Christmas Eve

This is the second Christmas quilt Katherine brought me this year.  Again, I don't know the name of the pattern, but it's pretty clear to me that it is Christmas Eve in this quilt, because Santa Claus is making his journey.  Katherine says the pattern is And to All a Good Night by Sue Garman, with some changes.

The focus of this quilt is the applique--so the majority of the quilting time was spent there.  Katherine wanted very minimal quilting behind the appliques, so I ditch stitched every applique and most of the details in the appliques, and then only added what background quilting I felt was needed for stability--so I quilted some snow drift lines into the snow, and some extra stars and a partial tree into the blue background.  Oh, and some smoke from the chimney on the left, because the family is in the house enjoying the warmth of the fire after building snowmen.

The rest of the quilt got freehand continuous curves and holly leaves.  It is blatantly a Christmas quilt, I figured I might as well add the Holly leaves.

 I spent some time sketching before quilting, to make sure I could get a pleasing, continuous design, that showcased all the designs--the stars, the stars on point if you pull your focus out further to include the green chain blocks, and the white diamonds with the green centers--they each look great on their own and together, and none of the shapes were overpowered or pushed back by quilting.  So, lots to keep your eyes moving and focusing on different things.

The thread is a slightly green thread.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Houses

This is Katherine's Christmas Houses quilt (I made up that name, I don't know the pattern name). The pattern is O Tannenbaum by Hilary Gooding.  Now that Katherine has told me this, I seem to recall her telling me that before.

When I first saw it, I kept seeing new shapes in the piecing--the red star in the center, the light green octagon, the dark green on point square---so that gave me some goals with the piecing--1) accent and highlight the applique and houses 2) accent the different shapes created in the piecing.

And, Katherine keeps telling me she loves feathers, so I added lots of feathers for her.

 Straight line quilting is a good way to highlight shapes, and I referenced Bethanne Nemesh's Sampler Quilt Smackdown for how to divide up those star blocks, with sstraight lines and feathers.. 

 I did minimal quilting on the houses--just enough to highlight and hold in place.

 The color of the backing is closer in the second photo.

Above is an 'after' shot and below a photo of the 'flimsy' so you can see the before and after.   I like these photos as comparisons because they're from the same perspective.   I must say, any wrinkles in the before photo are just because I didn't pick a floor space large enough to lay it out flat, and the ironing board legs are in the way--Katherine's piecing is flat and square.

Another type of chevron quilt

I love this pattern--I think it would be a great scrap quilt.  Or a great way to use charms.

Deb made this for her Granddaughter's birthday.

 She asked for hearts in the quilting--perfect coming from Grandma!

There is a pink polka dot flannel on the back.

Just Can't Cut It - Leaves

Noreen stays busy piecing, and she brought me this Just Can't Cut it Quilt.  This one had leaves in the main fabric, so I chose to use the Forest Floor pantograph.

 and a fern-y flannel maintains the leaves theme.

Color Falls - a Bargello Chevron quilt

I went to change the name of this post to add the quilt pattern name and lost the whole thing, so here it is again.

Sarah made this Color Falls quilt.  She said she had lots of fun picking the fabrics.

 The quilt is for Sarah's parents, and they live near the coast, so Sarah wanted to evoke the movement of water in the quilting.

 I had a look at the Waterworld Pantograph I have, and decided I could get a similar effect with freehand quilting. 

and a lovely flannel backing.

Dream Weaver

This is Kathleen's Dream Weaver quilt, which is from Quilts from the House of Tula Pink, and uses Tula Pink fabric, front and back.

 My instructions from Kathleen for this quilt were "have fun".  And, so, you guessed it, I DID!! 

 I pulled out my Jodi Robinson and Angela Walters books for some inspiration, and had fun.  Ultimately I put 12 different designs in the colored blocks, and 4 different designs in the white sashings.

 this quilt has such fun textures all across it. 

and a little photo manipulation gives us the 4 sashings side by side

and the backing was a Tula Pink 108" fabric.   The textures are so fun back there too.

I love my job!!

Noreen's Yellow Brick Road

 I just love the colors Noreen chose to put into her Yellow Brick Road.    It looks like a Monet.

This is such a great pattern, I've lost track of the number of them I've quilted. 

 I wanted to try something new, so this is a design from Christina Cameli's book Step by Step Free Motion Quilting,

 

 I've used so many designs from this book.  I like every one that I've tried.