picking a pattern (The Garden Fence by Ann Baxter, published in QUILT magazine in December 20??), calculating the yardage because I needed to make it bigger than the pattern finished and placing my order, it went into a project bag, onto the shelf and sat.  And sat, and sat and sat.

In May 2020, since I was stuck home and had a lot more time on my hands, I pulled this out, determined to get it started.  The construction was easy enough as it really was only a huge pile of Half Square Triangles.

I had a bit of an impediment  help when it came time to trim all 168 HSTs. I guess Miss Callie had to ensure I was doing a good job.

Laying out the blocks is a favorite step.  I get a first glimpse of how the finished quilt is going to turn out.  I'm pretty OCD about not having the same print or color right next to each other.

Adding the Yellow sashing was the final step to assembling the blocks.

Next the blocks were sewn into the rows, adding the Green sashing strips between the blocks and the rows. The colors are off in this photo because I took it at night. 

With the addition of the borders, the top was done.  This pic was taken in February 2021. Needless to say that while I typically work on only 1 quilt at a time, this one was the filler between other projects.

Then in Sept of this year (Yes  1 1/2 years after I finished piecing the top) I finally loaded it on the frame. I was determined to get this done before the end of this year.

I chose Glide Light Turquoise for both the top and bobbin threads.  I love how it plays with all the colors and prints.

Hand stitching the binding was a longer than normal drawn out process due to our Fall activities but eventually it was finally done, 2 1/2 years after it was started.  It's certainly not my oldest WIP but it's one that I'm beyond thrilled to have finished.

As I was working on the photo shoot, the sun decided to cooperate and gave me the most amazing light. It was tough to get the whole quilt in the photo as it's really big, finishing at 94" x 106". That's 400 lineal inches of hand stitched binding.

I love how you can really see the gorgeous texture.

Even the stitching shows nicely on the back.

I used one of the prints from the fabric line because for this particular quilt, I wanted it all to match. No matter which side you see, it's all so pretty.

The panto choice was Tickle Too by Beany Girls from Willow Leaf Studios and of course, I used my favorite Quilters Dream 80/20 batting.  I love how this batting is just the right weight, shows just the right amount of the stitching and doesn't crinkle up quite as much as 100% cotton batting.

With the too long overdue replacement of our mattress and the purchasing of a new frame, this quilt now adorns our bed. I'm a happy, happy girl. No more daily backaches and a pretty quilt to snuggle under every night.

The greatly disliked brown curtains was also replaced and now this space is a ton more cheerful and bright.  It makes me smile every time I walk in the room.  

Finishing this quilt was my Christmas present to me.