Baptist Fan Anew

This Yellow Brick Road quilt was made by Patty, for her mother-in-law.  She used lovely florals, and we decided to use the pantograph Baptist Fan Anew. 

I think this is a great alternative to the full out custom treatment of baptist fan using circle rulers.

And I took Kathy's Quilt Photography 101 advice and took the photo of the entire quilt at an angle and that was great advice, I like it...but I don't have a lovely dock or iced over lake to put beneath it, so the picture still just isn't as exciting as one of Kathy's.

That raspberry zinger is very yummy.  We used warm and natural cotton batting, so it'll shrink up a little for an antique-y look.  I think Patty is shooting for 'favourite daughter-in-law' :)

Forest Floor

This quilt is Heather's Turning Twenty.  It's in greens with lots of leafy fabrics, so we chose to do a freehand 'Forest Floor' all over pattern.

 It was an honour to have Heather ask me to quilt this, as, when I was first learning to quilt on my domestic sewing machine, Heather taught me a lot about quilting...how to break thread and stitch over a few stitches if you went off your stencil or pattern or turned the wrong way, and a whole lot of other very useful things.  She decided that she didn't want to wrestle with a quilt this large on her sewing machine. 

 I was a little nervous quilting this, because I've seen a quilt that Heather has quilted in leaves, and she does such beautiful work,  I wanted to live up to her standards.    Once I quit being nervous, I had a lot of fun.

 I think this Forest floor turned out well, if I do say so myself.  Thanks Heather, for trusting me with your quilt.

 a photo of my design board, as I worked, I could look at the different types of leaves.  The Forest Floor idea comes from Suzanne Earley's book.Meandering Magic

"Mom, do you EVER use the whole frame?"

Believe it or not, this is what my son asked just 2 days before I loaded these quilts, that came with a single backing of luscious minkee.  I had to load it the long way so I could attach the selvedges to the leaders.   I could have cut the backing into two pieces, but then I would have had all the fuzz would have been at my house, and not at the clients :D

 So, now we know that 132" of backing maxes out the frame...and I could have quilted a few inches wider, but really wouldn't prefer to do so...any wider and I would have been forced to cut the backing...

 The flash really makes that minkee shine.  It's actually a deep black.

 One of the tricks to loading it this way was to find a thread that complimented both quilts at once. My son and I found a Magnifico thread that would work on both.  They also both got the same pantograph.

 Maybe you can see the thread better on this closeup...it's got a lovely sheen to it.

Play Time

This was a top I picked up at out guild swap.  Already pieced and layered with the backing.  I prefer to have a top to 'play' on, I get bored with plain fabric, so I snapped this up.  Played with my clamshell ruler, and some straight line designs.  Learned a few things too, so that was time well spent.

Once I was done with it (ie: it was quilted, and I had had my fun), I gave it back to the piecer, and she said it was a wonky basket...if I'd figured that out I would probably have quilted that area between the basket and the handle a little differently, but oh well.  I probably would have oriented it differently for the photos too :)

A More Modern Quilt

I'm not sure why I missed posting this quilt when it was finished a few months ago...I think I was intending to ask Colleen what the pattern was named, and it all just fell off of my brain.  I do know it's a pattern from The Stitchery, in Olds Alberta.  They have it made up in several different size blocks and different fabrics, it's a wonderful pattern.

 Before Quilting...that's a lot of 4 inch blocks!   The funny thing about this quilt is Colleen's daughters, and my children as well, called this 'the purple quilt' and the purple pieces are the smallest pieces in it.  So, I used a purple thread to increase the purple.    This quilt just begged for some more 'modern' quilting, so I grabbed Angela Walters book, and away I went.

 The cross-hatch inner border is wonky to go along with the wonky blocks.

 A close up to show the purple thread.

 Alternating rows of square spirals and round spirals give this quilt a marvelous texture, which is all it needed.   A flannel backing and wool batting, and this is a very cozy quilt.

Thanks for looking!

Michelle