Annie's Double Irish Chain Quilt for Jamie

This quilt has such a beautiful story, that it demanded custom quilting. The pattern is Double Irish Chain. The quilting is done with Cream Glide and Glide 60 thread. The quilting pattern is made up of orange peels, feathers, swirls, pebbles, and straight and curved ruler work.

The story is made up of little snippets seem unrelated until that epiphany moment where they all suddenly fit together and you're left in a daze where you wonder you didn't see it all before. 

 

Annie lived a few miles from me. We went to church together, possibly since I was in High School, though since she was a few years my senior, we were worlds apart and she was not an active part of my short-sided world. In other words, she (as an adult) was more aware of my existence than I (as a teenager) was of hers for many years. 'Tis a shame because she and I had many interests in common - scrapbooking and sewing/quilting being two of them.  

Though not blessed with children, Annie and her husband both loved them. Annie poured out her heart and soul teaching the children at church. She loved them and went out of her way to serve them. Her husband took to my youngest two sons and would hand them money and candy at church. I tried to get him to stop (why do your chores at home for pennies when you get way more just by showing up to church and smiling at a friendly man?), but finally I gave up trying. Annie would shake her head and point to his culture being different from ours. 

Jamie came into the picture some 15-20 year ago. Though an acquaintance, our paths did not become very entwined right at first, but has grown little by little, more in the last 5 years with the common interest in American Sign Language. However, we both had a mutual friend in Annie before her death.

Annie became very sick with cancer which spread and the disease finally took her from us. Jamie took it upon herself to be Annie's caregiver and poured her love into her daily ministrations. Five years ago in May, Annie passed on to live with God, and not a day has passed that Jamie hasn't felt that loss. As Annie's husband had to move, he asked me to clean out her sewing room, so among other things, all her fabric came to my house.

 Fast forward to this year. On May 2, through tears, Jamie mentioned it had been 5 years to the day from Annie's passing and not a day went by that she didn't miss her friend. As she spoke, I thought about me having Annie's fabric. I could whip out a quilt for Jamie to remember Annie by, something simple. 

Two weeks later my phone died. Why is that significant? Well, after buying a new phone, my husband restored my settings based on the last back up which was in December. (oops) With that back up, one of the last texts I got was from Jamie asking about me making a quilt for her which I knew would be out of her price range. I had forgotten she wanted one, but it gave me some necessary info without asking.

The next Saturday I was cleaning in the basement and moved a basket with fabric from Annie. I stopped short. The quilt for Jamie with Annie's fabric. What were Jamie's favorite colors? How big was her bed? Wait, didn't it say that in her text? The thoughts kept coming. I detoured on my cleaning and began pawing through the fabric to see what would make a good quilt. And low and behold a partially made quilt was right there! 

At church the next day I asked Jamie her colors which she told me. Hmmm, that partial quilt was not Jamie's colors. "Why?" she asked. I then told Jamie I had Annie's fabric..."You have Annie's fabric!" she interrupted. Yes. And I told her about my findings, but they were not her color scheme. She jumped in again with tears in her eyes, "I'd love it! I don't care if it's my colors or not! It's from Annie. I'd love it!" Well, alright-y then. I don't know when I'd get it done, but I would set it aside for her.

But then, the quilt would not leave me alone. It stared at me and begged me to work on it. It was about 2/3 complete from what it is now. It was probably meant to be a twin, but Jamie needed a full size. There was a 4 block area in one of the corners that needed to be made and put in. There were also safety pins in various area (probably pointing out areas that Annie wanted to fix). I debated fixing them. Annie was a perfectionist and I knew she would have redone areas so they were right, but at the same time, I wanted it to be Annie's work, so I simply sewed up any unpicked areas and left the imperfections there. I also increased the size. I figured it needed another row or two to make it the planned size. Then thinking about the size of Jamie's bed, I thought maybe I could add a little more, plus some borders and make it a full size. It might be cutting it close on the green. Would there be enough?

Whew! Just right, but then as I sewed them on, I realized I had miscounted and I needed 4 more squares and didn't have any more green! Oh, no! What to do? Well, maybe I have something in my vast accumulated fabric that would work. There are two large bins in my bedroom with greens and browns (given to me by someone totally unrelated to this quilt or anyone involved). Maybe, just maybe... I went through both. Nothing. Oh, no. Please, oh, please let me find something that would work! Even if it's not the same fabric, something that is the same color that would blend well enough. I went through the bins again. And at the bottom of the second bin, second time through, was a fat quarter of that green fabric. Obviously, to me, from a different run of the fabric, but you have to know what to look for to see the difference. Oh, thank you, thank you! Then it hit me, Annie wanted Jamie to have this quilt. I was getting some help here and I better get busy on it. I finished the top and went looking for a back. There, in Annie's fabric was perfect backing fabric for this quilt. Maybe she had bought it for this quilt, who knows, but it was still perfect. Was there other help that I'm not aware of or can't remember? At this point, I'd say, "probably."  Too many coincidences to call them such.

Then came the quilting. As you can see in the picture above, there's a lot of fulness in places when keeping the edges square. Possibly this was the kind of stuff that Annie would have been trying to fix, but I did my best to solve it with the quilting.

You can see there is still a bit of fullness still visible between the feathers, but considering what it looked like before the quilting, I think it's pretty OK now.

Below is a little video I took while quilting the feathers. I don't have a good way to record video while quilting, so I'm holding it in my hand while moving the machine. Makes for some wobbly filming and stitching. 

The quilting design I took from a picture I found on Pinterest (I think), but didn't pin it, so when I went looking for it again, I couldn't find it. I had jotted down some ideas from the picture and would love to give credit where credit is due, but I can't find it. My apologies to the one who came up with a design like this. It was by far the best idea out there for this quilt that needed something to show the love of a friend from the other side to one on this side. Proud and humbled to be a part of Annie's gift to Jamie.

Fifth of Five Plush Animal Design Quilts

This is the last of the quilts I made using a collection of coordinating fabrics my sister gave to me. This pattern, ("BQ" by Maple Island Quilts) was one I watched on a Sewing With Nancy show years ago. It's a great way to use small pillow panels or large prints you want to showcase.

 

In the panels I quilted around the picture, outlining the edge and key elements in the design. Then echo quilting around to the edge of the block. The rest of the quilt I did an all over free-motion design called Feather Meander by Angela Walters. Considering how fluffy the batting was, this ended up being a good choice for a design.

A quilt label on the back, and it's done.

White with Hearts Insulated Table Runner for Sylvia Lue

 I give to my sister, Sylvia Lue for Christmas this year. She will be visiting for our family reunion in July, so I wanted to get her present done as soon as possible so as to give it to her - save on shipping, ya know. I guess I had mentioned the idea of a quilt to her, but living in a warm climate, she wasn't sure that would be necessary or even a very useful/practical gift. Since I had recently finished my insulated table runner, I offered that idea to her. She liked it. The dimensions of this is 15" x 60" as per requested. I think I prefer it a little narrower on my table, but my table is a little narrower than most, I think.

She said she had checked table clothes, so she wanted it to be plain white with heart quilting. I used the Dear Heart pantograph which I shrunk down to have many rows on the runner. I used So Fine on the top and Bottom Line thread on the bottom, both white. The batting is one layer of Insul-Bright on the bottom and one layer of Warm and White 100% cotton batting on top.

Twister Baby Quilt in Pink and Blue Florals

This quilt top I made close to 11 years ago after watching a YouTube video about the Twister Quilt Ruler. I didn't have the ruler, so I figured out how to put lines on my ruler with painters tape to the same effect. I think I also followed another tutorial about putting on borders without measuring which was easier, but left me with very wavy borders which I had to then fix with quilting. (Thus the extra detail in the borders which help straighten that out.) Sometimes shortcuts are not shorter in the end.

 

I quilted with a light blue So Fine on the top and Bottom Line thread on the back. In the center area, I used a grid quilting method where I could bring out the twist of the design but not have to stop and break thread. It looks cool on the front and the back. In fact, I think it looks like two different designs.

Red and White Scrappy Squares, Brick Wall with Feather Quilting

Made with some pre-cut squares a sister gave me, this baby quilt gave me the opportunity to practice my feathers.

 

I used Glide and Glide 60 threads in Cream and just freehanded the bump-back feathers.

You can see the feathers better on the back. This one sold quickly.

Fourth of Five Plush Animal Quilts - Twin

Using border fabric and a matching print, I made this simple quilt to practice different types of quilting.

 

Using Glide and Glide 60 cream thread, I did ruler and freehand intricate work in the borders. In the border print, I outlined and subtly detailed the animals with echoes around it. The cursive writing is traced with wavy lines in the butterfly print.

On the printed fabric, I tried out Angela Walter's Paisley Feather free-motion quilting design.

The back makes it easier to see it all. This probably took about 16 hours (give or take - I didn't sit there with a stopwatch) to quilt.

Third of Five Plush Animal Design Quilts for Enoch

Quilt commissioned for my great-nephew. I made the quilt top a long time ago, but as far as I can tell, this quilt pattern is called "BQ" by Maple Island Quilts. Quilted with my Forever Filigree pantograph that I designed, using Glide and Glide 60 Cream thread.

 

I had planned to use this as another practice quilt, but my sister asked about buying a quilt, so I showed her what I had already done. When she picked the first one I did like this, I told her I had two, almost identical to the first, one with the green block. the other with brown. I was pretty sure she'd like the green, which she did. So she got to choose the way I quilted it. 

I was hoping the back would show the quilting, but with it being so busy, the quilting is hard to see. It turned out really well.

Scrap Rainbow, Hexagons, Quilted, Insulated, Reversible Table Runner

This has been a long time in the making. I began on our band trip to France in March 2018 as some hand sewing I could do on the plane. Then it was something I took to do in doctor and dentist waiting rooms. Finally, I determined to finish it this year.

The hexagon are hand-sewn together (I try to avoid hand sewing when possible, but sometimes, it's good to remind myself why I don't like it - haha). I used So-Fine and Bottom Line threads in gray and custom quilted using Natalia Bohner's mini 4-n-1 ruler in a continuous-line, grid-quilting way. I was surprised at how difficult it was to quilt through the double layer of Insul-Bright. Next time I’ll try a different combo.

It’s reversible with a double layer of Insul-Bright. Why? Because it is also the hot-pads when I put a hot pan/casserole on the table. And I don’t have to constantly be sliding a hot pad or trivet under things as they are passed around the table - just keep it on the runner and we’ll all be happy.

 I may need to explain the tablecloth. It’s what we put out when we have guests over. We have them sign and date with fabric markers. It’s fun to look back and see who came over back when. We’ve been doing this for 11 years. I got the idea from my mother who had a signature tablecloth.

When I laid it out to take pictures, Fiona asked if the back was all one piece. No. It’s pieced twice. She searched for the seams and when she found them said, “Dang, Mom!” in a suitably-impressed voice. What a nice compliment!

Yellow/Green/Blue Around the World with Many Borders Quilt

I just made this quilt to practice my quilting on.  It will either be sold or go to charity. The squares in the center were from some pre-cuts given to me by my sister. I had planned to make a baby quilt, but after making that part, thought a twin size quilt would be more useful to a wider variety of people, so I looked in my stash to find coordinating colors. Aside from the blue (and the green on the back), they were pieces between 7" and probably 18". I had to do some math to figure out how to make the biggest borders possible with each cut of fabric - how many strips would I need to go around the quilt at that point, how big would the quilt be at each border, etc? 

The borders were opportunities to try out many different types of borders. The inside (Around the World layout) I practiced a free-motion, continuous-line grid quilting.

It turned out great. With the patterned fabric on the front it's not as easy to see some of the quilting, but when you look at the back, especially on the blue, it pops. I did way too much work on areas that can't be seen, but then again, the point was to practice, so it wasn't a total waste of time. I learned some things.

Whole Cloth Quilt to Showcase Baroque Filigree

A dear friend of ours has gratuitously helped us out many times in his area of expertise over the past 20 years of our friendship. Last month he again came to our rescue. As he was helping my husband, I sat at their kitchen table wondering what we could do for them.  A quilt! As I looked around at their color scheme, well, white seemed to be the overall best accent for their living room.

Using my newly designed Baroque Filigree pantograph and using some variegated thread on the top and white on the back and some very poofy poly batting, I made a throw quilt for them as a thank you gift.