Happy Independence Day!

I am wishing all my friends a Happy Independence Day, or Happy 4th of July!!

In honor of the day, here are some flag quilts I have quilted in the last few months.

Enjoy the day with family and friends or working on a special (hopefully quilting) project that brings you joy!

I do quilting for American Hero Quilts, a great organization that donates quilts to active duty, wounded service people. For details on American Hero Quilts and how you can help them Click Here (They always need longarm quilters!)

Here is an American Hero Quilt I finished a few weeks ago – click on any photo for a larger view and slide show.

On the top and bottom border, there feathered heart wreaths. In the red stripes there are feather cables and in the star stripes, the stars are quilted with “spikes” and the background has ribbon stipple.

The batting is Warm Company, Soft & Bright and a combination of Signature 100% cotton and Madeira polyester thread was used.

This next quilt is by Pam F. who made it for her mother who was in hospice care. Pam’s Mom loved anything Americana and she loved hearts. Pam is a neighbor and I helped her in the design of the quilt top. Pam wanted “open spaces” so I could do some fancy quilting.

Pam’s Mom LOVED the quilt and Pam has sweet memories of caring for her Mom during her last days.

Click on any photo for a larger view.

Here are the quilting details – batting, Soft & Bright from Warm Company, Signature 100% cotton thread. There are large feathered heart wreaths in the top and bottom borders, smaller feathered heart wreaths in the side borders, ribbon stipple in the center of the quilt, spikes and more feathers in the stars.

Feathered Hearts in top borer

side borders

Back of the quilt

Back of the quilt

I am going to spend the rest of today sewing, quilting, relaxing and just enjoying life!

Happy Independence Day to All!!!

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My Aunt’s Quilt

My Aunt Esther, after many years of pain, had her knee replaced a few weeks ago. When I was visiting with her – and the rest of my family – earlier this year, I told her that if she got her knee replaced, I would gift her with a quilt.

Before I put her quilt in the mail to her, I took some photos. I LOVE how her quilt turned out! I had pieced the top a few years ago while on vacation. (Don’t laugh, I know of MANY quilters who bring their sewing stuff with on vacation!)

My Aunt loves traditional quilting, and this quilt delivers it!

Click on any photo for a larger view.

I quilted feathers all over the quilt! In the “open” spaces, I quilted feathered wreaths with a slightly contrasting thread. Then I quilted curved feather “fill in” stitching with a matching thread. Lastly, I quilted Continuous Curves in the 9 Patch – 4 Patch blocks.

I went wild on the borders! I used the Single Small Cable Template for the inner border and the Triple Cable Template for the outer border. Again, the feathers were quilted with a slightly contrasting thread.

I can’t wait to hear what my Aunt Esther says about her new quilt and I am wishing her a speedy recovery from her surgery!

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Tonga Batik Quilt

Here is a quilt I just finished quilting. It is a FABULOUS quilt and I enjoyed every minute of quilting it.

It is a large 93 x 104 inch Block of the Month and it is very well pieced. My customer, Karla S, from Texas, did a great job! I LOVE the fabrics and it quilted up really well.

Here is the details about the Block of the Month –

Tonga Batik Back To Nature Block of The Month

Quilt Pattern by Wing and A Prayer Design

Fabric Collection by Timeless Treasures

Here are the photos – click on any one for a larger view

The quilt is hanging outside on my clothesline and it is so big that the bottom of the quilt is on the ground!  the fabrics! I haven’t trimmed it yet – I’ll do that tomorrow! The batting is Soft & Bright by Warm Company. I love that batting!

Here is the upper corner. Click on the photo and you should be able to see some of the quilting. I quilted a Triple Cable in the outer border, feathers in the Log Cabin areas and a lot of custom quilting in the individual blocks.

Here is the center of the quilt. Isn’t it amazing! Great job, Karla!

I am hoping that you can see the Triple Cable in the outer border. I also quilted feathers in the green, inner border. I used a variety of Signature, 100% cotton threads.

One last photo – this time the back of the quilt. You can see the detail of the quilting a little better. Click on the photo to see all the quilting.

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December Quilts

Wow! Has time flown by!! After staying with my daughter for six weeks after my second hip replacement surgery, I was able to move back home on November 23.  It feels SO good to be back in my own space and sleep in my own bed.

When I moved back home, I was “back in the game” and have been working hard ever since. I have been piecing quilt tops, quilting many quilts and working on several different (long-term) projects at one time. I have even been able to quilt a few customer Christmas quilts.

At this time last year, before I had both of my hips replaced,  I could only stand and quilt for about 20 minutes at a time. Walking around the quilting machine was painful and I had an AWFUL limp. Now, it is a totally different story! Last night, I was standing and quilting for nearly TWO HOURS!!! I was in the “quilting groove” –  the Christmas music station was playing on my SmartPhone, earplugs were in my ears and I was focused on my quilting. I didn’t even realize that nearly two hours had passed by – and I didn’t hurt, anywhere, at all! I even felt that I could have quilted for a while longer, but I didn’t want to push my luck. Plus, it was nearly 10 pm and I was getting tired. And I felt SOOO GOOOOOOD!!!!

Here are some photos of the customer quilts I have completed this month (December)

This quilt, Eagles and Stars,  was made by Sharon C. and it is huge – 110 x 110 inches and very well pieced. This eagle panel is in the middle of the quilt. There are four other smaller eagle panels that are placed around the center panel. I quilted a lot of feathers – in the blocks, in the borders and around the eagle panels.

Click on any photos for a larger view.

It has been very stormy and rainy the last few days and I can’t hang this quilt up outside to show the whole quilt. If the rain stops and things dry out a bit (in my dreams – this IS Seattle in the winter!) I’ll try to get a large view of this quilt. These photos are taken with the quilt draped over the quilting machine. I had to work with the overhead lights off so I could get some of the details of the quilting to show. I apologize in advance for the darkness of the photos. If I have the big lights on, you can’t see the quilting. With the big lights off, you see the quilting but the photos are dark.

Here is a photo of the stars in this quilt with the big lights on. You can see a little bit of the quilting detail, but not much.

Here is a photo with the big lights off and you can see the quilting a whole lot better.

Here is a photo of the back of the quilt and you can see most of the quilting. The backing fabric is a beige with white print fabric. You can also see that I quilted the Feather Cable in the border. This was a fun quilt and I really enjoyed working on it. I can’t wait for my customer to see it!

The next two quilts were made by Chris W. She does such a nice job with the piecing and I love her fabric colors.

The first quilt, Black & Beige, is a simple quilt about 68 x 80 inches.

I wanted to do some fancy quilting on it, so I quilted feathered wreaths in the large blocks. In the spaces at the corners of the blocks, there was enough room for small feathered wreaths.

With the printed fabric, it is hard to see the feathered wreaths, but they are there! I used Soft & Bright batting which gives a bit of loft and texture to the quilting.

For the border, I quilted the “Amish Swirled Feather” design. I used the Feather Guide templates from Longarm U to make the feathered wreaths and the border designs. For info about these templates Click Here 

Chris W had another quilt, again, simple piecing, but fabulous fabrics. As you can see, it is four patches with sashings and a border. Simple, but extremely elegant!

I quilted feather plumes in the four patches and a swirled feather design in the sashings.

The border was a bit of a challenge. Every kind of pattern I wanted to quilt, feathers, Sashiko, etc., just didn’t look right. So, I quilted on the design already on the fabric. The quilting really doesn’t show (I’m OK with that) and it gives texture to the border area. I do love the look of this type of quilting.

You can see the detail of the quilting on the border in the photo above.

All of these quilts were fun, fun, fun to work on and it feels soooo gooood to be able to quilt again!

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Two Customer Quilts

I have been busy, busy, busy the last few weeks, working hard at the quilting machine!

There are two new customer quilts that I finished and want to show to everyone. The piecing was great on both quilts and I had a ton of fun quilting them.

There are many quilting “things” that I do. One of them is being a contributor to the “Fresh Ideas” column in the On Track magazine. OnTrack magazine is produced by the International Machine Quilting Association (IMQA). In this column, a drawing of a pieced quilt top is sent to me and two other contributors, who then “quilt” it as if it were our own, or a customer’s quilt. In the last issue, the quilt top pattern that was sent was a Log Cabin quilt. One of the quilting options I submitted was the design below.

I know that his may look like a very un-assuming design, but, when it is quilted it is spectacular!

Then, a few weeks later Shari R, brought a beautiful, King Size, 106 x 106 inch Log Cabin quilt to be quilted. I KNEW exactly what to quilt on it! The same design as above! And here are the results – Click on any photo for a larger view.

This is four Log Cabin blocks with the light part of the cabin in the middle. I used Signature 100% cotton, Camel in the light areas and Walnut in the dark areas. The batting is Soft & Bright by Warm Company.

This is an (almost) full view of the quilt. There are 9 “medallions”, made from four Log Cabin blocks. The quilt is too big for my clothsline, so I folded 1/3 of the quilt to the back. I love the fabric that were used in this quilt!

Here is a photo of the medallion and the border and corner. The border was made using the Longarm University, Triple Cable Template set and the corner was made using the Longarm U, 6 inch Circle Feather Guide.  I LOVE the way the cable and feather border, and so did my customer!

A few weeks later, Cynthia H. brought a quilt that was made using a Fat Quarter collection. (I don’t know if there is a specific name to this quilt.)  I quilted Free Hand Feathers & Swirls as an all over, edge to edge pattern. I love the texture that this quilting design makes. Click on any photo for a larger view.

This quilt measures 58 x 70 inches. This photo is not the best. I took the photo early in the morning and there is too much sunshine. (Is it possible that there is TOO much sunshine in Seattle!)

Here is a close up of the piecing and quilting on this quilt. I used Signature 100% cotton thread, Praline Pink and the batting is Warm & Natural.

Here is a closer look at the quilting. I love the texture and the swirls give a lot of “movement” to the quilting.

I had a lot of fun quilting both of these quilts and both of my customers LOVED the finished quilts! And through all of this, there was a lot of sunshine in Seattle!!

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