Dorothy's Halloween/Fall/Autumn Orange, Black, Brown Quilt

Another quilt made by Dorothy. She wanted some nice fall leaves as a quilting pattern. I chose Military Gold Glide and Glide 60 thread and the pantograph "Fall Foliage" from Urban Elementz. Because the size of the leaves in this pantograph are rather small, I enlarged it to a size that is easier to quilt without robotics/computer assist.

I like the leaves, but after quilting one row, I decided I really wanted the leaves to go multiple directions. With a dry erase marker, I traced the pantograph onto the plastic cover, then flipped the pantograph (see picture below).

Time consuming, but I liked the effect. As always, Dorothy always uses her leftover fabric to make a scrappy back.

And the finished quilt, sans binding.

Emerald's Moon and Stars in Pastels Charity Quilt

This is a quilt Emerald made for a charity auction with Natasha's work.

 

The pieced stars and appliquéd moons wanted a simple quilting design.

I did a loop meander with some stars thrown in for good measure, quilted with white thread.

Purple, Green, Red, Flowers and Butterflies Charity Quilt for Thimble and Thread

Another charity quilt for the Thimble and Thread Quilt Guild. I quilted it using light tan thread on the front and Mocha on the back in my "Beautiful Butterfly" pantograph, having added some from the first time I used it. 

I'm really loving this panto I designed. But again, I found something to tweak in the pantograph, but I think the next time I use it I will be fully satisfied.

 

Fiona Learning to Quilt her Version of the Calypso Carnival's Quilt

I'm so exceedingly proud of my daughter, Fiona, who made this quilt top back in 6th grade and has now (age 19) quilted it. To see when she made the top, click here.

There was a lot of thinking and planning that went into how to quilt it. Being a perfectionist, as I am,  she wanted something simple, yet custom quilting. That's a tall order for someone who has never used a longarm before, but we planned a design that we thought would fit the bill.

I taught her ruler work on a practice quilt (not shown) and after about an hour, she was ready enough. Our time was very limited because she was leaving for an 18 month mission trip in less than 2 weeks. Time to just DO IT!

Our quilt path could have been easier if we had switched back and forth between straight rulers and curved rulers, but I figured it would be easier to get good at the skill by doing just the straight lines before moving one to the curved.

This video was taken when she was almost finished, but you can see how easy she makes it look.

I'm so proud of her!

Just finishing up the borders which we hadn't decided how we wanted them to be when she started quilting. 

Quilt is off the frame and my daughter and mother look at it.

A close up on the quilting. Many suggested a crosshatch design, but to do just diagonal lines didn't accentuate the colored blocks, and the sashing threw a monkey wrench into many of the ideas we came up with.

After having designed what we wanted to do, and in fact, after having quilted it, while I was answering questions about where the pattern came from, I searched for the Calypso Carnival Quilt (after hunting for what the name of the quilt was, since we made our pattern based on a photo she had seen), I was surprised at how they had chosen to quilt the quilt.

Can you see the quilting? It's almost identical to ours. We stitched in the ditch around the dark blue squares while they did an X, but other than that, we separately came up with the same design. Obviously the perfect compliment for the pattern.

The binding we have choses is a dark blue to match the small squares. She will finish it when she comes home from her mission trip in a year and a half.

Kelly's Graduation Quilt for McKenna

Kelly made this beautiful quilt top for her daughter as a graduation gift and asked me to quilt it with a floral design.

We chose the pantograph Plumeria from Urban Elementz in white thread.

 

Lisa's Moonglow Quilt (Jinny Beyer)

This quilt is so gorgeous! I was beyond thrilled that Lisa asked me to quilt it. It simply screamed to have custom quilting on it. I searched out many different ways that this quilt had been done and incorporated some of my favorites.

I used a MicroQuilter Navy thread on top and bottom to cut down on thread build up and make the thread less visible, especially on the lighter fabrics and all the feathers.

Because each star block was hand stitched, there was extra fulness in them, some more so than others. Each star block is stitched in the ditch around the entire star with some of the other seams also being stitched in the ditch, depending on how much  was needed to help the block be flat. I then used a small loop in the black to complete the look and control any extra fulness in the background.

Most of the stars were unique. The feathers look as if they are moving in a circle around each star. There is a straight line sewn diagonally through the black squares.

In the borders, there are several swags, with ribbon candy through the center and piano keys on the outside. 

More pictures to look at. . .

Here's a little video that looks back to be able to see the quilting design better.

And below, the whole quilt. Absolutely beautiful.

Gayle's Blue, Pink, Green Butterfly Quilt

Another Refugee quilt. This top was made by Gayle and it waited several months for me to enlarge it from lap size to twin size (outside border) and make a back for it.

I quilted this with light yellow So Fine thread on the top and cream Glide 60 on the back. The "Beautiful Butterfly" pantograph is one I designed, but after quilting this, discovered some tweaks I want to make on it.

The binding was leftover from another donated top.

Dorothy's Dog and Pinwheel Quilt in Orange, Red, Blue, Green, and Tan

This quilt top was made by Dorothy for her nephew. I quilted it with Light Tan Glide thread on the top and Mocha Glide 60 on the back.

I auditioned several different pantographs on the top to see which would work best with her work. "Hall of Mirrors" by Urban Elementz won.

As always, she makes a scrappy back with her leftover fabric. It's like having a second quilt.

Blue, Yellow and Orange Squares on Point Charity Quilt for Thimble and Thread

Another charity quilt I quilted for the Thimble and Thread Quilt Guild. I used the "Zest" pantograph pattern from Urban Elementz with a light blue So Fine thread on top and a light blue Bottom Line on the back.

Want a challenge? See if you can find the two HST blocks I added to square up the quilt. Evidently, the person piecing the quilt mistook something and the two pieced rows on the top and bottom ended up with a different number of blocks. The person then eased (almost gathered) the yellow side of the border to meet the pieced border. My sister, Emerald, graciously unpicking the border and helped me choose fabric to try and match. It's close, but not quite, so you can find it if you look.

Did you find it? Bottom left next to the corner block. ;-)

Purple, Lavender, White and Green Charity Quilt for Thimble and Thread

Another quilt I quilted for the Thimble and Thread Guild. I used the "Bora Bora" pantograph pattern by Urban Elementz using a lavender Glide thread on top (called Tabriz Orchid) and white Glide 60 thread on the back.

I finished it by binding in white (leftover back fabric).