May Client Quilts

My co-worker made a baby quilt for herself using fabrics from the shop. Since she used a brand new fabric collection, the quilt will hang as a sample until most of the fabrics are sold. She asked me to quilt it for her so I wanted to so something fun. The fabrics have animals wearing glasses so I found a quilt design with eyeglasses on it. It worked out perfectly.

I had a friend ask me if I would quilt something for her neighbor. She was using Minky on the back so she was worried that no one would want to quilt it. I have no problem with Minky, you just have to know how to load it on a longarmer. I think the important thing is not to use a quilt pattern that is dense since there's so much going on with the Minky. 

I grabbed an unquilted quilt from work and decided to longarm it. It's been sitting at the shop because by the time the sample quilt top was made, the fabric was sold out. It was a pretty busy print so I just did a large swirl pattern over it. Now it can go directly to the sample sale after the binding gets sewed on.

April Client Quilts

This month I had the opportunity to catch up with an old friend. We met at the quilt shop where we both used to work. The shop had recently moved to a new location so it felt like a good opportunity to see the new shop in a place that was safe. 

We walked the aisles of the shop and there was much more room for fabrics however, it seemed like the fabrics were all pretty old collections that were there when we worked there. And we haven't worked there for over 3 years! We really love the owner, Robert and it was nice to catch up with him but I'm sorry to say I wasn't that thrilled with the shop's offerings. There were a few new quilt samples which were very pretty but too much old carried over to this location. I did purchase some fabrics that has just arrived and no matter what, a trip to a quilt shop is always worth it.

I was happy to see my friend but it was a sad conversation since her son is fighting cancer and had just endured a second bone marrow transplant. During this pandemic, it's only worse for these patients since they have to go through it all alone. There's nothing worse than seeing a mother unable to comfort her child, even when the child is almost 40 years old. 

My friend gave me two quilts to longarm for her. One was a gift for a friend of hers and the other was a baby quilt for an upcoming shower. I always love her color choices and her quilts are always square which makes them a joy to quilt. Here they are:

March Client Quilts

I quilted two quilts for Debbie, my co-worker at the quilt shop. She does such beautiful work. I'd like to take photos of her quilt tops from the wrong side, the piecing is always so perfect. She made this cute baby quilt and she used her embroidery machine to personalize it in honor of the baby's birth. It's amazing how great the navy blue looks in this quilt, such a non-traditional baby color.

I also quilted this koala quilt for Debbie. She used all fabrics from the shop so it might hang as a sample there for a while. The pattern is from Elizabeth Hartman and Debbie used Michael Miller's Coco fabric collection to make the koalas. I quilted it using a leaf pattern since the koalas were hanging onto tree trunks. This is such a happy quilt, I think I need to make one for myself.

Bear Paw on Point Quilt

I started this quilt at the once-a-month sew day with my Basement Quilters group back in February. Usually when I start a project at a sew day I finish the project there. That means I will end up working on the same project for quite a few months. However, I don't have a lot of other things going on lately. So I finished the quilt top at home.

I quilted it using a pantograph with lots of swirls. It complemented the bear paw points nicely and filled in the white background blocks. 

The quilt pattern used a jelly roll where you sort the light strips from the dark strips to make blocks that have lots of contrast. Sometimes I find that the line between dark and light gets a little blurry when the medium color strips are used. I think I need a color theory class! At least the jelly roll takes away some guesswork.

Jack's Northern Star Quilt

I dug out a fabric bundle I purchased a few years ago to make a baby quilt. I am not sure why I wanted to make a baby quilt - I see no new babies in my future. I think I just needed a project that didn't take too long. The fresh colors are also nice to be around in the middle of winter. Ugh!

I used a pattern called Jack's Northern Star found in the book Baby Takes Five by Creekside Stitches. I bought the book at Creekside Stitches Quilt Shop last year. It's nice to support Wisconsin artists. 

The quilt went together quickly but then it sat since I couldn't decide on backing. It was tough to find the right color and I really wanted to finish it from my stash. About a month after I made the top, I was organizing my sewing room and I came across some yardage in a cute bunny print. It wasn't quite big enough but I did some creative sewing to make it work.

I quilted it with a simple pantograph called Loophole that compliments the star blocks nicely. 

It's a cute baby quilt that's a decent size so it should be usable well past toddlerhood. 

Flying Leap Quilt a.k.a. The Lock Down Quilt

I've been working on this quilt on and off for over a year now. The pattern is called Flying Leap. I purchased the pattern at Blue Bar Quilt when I went on a shop hop bus trip with a church group back in October 2019. I instantly started making the blocks. OK...a block. I got one done and I set it aside. 

Why is it so hard to pick up a project after setting it down? I think part of the answer is that this one is made from scraps and scraps are messy. I generally don't like messy.

I've picked up this project multiple times but never could seem to finish it. Then winter came and after almost a year of living through a pandemic I decided it's time to finish it. I certainly have plenty of time. Especially since my husband tested positive and I had to quarantine for 14 days. What a perfect time to finish a project. So I am officially renaming this quilt from Flying Leap to Lock Down. Ha! 

During the 14-day quarantine I got all the blocks done. Once quarantine ended, we got a brutal snowstorm so I felt like I was back in lockdown. The quilt shop where I work closed and I had another long stretch of nowhere to go. I sewed all the blocks together and finished the quilt top. 

I spent a week completing the quilting. I did all ruler work and free motion quilting. The ruler work took a lot of time as I wanted each section of the quilt to look different from its neighbor. It was a lot of fun. It was only my second attempt at ruler work and I found myself buying a book with quilting designs in it to help me figure out what to do. It is a great book-I'm sure I will use it often.

I used Grunge on the back and as the binding so as to not take anything away from the colorful blocks or the quilting. I think the back looks awesome.

Today I stitched on the binding and am so very happy to call this quilt finished. 

Star Wars Mandalorian Pillow Cases

I just had to get in on the Mandalorian craze. We got the Star Wars Mandalorian fabric line in the shop on a Thursday and by the following Tuesday two of the bolts were close to empty. So I purchased some of the fabric for myself. 

I whipped up these two pillowcases using the burrito method. The only issue I had is that I had to get a little extra fabric because it's directional. I wanted the print to go a certain way so I had to cut it opposite of how the instructions said. 

So there's some leftover fabric now. I think some more zipper pouches are in my future. 

My New Sewing Table

Last March my husband and I went on a Vintage Shop Hop. It included shops that sell vintage, antique, repurposed, and flea market items. The shops were located throughout Wisconsin and Illinois so there was no way to visit them all so we chose to head north. We picked up so many cool finds and one of them was an old Singer pedal operated sewing machine base. It is made from iron and extremely sturdy. 

For my birthday, my husband cleaned the base up and added a wood top. The top is beautiful. It now sits in my sewing studio with my new embroidery machine on top of it. 

It's a perfect addition to the room and when the machine is running, it's so sturdy that it is a perfect place for the machine. I appreciate my husband's handy work more than he knows.