Machine Quilting: Juxtaposition Quilt

My friend Leslie is awesome. I'm just saying that first and foremost. She is such an overachiever with her quilts and I LOVE IT!!!

When my book came out, she was shocked and amazed (as many people were) that one of her favorite quilts in the book, Woodland Sunset, combined batiks and Civil War fabrics. Actually, at this point she had hardly dealt with batiks but was intrigued. After her first quilt she was hooked and never looked back. Little did I know, later on she would come up with this:

 Leslie mixed batiks and Civil War fabrics from her stash and used her Marti Michell (From Marti) Log Cabin Ruler to create these offset Log Cabin blocks. Hence the juxtaposition part. It's traditional, but not. It's modern, but not. It's circles... It's a conundrum! But I thought extra long and hard on this one and I LOVE the end results, so here's your fair warning - THERE'S TONS OF PICTURES!!!

 I started off with using Dream Puff batting to give the circles a trapunto-ish feeling and it worked wonderfully. Now, to make the circles stand out more, I quilted the background really dense with a modern geometric type design. This squishes the batting down and makes it not so puffy. Then the fun started - each block was quilted different!

 Each circle had it's own personality with the fabrics and colors chosen, so to keep it traditional-ish, I quilted a circle and feathered the outside of it. Then the center was open for each color. This one was a bit more traditional...

 And this one went totally modern. I LOVE IT!!!

 A little traditional...

 And a little modern...

 You get the idea... I'll just let you take a look at the rest...

 Alright, I thought this one would be super easy to see the quilting with the black fabrics (I was quilting in a medium brown), but with some of the patterns, you really can't see it. I have a better picture further on down to show the details in this one, promise.

 Tada! 12 blocks, each a bit different!

 This quilt was amazing and I had a blast working on it.

 Here's the detail in that one block you really couldn't see earlier.

 I love how the puff batting did it's job perfectly to make the feathers pop a bit more than the rest of the quilt. I love this batting for this result and plan on using it a bunch more in the future. But wait there's more! I said Leslie is an overachiever... Yeah, she pieced the back too using the same scraps from her stash but mixing them up a bit more:

 Isn't it amazing!!! It has so much personality and dang it, now I need to make one!

Here's how the quilting looks on the back of the quilt. I love how even the personality of each blocks comes through on the back!

Wasn't this quilt fun?! Now, it was a process and a half to do and many of the techniques I used on this quilt were new to me. Tomorrow I will be back with how exactly planned the quilt and completed the blocks. It was really neat and like most quilty things, not that bad once it was broken up into smaller chunks.

So how do you think I did? It's still a juxtaposition, and it's traditional, but it's not. It's modern, but it's not. It has circles, but now they have personality... If you couldn't tell, I LOVE THIS QUILT!!! And now I have to go play in my stash... :) Which circle is your favorite or do you love them all like me? Come back tomorrow for part 2!

Machine Quilting: Log Cabins

Bobette has this amazing use of color and she put it to good use with this log cabin quilt from Kim Diehl's Simple Comforts book:

 This quilt perplexed me at first. The borders were broken up with the small border being in the middle and running through the blocks in the corners... And the background areas were more like offset ovals and they had that blasted red dot in the middle. What was a girl to do?!

 I thought on this one long and hard and finally came up with a plan. I quilted up the bear paws, I did an overall design in the log cabins (because you wouldn't see any detail due to the fabrics anyway) and emphasised the background areas.

 This design in the background areas was my little spark of genius while working on this quilt. I think it came to me about 2 in the morning when I couldn't sleep.

 I played up each bear paw just enough to make it different, but not enough to stand out. This is one of those elements in a quilt that should be a supporting role.

 Now back to those borders... I decided to feather the borders from the inside out and criss-cross them at the corners where it runs through the blocks. Then the inside border got straight lines while the outside got an orange peel type design.

All in all, the designs all worked well with each other and the quilt turned out pretty awesome (if I do say so myself). I had more fun too looking at all of the fabrics Bobette used and thinking of whether I had it, wanted it, or could still find it if needed. Her color choices and mine are so similar on quilts like this, it makes it much easier for me to envision how to quilt it, I just pretend it's mine (if even for a short while) :)

Thanks, Bobette! This one was awesome, just like the rest of yours!

Machine Quilting: Semi Custom Feathers

Now, I'll be honest. I'm still a newbie to the whole feathers game. I would guesstimate that most of what I quilt (especially this upcoming week) are baby quilts so feathers and baby quilts don't really go together.

I have always been a bit shy about attempting feathers. I think this is the result of when you let that voice in the back of your head tell you your feathers will never look as good as so-and-so's. We have some very talented quilters in our area who seem like they can all do feathers in their sleep. It's intimidating, I'll admit!

But Alyce gave me her version of the Patriots in Petticoats pattern and asked for feathers in the border and the log cabin areas:

This quilt as featured as a Block of the Month through various quilt shops, and it is quite large, but beautiful!

I started with the borders and the log cabin areas and filled those with feathers going in opposing directions from the center. 

 I LOVE these feathers and now I need to make a log cabin something or other so I can quilt some like this for me too!

Then I added in single feathers in one direction in the smaller inner border. 

 And double larger feathers in the outer border. These are a bit harder to see on the front of the quilt, but they show up so well on the back!

  Alyce chose to use a wool batting which gave just a slight puffiness to the quilt. It really helped to make the feathers stand out, but she also chose a simple muslin for the back for a true to the period type of quilt.

In this shot you can see both borders with the feathers going in different directions and the log cabin areas. We chose do to a simple all over design in the rest of the quilt and I think it all worked so well together.

Thanks Alyce! This quilt was so rewarding to do. Thank you for letting me finish it off for you!

Book Quilt: Cavanaugh

Sometimes when I have an idea for a quilt, it comes out on sketch paper in pieces parts. I may have an idea, but it's not fully figured out yet, so the drawings really don't make sense to anyone else but me for awhile. And that's just fine with me :)

Copyrighted Image provided by Martingale, Brent Kane, photographer

I originally had the idea of diagonal stars, but then I reworked the block and it worked so well to make this quilt. Actually, the first layout I had was for all of the "stripes" to run vertically. Then as it was laying on the floor my Hubbin had this idea and I liked it too. This design would work well either way, but this quilt is yet another one from my stash. I love stash quilts, they're the best! Who knows, maybe one day I'll remake it with the stripes vertically and change up the colors.

I named this quilt Cavanaugh for one main reason. My Great Grandmother had a sister named Winnie and the two of them were inseparable for most of their lives.

Plus, both girls shared the same birthday, seven years apart (I think). On the left is a picture of Edith, Winnie and one of their brothers (there was 11 kids) and on the right is the two girls again about 80 years later. Sooooo sweet.

Well any who, Winnie married into the Cavanaugh family. For as long as I can remember, if I could have picked any last name in the world, it would be Cavanaugh. It's just one of those weird things I've always thought of. It's a good strong name and it fit well with the mix of fabrics that I used.

This quilt is one of my favorites from the book, not only due to the design and the fabrics, but somehow in the midst of deadlines and the craziness, I utility quilted this entire quilt. I really didn't have time to do it, but it needed to be done. Machine quilting on this pattern just wasn't what I had in mind and I'm sure if I long-armed it, I wouldn't have been happy with the end result.

So do you think the name fits the quilt? And I have to ask, am I the only person who thinks about a different last name if they could pick one? Just wondering. Gotta go pack my bags to head to Shipshewana!!! ROAD TRIP!!!

Book Quilt: Beloved

Beloved, as in soul mate, spouse, man of my dreams. Yes this quilt was designed for my Hubbin since the first quilt I made for him is in disarray and shambles as we speak.

Copyrighted Image provided by Martingale, Brent Kane, photographer

Needless to say if I haven't told the story before, Ben's first quilt was hanging at the Lake Farmpark Show a few years back. He went with me to pick up the quilt and bear hugged it the whole way home. Once we got home he put it on the bed. It was meant to be a lap quilt, so it really didn't fit well, but it covered the mattress (just barely) so it was on the bed. That was until about 5am when the dog got sick all over the new quilt. So not only did the dog get sick on it, but the backing fabric bled and now the whole quilt has a rosy hue to it. Since that first horrible day of it's existence in Ben's possession, it has since been loved to death, chewed on and a whole slew of other things that happen to the "favorite" quilt. It's still warm and usable, but it sure isn't pretty anymore.

So feeling super horrible since that first day we brought home the quilt, I have been on a quest to make Ben a new quilt. This quilt is quite large and one day when we don't have dogs on the bed anymore, this quilt just might be the new bed quilt. I made this quilt entirely from my stash (if you listened to the Pat Sloan Radio Show, this was one of many quilts in the book made entirely from my stash), okay all but the borders and binding, and backing, but the main thing was I did not purchase any extra fabric for the blocks.

The block in this quilt is one that I just fell in love with and wanted to see if it was colored differently and paired up in opposite tones how it would look, and here is the quilt. Quilts like this are a great way to boost your color exploratory skills. (Yes, that's a real thing, I say so) With a quilt like this where you only have one block to worry about, you can focus so much more on the color. You'll see the tips and tricks in the book that will help you understand color and make choosing fabrics to make something like this so much easier.

I hope Ben likes it, but I think in the meantime I'm going to have to make a quilt that will be well loved and chewed on and dug into for Chihuahua nests and just to be used to death. I'm not saying it will be pretty, but this time of year it's more for the warmth than anything else. Beloved is just too nice to get used right now, one day it will, just not today!

Glacier Star Recap

 All the same quilt pattern...

 Just different fabrics and placement...

Would you believe they're all the same pattern if I hadn't told you?

Just goes to prove how powerful color can be. And imagination...

So what colors would you choose if you made this quilt? Are there any of the small color placement details you like better in one quilt above more than the other two?

There are soooo many small differences from one area to the next on these quilts that makes them unique. What do you notice the most? I'd really like to hear your thoughts on these quilts.

Machine Quilting: Glacier Star #3

This is it! The lastest Glacier Star! Notice anything different with this one?

Yes. You see it right. This quilt was made with all Civil War Reproduction fabrics! Isn't it gorgeous?!

I think one of the neatest things Paulette did with this quilt was to alter the fabrics within the sunbursts on her extensions. It gives this part of the quilt some added charm. 

After quilting the other two Glacier Stars, I really had to reinvent myself with this quilt. Partially due to the fact that the fabrics are so much different than the other two quilts too. So, with the traditional style fabrics, I opted for traditional styled quilting like the feathers you'll see in many places. This type of quilting just would not have worked with the other quilts at all. 

 The true focus of this quilt (no matter which fabrics it is made out of) is the center. I looked through 1800's style quilting designs and altered this particular one to use around the snowflakes. Then keeping with the period theme, I quilted a dahlia-like design radiating out from the center using the feathered design in the center as the guide. You can see the top half of the dahlia quilted in this picture above.

I just love how it turned out. Sooooo happy with this design. 

 Here's a view of how the center and the colors Paulette chose work so well with the rest of the quilt.

 Once again I used feathers for the sunburst blocks between the star points with just a little non-traditional quilting to fill the background. This definitely would not have worked at all on the other quilts I already showed you. With all of the small points to fill in a design like this you have to get creative...

Different than the other quilts too, I quilted this design in the flying geese and left the "sky" alone on this quilt to leave a nice definition of quilting from area to area. You really can't see it due to the fabrics, but there are two types of swirls quilted in both the black and red fabrics on either side of the geese trail.

And here is the quilt all finished in it's grand glory. Paulette is a relatively new quilter and she did an amazing job with this quilt, don't you think?! As with many of the other quilts I've shown you, this quilt will also be on display at the Lake Farmparks Quilts 2013 Show next month.

Thanks, Paulette! This quilt was such a gem and I'm so glad you had me quilt it for you!

I'm going to be back with a recap of the three Glacier Star quilts I have shown you just so you can see as I have how changing the fabrics, colors, and placement totally changes the look of these quilts. Oh, and maybe  something I actually was able to finish up! Toodles!

Machine Quilting: Custom Quilting

So as one of the many quilts I have been doing for this holiday season, this is one that is going to be used as decor for the holidays rather than a gift. Bobette wanted something custom and I had quite a few ideas when I saw it for the first time.

 With a design like this you could do just about anything. With the colors she chose I was thinking primitive, country, girly. When I asked her what she was going for she said vintage... It threw me for a loop for a bit trying to rethink how to make it look vintage, but we came up with a good plan.

 In the areas created between the black chains I quilted this design that's not to different than a traditional oak leaf and reel.

 It worked so well in the space. So much better than I could have hoped for. It was perfect. I didn't get pictures of the quilt completely finished, but in the black chain I quilted melons in each of the squares.

Bobette was planning on using this quilt as the centerpiece to her large dining room table during the holidays. I think it will work out nicely. I know this might be weird to hear, but I'm still amazed from day to day what my hands and this machine have been able to do. It just gets me more excited for the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and you get the point.

I'll be back with more quilts and another custom quilt later on. Until then, have a great day!