MacGyvering

This is never good

and look how much of that thread I needed

just enough to finish the puppy's face.

But, I had an extra bobbin---which if I had not wound, the spool would not have been empty...


 
so I figured I could MacGyver something.  Do you remember that show from the 80's?  It's currently one of my kids favourite shows.   

Some tape, and the upside down stem from the spool stand I use with my regular sewing machine...

 it just clears the take-up roller...

 and voila, the puppy is finished!

Whale Tail

This wonderful quilt is Lori's. 

If I recall correctly, (it was many months ago she gave this quilt into my care, Lori has been very patient with me) she bought the fabrics on a trip to Alaska.  Lori said the pattern calls for some crystals to be added, but she most likely won't add them.  

I love all the curved shapes in this quilt.  The flowing bands of color in the body of the quilt are meant to represent the Northern Lights, so I used quilting designs with lots of motion in them.

 

It's very hard to see, but I increased the scale of the quilting as the bands got lower on the quilt--again, looking for movement.

 And my favourite photo....

I quilted some squashed spirals, meant to represent some breezes, around the moon, I thought the squashed spirals were a little more 'galaxy' shaped and thus good for the sky.

This next photo is pretty good too...

Splat

And since I can get 2 YBR's on a wide-width backing, I quilted a 2nd YBR, this time I used Anne Bright's Splat pantograph, which is a fun design, I think it would work well on childrens quilts too.

 This time I used a Warm and Natural 100% cotton batting.  It's been a very long time since I used W&N batting, it's a little flatter than the Hobbs 80-20, but will crinkle nicely when washed for that 'antique' look.

 The color of the backing isn't coming through properly, it's much warmer than it shows here.

Now these two quilts can go back to the church quilting ministry ladies for binding.

Waterworld

While I was waiting for a batting to come in for the next quilt, I thought I'd use one of the new panto's on a church YBR (Yellow Brick Road).  One of the advantages of a panto is I get some thinking time while quilting...it's kind of like summerfallowing, just follow the path, and there's a few things to have to pay attention to along the way, but there is some time for letting the mind wander, which is nice between custom quilts...oh yeah, there's a quilt I haven't posted yet...later this week.

This pantograph is Waterworld, by Jodi Beamish.  I really like it.

I used Hobbs 80-20 as batting.

In the Mail...

Willow Leaf Studio  (so nice to have a Canadian supplier) was having a sale last week, so I got some new templates and, since I was paying for shipping anyway, some new pantos as well.  I love that Mini-curve ruler that looks like a bird! The quilt I'm loading today is ruler intensive, so it will be good to have a few new rulers.  The straight line ruler I had only had parallel markings on it, and no angle markings.  That L shaped ruler will be good for lots of things, and keeping my lines square!  The bumpy looking ruler makes clamshells.  I just got a little 24" square top that I will try some clamshells on, but that will have to wait until later.

And, I've got some church quilts to try out those panto's on.  I wanted some pantographs that weren't as feminine feeling.

Fun Fun!

Ann's Music Quilt aka Tessellations part 3

This quilt has been gifted now, so I can show you the front.  This is a disappearing-9 patch, same pattern and block size as the Flower Garden quilt, but a different layout.  We added an extra row and column of the rectangles and small squares to finish off the pattern.

This quilt was made as a thank-you gift for Ann, who is the retiring choir director at church.  Ann was choir director for 15 years.  Actually, the first time I attended this church, 9 years ago,  the choir director was retiring (yes, there WAS a quilt to sign) and Ann was taking over (she did her 15 years in 2 stints), so having a different choir director will be a whole new experience for me (but I don't think it will make me sing any better--I'll stick to quilting--your ears will be safer, LOL).  

So...the borders needed piano keys.

 

Batik is our usual fabric choice for church quilts, and most quilts made and given at the church have fabrics within them that are also in the quilted banners hanging in the sanctuary.  These fabrics are music themed and not batiks, and so we achieved the tie-in to the banners in the layout of the quilt.

These are some of the warmest music fabrics I've seen, not the usual black and stark white which is a cool combination.

I still love the tessellations.

 The congregation of the church got to sign the back of the quilt with their well-wishes.

And here's a picture of half of the banners, so you can see the layout similarities.

 

 

Katelynd's Flower Garden

This quilt is a disappearing 9 patch, made by a new customer, Katelynd.  Aren't the colors lovely?

 Kate spoiled me with a flat, square quilt.

She wanted flowers, and I'd recently watched Deloa Jones' Quilt Me a Flower Garden DVD that I had gotten at MQX West last October.  So, Kate got a flower garden.

 I used Hobbs 80-20 as batting.

  She chose a luscious raspberry minkee as backing (the color doesn't show well here), and, in addition to being so cuddly and soft, it shows the quilting off beautifully.  There are a variety of flowers and leaves, as well as a spineless leafy-feather border.

Thanks Kate, for letting me do your quilting. 

Transitions

Todays post features one of Colleen's quilts, that was finished in April, but needed to wait until after it was gifted to be 'revealed'.   The pattern is called Transitions, and looks like this:

It's a Jelly-Roll quilt (made with 2 1/2" strips)
Colleen's daughter saw this quilt that we had made (quilted on my shortarm), and wanted her grad quilt to be like this.

So Colleen made her one (only larger), and had the blocks all laid out, and her daughter started to play, and came up with this

She created these wonderful squares in the light blocks.  So, I wanted to emphasize those squares with the quilting, and we decided to treat all the blocks (light or dark) and setting triangles that weren't part of that central 'medallion' the same.   Arynn didn't want any flowers or feathers, and it's to be her bed quilt, so we wanted the quilting to be fairly loose, to leave the quilt very cozy. 

 The square to be highlighted were SID'd and then a motif in the centre...I don't think I got a photo of the corner blocks, which had one or two of the curls headed in their own direction, as Arynn has never been one to follow the crowd :)

 Dream wool batting has such beautiful loft.

 One of the wonderful things about this quilt is the backing.  Arynn spent some time in Malaysia last summer, and she brought back this central piece of fabric.

 Isn't that fabric wonderful?

 The 'sashings' had squiggly stars, slightly more dense quilting to make those squares pop!

 The quilt was so large, I had to stand in the garage to get a picture of (almost) all of it.

Congratulations on your graduation Arynn, and I wish you well at University and beyond!