Beautiful Embroidered Quilt by Maxine

Hold on to your hats people - here is another gorgeous embroidered quilt done by my friend Maxine.  We call her the "crazy quilting lady" - in jest of course.  Max turns out a large number of quilts - each and every one a wonderful work of art.  I will try and get the name of the embroidery designs and designer Maxine used for this quilt and do an update as soon as I get the info.

The quilting is lite custom with swirls in the inner borders and feathers in the outer borders and a bit of quilting in each block.  I used a beautiful magenta rayon thread and Legacy cotton poly blend batting.

Beach Glass - "Quilt's Made Modern"

I see more and more modern type quilts coming into the studio lately - an interesting trend.  This beauty was pieced by customer Barb and what a great job she did. Barb made this quilt as a gift for a very special occasion coming up in August.

The name of this quilt is "Beach Glass" by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr from the book "Quilt's Made Modern".

Barb asked for her quilt to be quilted similar to the photo in the book.  The quilting is freehand spirals, using a cream colored poly blend - Isofil by Ackerman, the batting is a Hobbs blend.

Snake River Log Cabin by Claire

Wow, I just finished this wonderful quilt made by new customer Claire.  The piecing was exquisit and a total joy to quilt.  It would be interesting to know exactly how many fabrics are actually in this quilt.  The pattern is Snake River Log Cabin by Judy Martin. 

Claire just wanted a freehand quilting design so I went with the swirls and leaves which seemed to suit it too a tea.  The batting was W/Natural and the thread was a cotton variegated blue - Tutti by Wonderfil.

"This Way & That" - Scrappy Quilt

As an afterthought I decided to start a few blocks of a  new scrappy quilt to take with me to our annual guild retreat this weekend at Northbow Lodge.  A lot of you know that I enjoy making and using flying geese in a number of my quilts.  In particular I really like the "Square n' Square" technique by Jodi Barrows, and goodness knows I have a few scraps in my overflowing bin that are just crying out to be put into a quilt.

My other projects to work on this weekend are, of course, my Hunter Star - I have almost half the blocks finished and am really enjoying Deb Tucker's "Rapid Fire Hunter Star" ruler and DVD.   Both of these are awesome and help this block come together fairly quick without too much trouble.  I'm also hoping to get some place mats done up for gifts for our upcoming trip in August and for our guild's new charity of choice - "Brenda's House". I'm feeling fairly ambitious today but we'll see what the weekend brings - wish me luck.

I"m calling this new scrappy quilt  "This Way & That" - what do you think?  I'm so looking forward to this retreat and leaving all my longarm work behind.  Not complaining, just happy to be able to totally focus on piecing for 3 whole days as well as spending fun time with my quilting friends.

Half Moon Pattern - Bed Quilt by Catherine

This quilt was made by customer Catherine for her own bed.  How rare is that, that we actually make something for ourselves?  Good for you Catherine!

The fabrics in this quilt are really cool - sad that the metalic in them doesn't show up on camera. I love metalics and think they ad such an element of elegance to anything they're used in.

I did an all over swirl meander with Warm/Natural batting and a gorgeous variegated shiny thread - Mirage by Wonderfil.

Lisa's quilts for someone special!

I have a lovely young customer Lisa who I consider more a friend than a customer.  A few months back Lisa brought me a number of children's quilt tops she had pieced together with her Mom while visiting down east for the Christmas holidays.  Lisa asked if I would like to finish them off and in turn pass them on to one of the charity organizations I am affiliated with.  Isn't that absolutely awesome!

I put them in my quilting queue and have just had a bit of extra time to finish up two out of the five she brought me.  The first quilt has already found a home at "Brenda's House" here in Calgary. 

http://www.childrenscottage.ab.ca/Programs/BrendasHouse.aspx

The second one will probably go to the same place - not sure yet.  Thanks to Lisa!  You are an amazingly giving young woman and the world is such a better place having you in it.

"Habitat" by Doris

This quilt is a wonderful example of a beautiful fabric line called "Habitat" by Michele D'Amore (designer) for Benartex Fabrics.  Doris took these great fabrics and turned them into an exquisit quilt. I'll have to ask her how many different fabrics are actually in it.

The quilting was a pantograph called "Dancing Flowers"  - sorry the designer escapes me at the moment. Because of the flowers in some of the fabrics I thought the funky flower panto would be a good choice. I don't do pantographs that often but every once and a while a quilt just shouts out for a certain pattern and this was one of these times.   I used Hobbs batting and a polyester taupe colored thread.

Scrappy Star

I did find a bit of time last week to quilt one of my own quilts.  As most of my friends and customers know, I love playing with my scraps and coming up with some interesting scrappy quilts. Some I use patterns and some I just fly by the seat of my pants.  Unfortunately I'm not very imaginitive when it comes to naming them and I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of patterns called Scrappy Stars.

I usually use the Square'n Square quilting technique by Jodi Barrows as it is definitely one of my favorites and has been for many years and this quilt was no exception.

For the quilting I did a pantograph called "Harvest Winds" by Patricia Ritter. Warm and Natural 50/50 batting and a lovely variegated thread Tutti by Wonderfil.

Garden Wedding Ring

This beautiful Garden Wedding Ring quilt was made by new customer Bobbi over a span of a number of years.  We all have a few quilts that seem to go on forever - I know I do. I can't imagine the number of hours put into piecing this quilt - the applique alone!  Gorgeous, gorgeous quilt - and if I remember correctly she's keeping this one for herself.

The quilting is a combination of freehand leaf meander in the center and a lite custom swirl meander around the applique in the borders as per the customers choice.  The batting is Hobbs blend and the thread was a rayon blend by Ackerman with Invisifil by Wonderfil in the bobbin.