Mr. Snowman! and Christmas finishes

I hope Christmas was a blessing to all and that a wonderful time was shared with family and friends as we remembered the birth of our Savior.  I thoroughly enjoyed some extra time off with hubby as he took vacation time from Wednesday through yesterday.  What a treat!  And since school was out, my son shared that time with us as well.  Christmas Eve was spent at a church service singing old Christmas carols followed by a local tour of the Christmas lights.  We are looking forward to a little more special time together as we celebrate the new year towards the end of the week.  With that, I plan on getting a little quilting and sewing done this week.  But first, a view of all things quilty from Christmas.

Love this cutie!  I made this table  runner from a from Missouri Star Quilt Company pattern last winter.

The week before Christmas, a friend brought her version over for quilting.

I quilted this quite similar to what was done on my, but it also has it's unique touches.  Once stitching was done close to the edge of each appliqué piece, the snowman was quilted with swirls with white 50 weight Aurifil thread  and surrounded in the blue by freehand lines in a lighter blue thread.  

Love these freehand snowflakes for the two light blocks.  One small circle was drawn in the center so there was a bit of symmetry but that was it.  The same light blue Aurifil thread was used for the snowflakes so they would stand out on the light fabric.

This outside border was done simply with loops and simple snowflakes in a medium gray Aurifil thread.  It was pretty busy so there was no reason to do anything intense.  

The back was a medium blue that was also used on the front.  The quilting really shows up well.

Hope you enjoyed Mr. Snowman.  I think you can still get the tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I love snowmen; they are so innocent looking and one of my favorite childhood movies was Frosty the Snowman.  

These adorable machine embroidered pot holders were also a finish prior to Christmas and were given to a wonderful quilty friend.

Two of each of these placemats were made for our Christmas table but did not get done in time.  The binding on the poinsettia is almost done; three more to complete.  The poinsettia should be complete today so we will use at least the three through January.

They look gorgeous on our dining room table.  The fabric is Robert Kaufman from last Christmas.  I really enjoy combining embroidery and quilting.  My Bernina 770 is really getting some embroidery use.  I stitched around the edges of the major parts of each embroidery design to provide some quilt stability and then stippled in the green area with Floriani metallic.  The seams were all stitched in the ditch with my 97D foot.   That foot is awesome!  I skipped the red area but the light cream fabric and outer green were quilted with a larger meander.  Since the fabrics were busy, the focus on these placemats was the fabric and the embroidery designs.  

Then last night I was able to give this wall hanging to a sweet friend whose birthday was the day after Christmas.  I forgot to take a photo once the binding was complete but you'll get the idea.  It was stitched in the ditch except for very light swirl and feather quilting in the outside purple border.  I tried using two layers of batting as well and love the effects.  I really like how this wall hanging turned out and I think the recipient did too.

Finally, I don't get a lot of quilted or hand crafted items from friends for Christmas but a package arrived from San Antonio with this very special gift to be treasured always.  To say the least, I was thrilled.

Have a wonderful and safe New Year's week!  Finish up Friday is today over at http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com so join me and check out all the other wonderful Christmas finishes.

Pink, Purple and Pretty

My Awesome Grandma customer brought me another quilt top to sandwich and quilt for a grandchild!  This time.......for a girl!!!!  Yay!  I love girl quilts and feel so much more fluid when doing beautifully flowing designs.  So here's Pink, Purple and Pretty:

This is really a simple, modern, fun, cute quilt.  A quilty friend did this pattern with a group of us for someone diagnosed with cancer.  It was a gift to provide a little quilty comfort and love during chemotherapy.  Each woman brought a designated quantity of blocks and they were all pooled together.  All the fabrics were different but the quilt turned out lovely

This quilt is basically a square in a square followed by a plain square cut block.  All the dark center cuts are from this fabric:

Pink, Purple and Pretty is for a 13 year old who loves pink and purple.  So I used a lavender 50 weight Aurifil thread in both the top and bobbin and took advantage again of my new found quilt design from Tracey with Whirls 'N Swirls.  I just love this allover motif, especially for girls.  It is such a fluid and moving design and is a wonderful break from flowers sand hearts.  And.....it is just soooooooo cute!

Again with all the other quilts brought to me by Awesome Grandma, this quilt is flannel both top and back.  And the back???  Love it!  The fabric is such a gorgeous purple.

I still have quilts to complete for customers but the Christmas rush has subsided and I hope to enjoy some of my own creativity today.  Have an awesome Christmas week and enjoy every moment with family and friends as you celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Flannel Pinwheels & Christmas Joy

I love Flannel Pinwheels (my name for it)!  It is so attractive and stunning with the colors and fabrics that were selected.  This quilt is a Bonnie Hunter scrap pattern which the quilter finished at 54" x 66" using all flannels for the blocks.  The colors are so rich and beautiful and the pinwheels really stand out.

This quilt is for a hubby so guess what standby quilting was used?   Indeed, some simple swirls with hooks.  This design works great with quilts for men and it goes very quickly.  I used an Aurifil 50 weight light brown thread that is not overpowering against the fabrics but can still be seen.  The quilting doesn't show up as well in photos so I got real close and took several photos. It probably doesn't help that I don't have a great camera and we live in cold and windy plains area, which is not conducive to outside photos, especially right now.

For the backing the quilter used an older Marcus Brothers fabric and I think it works great with the top.  The quilting blends in even more on the backing but that allows the house design to stand out.

As a side note, I'm moderating our Quilt Club today over at Blakeman Vacuum & Sewing.  We are having a handmade gift exchange and I was able to complete my gift in advance.  I am enjoying the embroidery side of my Bernina 770.  It's been fun and challenging learning new things like embroidery software and downloading designs.   I had fun making this mug rug/hot pad using an embroidery design and combining it with lettering.  I hope the recipient enjoys it.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful weekend and stop over with me at these links to see what other crafty individuals are up to:

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com. 

Snowmen in the Stars!

This was such a refreshing quilt and it's soooooo cute!!  The owner told me exactly what she wanted; I made a few suggestions , which she accepted, and that was it!  This quilt is a small throw / wall hanging measuring 49" x 69" which the owner plans to have appraised and then donated for auction.  (do you hear the chatter, chatter of my teeth upon my hands?)  Yes, I am nervous about that part.  But I did my best!

So here is Snowmen in the Stars:

Both top and backing are completely done in flannel.  The gray blocks are 4" squares while the two long black strips are appliqued with snowmen and primitive stars.  In the gray blocks I was asked to stipple and occasionally add in a mitten.  With approval, I included a snowflake, plus when I did a mitten, I did a set of two.  The mittens did not exactly match but I thought a set was cute.  

The gray was quilted with a 50 weight Aurifil thread; I wanted a good thread since this was going to be appraised.  It's surprising how well the designs stood out; I was very pleased.  It was a little bit of a challenge but also a goal to make sure many of the snowflakes and mittens ended up on the lighter blocks, which would allow the designs to be seen.

These snowman are so cute.  The original plan was to use a gold colored thread and loosely meander through the black section, throwing in a star every now and then. And the original plan was to draw stars like we did growing up.   However, since I always stitch around appliqué anyway, we decided it might make a better scene to simple throw in a few clusters of stars and since the appliquéd stars were primitive, to stick with that design.  Wow!  These are hard to draw and make look good but I think I did ok.    

The appliques in this section were surrounded by a black Aurifil 50 weight thread but the stars were stitched out in a 40 weight Isacord trilobal polyester.  That helped the stars to "shine" a little more.  

The backing was a gray geometric flannel that worked well with the quilt.

I used matching top and bobbin threads so the designs and appliqué show up on the back.

The only thing I didn't like about this quilt was all the meandering.  It fit with the quilt but just lacks appeal to me.  I think I've been doing free motion too long and enjoy all the fancy designs.  However, it was fun adding three new designs to my repertoire:  the primitive star, the fancy snowflake and mittens!  I do a class called "Free Motion Motif of the Month" the first Tuesday of each month over at Blakeman Vacuum and Sewing and think I might include these three designs in January.  The mittens are easy but there is a little thinking and technique to the snowflake and primitive star.

Take a break from shopping, cooking and cleaning and join me Friday over at:  http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.

Diamonds!

The name of this quilt can be somewhat confusing because there are actually no diamonds in the quilt.  However, the blocks in the center of the quilt begin to form a diamond shape as the pattern grows.

This quilt is actually for the cousin of "Modern Tennis Shoes", which was featured in my previous blog post.  This one was almost as challenging but not quite.  Obviously, this young man is somewhat more subdued.  I love the colors of this quilt.  It was also done in flannel.

There are two designs on this quilt: one on the brown and one in the colored blocks, with hopes that the diamond pattern of the quilt would be seen better.

Throughout the brown I did modern rectangular/square quilting using a brown 50 weight Aurifil thread.

The colored blocks were all different but the concept was the same:  swirls and fire with an Aurifil 50 weight soft yellow for the colored blocks.

This is a view of the quilting in the colored and brown blocks together.

And of course, the back, which was also flannel.  Just like Modern Tennis Shoes, you can see the quilting much better on the back.

I think Diamonds turned out very cool and enjoyed the quilting process.

Come join me tomorrow as I link up with http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.  The inspiration and talent is incredible so check it out!

Modern Tennis Shoes

Just finished another quilt for my customer who has the two adopted grandchildren coming from Africa.  She is making a throw for each of her grandchildren for Christmas.  The last two should be in my hands tonight or tomorrow.

This is definitely a very "hip" grandma as she has tried hard to match each quilt with the style of the grandchild.  This quilt is NO exception.  The teen boy to receive this quilt loves tennis shoes so there is even tennis shoe fabric in the quilt!

As for me, this is WAY out of my league.  It was quite the effort to come up with quilting that would fit the fabric and design.  My thought process in determining the quilting took in to consideration that the pattern blocks consist of a large and small rectangle beside each other and off-set.  The next block  is flipped and the process continues  to accomplish six blocks in a row.  Also,  since there is so much color in this quilt, an all over design might get lost and Grandma is NOT an "allover" design person.  So...using an Aurifil, 50 weight  gray thread (#2610), I quilted simple swirls in each of the large rectangles because those were all busy fabrics and the quilting would be somewhat obscure.  In this photo the swirls are in the blue plaid and the tennis shoes.

The more slender rectangles were pretty much solid but I didn't want to add too much more busy- ness to the quilt, so I did a simple "electrical spiral" with an "l" or "e" in 50 weight Aurifil thread but with a variegated called Rainbow (#3817).  I did them facing each other to spiff up the design and fill in the block.  I really like how this turned out though you really can't see the variegated thread in the photos.

The black border was hard to figure out because it moved with the blocks.  So I ended up with a more modern design that I worked down the small one inch sashing.  Using black Aurifil, again in 50 weight, as I approached a black square or rectangle, I entered it and echoed it toward the center.  I lightened up these two photos extensively so the quilting would show up.

The border needed a break from the rectangles so I went back to the gray and did a double circle, while working my way across the border.  Not to deviate too much, the corners are quadroned into squares like cornerstones.  I marked with a  blue line marker 1/2" away from the edge of the quilt so the stitching would not be lost in the binding but had not yet removed the marking when I took these photos.

The depth of quilting really shows on the back and is very cool.

So that's my Modern Tennis Shoe finish; it was a creative challenge.  

 I hope you are enjoying the Christmas spirit.  My computer has been busy making noises today with each new email announcing cyber Monday or  cyber week.  Don't let the shopping overwhelm the joy!  Tomorrow our family will decorate!