The Army Color Quilt

I am thrilled to take a short break after finishing my plethora of client quilts.  That being said, come next week I have three to contact on a waiting list.   Yesterday my friend picked up what I call The Army Color Quilt.  This is a surprise queen size bedspread quilt for her teen aged son.  He has no idea!  Yes, it is pictured on my king size bed so it is big.  Again, swirls were the popular design this summer but I thought I would still show it to compare how it looks on different quilts.

So this is The Army Color Quilt, completed completely with swirls:

The Army Color Quilt was pieced primary with a Moda Marble green and some batiks.  I forgot to take pictures of the back but it was pieced with 10" squares and turned out lovely.  The quilting was done with Fil-Tec Glide in an army type green (#65615); a 40 weight trilobal polyester.  This has often been a go to green.  The glide thread seems to sink into the fabric a bit more.  It is great because there is almost no lint build up in my sit down hook system.

Just for a comparison, here is a glimpse of other quilts I have done recently with the same pattern but different threads.  

Most recently was sunshine.  Sunshine was quilted with 50 weight Aurifil cotton thread in a light yellow on the main body and a dark chocolate on the feathers.  The yellow on the busy block designs actually showed up more like a white.

Lavender is again swirls but she was quilted with Superior So Fine 40 weight polyester thread in a lovely light lavender color (#442) throughout the quilt.

Christmas in July was quilted with 50 weight Prescencia cotton thread in white for the swirls.  The white was visible but did not compete with the Cardinals.  The back was done with a plaid flannel and the thread sunk right in to it.

Finally, there was Top Hat.  Top hat was also quilted with a 50 weight Aurifil cotton thread but using a light gray.  Aurifil does not seem to sink in as much but it blends nicely with the fabric and does not stand out quite so much as a 40 weight thread.

So in general,  the type and color of thread used on a quilt really depends on the style and design of the quilt.  I tend to use trilobal threads on batiks and children quilts; anything that needs or would work with a sheen on the thread.  Cotton or polyester (So Fine) are my choices for more classic quilts.  If the thread needs to stand out, I may go with a 40 weight like So Fine or Signature (cotton). Both of these do tend to leave a lot more lint in the hook system so I need to clean it diligently every bobbin change.  If the quilting needs to be more quiet or I plan a lot of overstitching, the lighter 50 weight thread may be my choice so the appearance does not become too heavy.

I would love to hear your comments about quilting and threads!

Join me again this week as I check up today at http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com, tomorrow at http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com and Friday with http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.  Have an awesome week!

A Deer Quilt :)

It is always a joy to see new quilters enjoy the craft I so dearly love.  Such was my joy this week when I was able to complete the quilting for a lovely lady new to quilting.  This quilt was extra special because it is also a gift for her son.  I was asked to keep it simple but add in a few designs that would compliment the outdoorsy and deer theme.

Selecting thread for the quilting proved challenging because the greens in the light fabric (which was also the border), was completely different from the green in the deer blocks and nothing we looked at worked.  So after a bit of time, the "deer in the headlights" look disappeared as the light finally came on and I chose Signature Threads, 40 weight, in a brownish gold color.  It worked perfectly.

My customer asked me to quilt loops in the center portion of the quilt with a sporadic pine cone.  It came out quite lovely.

The two outside borders were combined and although still quilted with loops, this time a sporadic set of acorns was added.

Although I am a much more complex individual, I am thrilled with how the quilting came out on this quilt and the owner is ecstatic.  It's good to be simple!

Join me this week as I check out:  http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com today, http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com on Thursday and both http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com on Friday.  These are awesome quilty blogs so take a look!  

By the way, if you followed some of my posts in May through July, you might be interested in how Autumn and Elijah are recovering from their automobile accident.  Autumn has a brain injury but is at home now, doing outpatient therapy at Craig Hospital.  When she left Craig there was an awesome video her parents released reminding us of the road from almost death to victoriously leaving the hospital.  Get ready for tears.  Elijah has had a more difficult road but there is an awesome photo of him and a current update you can find at:  https://elijahandautumn.wordpress.com.  If you have been praying, please continue to do so.  And remember their families too; the road is long and difficult.

Have an awesome remainder of the week and take joy in the difficulties of life that make us stronger to help others in need.

Cheyenne Heritage Quilt Guild Show

I spent a good portion of this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday with Blakeman Vacuum & Sewing at the annual quilt show for our local quilt guild.  Although I was tired by the end of each day, it was such a joy to interact with all the ladies (and gentlemen) who came to view the quilts and/or were involved in hosting the show.  People are wonderful and it was a blast!

So we brought a few Bernina machines, including the 350, 710 & I think the 830:

And of course, you have to have a longarm at a quilt show:

Finally, we couldn't leave out my favorite, the Tiara, which I demonstrated most of each day in between visiting with everyone.  It's such a joy to talk about what you love to do and what you use to do it.  

The show was awesome; there were many quilts and an incredible amount of talent!  Though it was hard to be away from my family, I enjoyed every moment and am so thankful my husband encourages me to pursue my gift.

So what did I quilt on for three days and what is that purple wild thing underneath the Tiara?  Well, that was actually the last sandwich I quilted and I was getting somewhat tired so I decided to sit back and relax.  These are what I call "hook" or "lace" feather plumes with designs in the "hook back" portion.  I'm still not done but decided to have more fun by stepping away from the feathers and adding some dense quilting around the perimeter to set off the main feather design.  Hopefully I will have time soon to complete this.  Kind of wild but very freeing.

I also quilted the new sample for my revised free motion quilting class.  I have changed from an 8 hour class completed over four weeks, to a full day class filled with five hours of free motion quilting.  This sample shows the progression of the class:

I always share preliminary information relative to free motion quilting, then once we check tension and make corrections, we start with simple loops, add in some designs and then  progress to flowers and leaves without loops.  After lunch we take a look at some all over designs and then try our hand at feathers.  It's a full day as I also share lots of information about actually quilting a quilt, threads, and needles.  

I also spent time quilting my favorite:  feathers.  I'm a romantic at heart and love the flowing feel of classic feathers.  That was a little vignette I put together with feathers, a rose and rosebuds.

Finally, I just started quilting and as a design came to mind, it was put on the sandwich.  Normally I will change to scrap muslin when someone wants to try their hand at quilting on the Tiara but while quilting this piece I stepped away for a quick moment and turned around to find a new artist adding their special touch right in the middle of my masterpiece.  I am proud to share with a budding artist!

So that was my weekend with Ed and Eli from Blakeman Vacuum & Sewing at the Cheyenne Heritage Quilt Guild quilt show.  I had a wonderful time and truly enjoyed the quilts, the people and the quilting!

Have a wonderful quilty week and enjoy every moment of life!

Sunshine!

Another busy week!  We had a wonderful visit this past week with my hubby's sister and her husband and just took them back to the airport on Tuesday.  Now I am busy preparing to spend the weekend quilting on the Tiara for Blakeman Vacuum & Sewing at the local annual quilt show. It should be a super weekend.  Two recent finishes for customers, Christmas in July and Asian Feathers, will be in the show.  I am looking forward to checking them out hanging up.

And........another customer finish!  I don't know what she will call it, but my name is Sunshine because it is exceedingly cheery with a nice sunny day feeling.   This was actually from a Thangles class taken at our local quilt store.  Sunshine is just gorgeous!

The quilting was kept simple.  The owner wanted an all-over design so again, we went with my most popular design that fit the feeling of the quilt and in this case it was again the swirls.  The owner provided a light yellow 50 weight Aurifil thread for this center portion.

We kept the borders very simple yet elegant and classic with very simple feathers and for this we used a dark chocolate 50 weight Aurifil thread that blended perfectly with the border fabric.

The backing was a beautiful orange fabric from Connecting Threads.  It worked perfectly.

I am thrilled with how this very lovely quilt finished.  That brings me down to two customer quilts remaining and one is a king size for a friend that is already half done.  Yay!

Hop on over with me to http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com on Wednesday, 

http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com on Thursday and http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com on Friday!

Happy quilting to all!!

Asian Feathers

I love this quilt!  Not often do I have clients who will let me go to town on their quilts and are willing to pay for it.  This one did.  I found out that this was actually a mystery quilt and the owner was not sure she chose the right colors but I think it is fantastic.  It will be hanging at our local quilt show in mid-August.  I will be there as well with Blakeman Vacuum & Sewing doing demos on the Babylock Tiara.

The red fabric is an asian print with butterflies.  Some of the butterflies were fussy cut and appliqued as well.  That proved to provide challenges in the cross hatching and feathering as I had to work around the butterflies.

The cream is a print with a hint of metallic and the black, although it shows up differently at times in the photos,  is the black Kona cotton.

So the first thing I did is a 1/4 curve with Hemmingsworth metallic thread in the red squares followed by feathers in the quilt center:

Next were the stars.  I cross hatched the points and put a type of squash blossom in the cream portion of the nine-patch.

In between each star is a feathered wreath:

Outside of the stars are more feathers and a duet of plumes in corner blocks

In the corners are more feathers but I included my own butterfly:

And to take a little break from the feathers, I added some straight line quilting in the borders:

Here are some photos of the back.  The photos came out more grey because I was in strong sunlight but it is actually black Kona Cotton:

Love how this quilt turned out.  Now it is time to switch gears and begin quilting an outdoorsy quilt with deer fabric.  Have a great quilty day.

Join me as I link up with http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com on Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday at http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com and http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com on Friday as I check out what other quilters are up to.