Marie's Batik Braids

It should come as no surprise to many people that Marie's quilts are large! She loves to have them cover the bed and hang down the sides to cover the sheets. Mattresses today are quite thick... could the quilting industry be behind this trend?

She brought in her Batik Braids to quilt on Lolah. What a beauty! Feast your eyes this color splash...

Marie loved the idea of using a colorful thread; she chose King Tut #933, a variegated cotton thread.

 

Her favorite pantograph is called Chinese Crescents which is a 4.5" repeat printed in a double row, 100% poly batting.

It's important to stand straight when you quilt on Lolah... So I reminded Marie often to straighten up.

I absolutely love her fabric choices. She's a collector of batiks, and on one of her trips to Calgary, she picked up some of the coordinating fabrics. Her border and sashing fabric looked familiar...

It's one I recognized from a kit I purchased at Road to California last year. The quilt kit is called "A to Z", a letter quilt designed by Janet Stone for the Quilt Show.

Chinese Crescents panto looks like the swirls in the fabric... pretty cool!

Lovely color and pattern...

Notice something different??

Marie quilted this one over 2 days... this is a large quilt and one pass of quilting is only 4.5". Marie also prefers to quilt in one direction; for that you break the thread at the end of every row.

It was worth the time spent working a pattern that she liked... look at this backing... what texture it has!

A marvelous finish! It's a wonderful quilt! Well done Marie!!! Your quilt gives one the feeling of warmth and happiness looking at it!

We're all anxious to see your next project on Lolah Marie.

Toodles,

Lorette

A Santa for Ming!

The last of the 4 quilts commissioned for our daughter-in-law's mother was the most fun for me. Other than a request for a Christmas wall hanging, there were no guidelines or preferences.

We started with a panel and coordinating fabrics cutting up the tiles into blocks then adding sashing and borders. It helps to have someone well-accustomed to designing quilts from panels working in the shop. Thank you both Hollie and Marie!

Choosing the right thread is always fun... here you see the choices lined up on the quilt top and the bolt of fabric used for the backing. Since there was so much color on the front, I decided to base my choice on the backing fabric. 

I love the pantograph called Starflower by Jodi Beamish for Clothwerx; it looks like a snowflake. Because of that, and the fact that there are silver snowflakes on the blue background, I chose FilTec's Glide in Graphite. It's the one on the left...

There's not that much difference between these threads. It was a toss up... Tar Heel was another great color and would have been lovely too!

It quilted up beautifully... since this was going to be a wall hanging, I used 100% cotton batting.

Graphite was the perfect color to match the snowflake shapes.

Did I hear Ming say this quilt may not make it to Indonesia?? Ming LOVES Christmas... she's all ready for 2015!!! You heard/read that right... and I can see this quilt hanging on the wall behind her during the holidays!

I loved making this top! I too love anything Christmas especially quilts! Come by the shop and you can see my Christmas quilts!

Wish we had had this snow before 2014 holiday season!! Perhaps it would be all melted by now!! Don't we live in an amazingly beautiful country!!

Toodles,

Lorette

Logging with Hollie!

Another commission from our DIL's mother... I purchased this log cabin quilt top in the summer of 2013. I've always been attracted to navy and beige/white quilts. As I was picking up my purchases at the Lupin Quilt Fair and Sale, Hollie came up to me and introduced herself; she had made a few of the quilt tops I had bought including this one. It's always nice to put a face to a name and I was so very pleased to meet her. Now Hollie is one of my employees!

I used FilTec's Glide thread in Mocha on top and Glide Beige for the bottom thread, 80/20 batting made it soft, and a 108" wide backing in cream completed the quilting sandwich.

I wanted movement on this top and what better way to create it than to use feathers... this pantograph is from Urban Elementz and is called Chartreuse © 2014  Patricia E. Ritter. 

Hollie's tops are a pleasure to quilt... they lay flat and square. This pantograph looks amazing on a log cabin!

Hollie and her friend Shannon happened to drop by that day. It's hard to get photos of a large quilt when you're alone!

Thank you ladies! You were a big help.

Another closer view of the back...

Only one more commission left to write about and then we'll resume customer quilts. Stay tuned!

Toodles,

Lorette

Pass the Mint Julep please!

One of the tops I was commissioned to quilt is this one called Mint Julep. The blocks are large and have a modern look so I decided to quilt it MODERN with straight line ruler work! I drew inspiration from the book "Quilting Modern" by Jacquie Gering & Katie Pederson 2012.

I used FilTec's Glide Thread in Tidewater color, 70/30 batting in black and a 108" wide backing in navy.

This was free-form, easy quilting; no marking necessary so it went relatively quickly.

It looks great on both sides. The binding was included with the purchase of the top; I put it away for safe keeping while our contractor was finishing my sewing room. After the renovation, I couldn't find it! :(  I had to resort to using the left-over backing to make a new binding; there was plenty of that.

When we arrived in California, I had a little more than half of the binding hand sewn. All the other quilts we brought were completely finished. 

Here it is... done and delivered!

Ready for cuddles!

Toodles,

Lorette

January Circles

When I first bought Lolah, I attended the Lupin Quilt Fair and Sale during our summer vacation for the purpose of purchasing quilt tops to use as longarm practice pieces. I never got the chance to quilt them until we moved back to NB and obviously until this year. This one was called Dresden Circles and I loved the color and piecing of the stripes. 

Our DIL Ming's mother commissioned me to make 4 quilts, so at Christmas, I had her chose 3 tops and I promised to make the 4th one from scratch. 

I decided this one would look pretty with some ruler work and freehand designs. FilTec's Glide in Cream was used for both top and bottom threads; it has a 100% cotton batting and a 108" wide backing

The blocks weren't all precisely pieced, the centers didn't all match but besides that, the top was easy to quilt.

The backing shows the quilting better...

Here's a tip when you're applying binding if you have 2 spool pins or if you're like me and have a multiple spool holder sitting at the back of the machine. I don't like to have the roll of binding all over the floor picking up dust and loose threads. It stays clean and does not twist saving time.

We've delivered the quilts to California and they will soon make their way to Indonesia. This is Ming (DIL) and our son Jonathan. Over the next few posts, I'll show you the rest of the quilts.

Toodles,

Lorette

Baby & Me!

Two good friends of ours from California became grandmothers again: one for the 6th time and the other for the second time. Both babies are girls! Since we were headed to Los Angeles, it was time I got quilting in time to deliver these. 

I bought a baby quilt top at the Lupin Quilt Fair last summer and after close inspection, I decided it needed some alterations. I'd started to take it apart but Hollie finished that task and worked out this top for me.

I quilted it using FilTec's Glide in a light mauve (can't remember the color name now), 80/20 batting and Hearts in Bloom pantograph. 

Since I didn't want to end up with a half pattern at the end of the quilt, I quilted the top row of the design, the bottom row, then centered the third pass in between.

Then I filled in the space between these with some loops. It was a quick pattern to quilt and very pretty design for a little girl.

The quilt isn't very big which is unusual for me... I like big girl/boy bed-sized quilts.

It turned out quite lovely.

The second one started out as remnants from a small "Little Twister" quilt. I sewed the leftover pieces together to show how this special ruler worked and the design it produces.

Hollie started the process of adding borders and Marie and I continued until we were satisfied. 

 

This quilt was quilted with the same pantograph design and batting. I used FilTec's Glide in Salmon color. 

I decided to apply the binding while the quilt was still loaded on Lolah! What a novelty! This turned out to be a great time saver.

One problem I encountered was that I didn't have enough backing in the white on white fabric so I chose another fabric that matched and added some leftovers in the middle. It brings the design to the backing which is really fun!

I had Jonathan hold it up for photos outside here in Southern California before I wrap up the gifts! 

I love the backing! I think it will be very pretty in a little girl's room.

Waxwings are such pretty birds... they've been cleaning out the berries off this bush.

Perhaps they'll still be around when we return home.

Toodles!

Lorette