Donna's String Quilt

 This is Donna's string quilt, and I love how she graded the colors from dark to light.    It has just occurred to me now, though, that perhaps she meant it to be light at the top and dark at the bottom.  I apologize if I've got your quilt upside down Donna.

 Donna knew that she wanted the Flamingo Sunset pantograph, so the only decision I had to make was thread color.  Which was so fine 509, denim. 

Virginia's Samplers

 Virginia made 4 of these sampler quilts--if I recall correctly they were Block of the Month's from Traditional Pastimes, a store that has since closed.  She decided to get them all finished up before Christmas this year, and asked for freehand feathers on each of them.  I switched the feathers up a bit from quilt to quilt. 

 I had fun with these, and I think Virginia has some very lucky family members who got quilts for Christmas gifts. 

Yeti

 My son is a camp counselor at summer camp, and his camp name is Yeti.  So, of course I had to make a pillow for him from Elizabeth Hartmans' Legendary Pattern.

I used my new Garden Lines rulers from Bethanne Nemesh to get a 3/8" outline stitch. 

 I had extra tree fabric, so I put an extra tree on the back.  And I tried out one of my Jodi Robinson stencils on part of the backing as well.    I'm still not convinced I like using stencils.

Penny-Farthings and Clamshells

 This cute wallhanging belongs to Katherine.  She is getting some of her store of quilt tops done up, so this was from her early days of hand applique.  She knew exactly what she wanted on this quilt top--clamshells. 

 I love the penny-farthings.    Katherine wanted to see what this might look like with 2 battings, so wool on top, and cotton on the bottom.  And lots of puffy definition is the result.

 The watermelons really add a summer feel to the quilt. 

100 Modern Quilt Blocks 2

 This is Vicki's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, pattern by Tula Pink.  Vicki did it as a block of the month with Along Came Quilting, but in a different session than my 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, which made it lots of fun to quilt, because some blocks were identical to mine, some had one or two of the same fabrics, and some had entirely new to me fabrics. 

 Vicki wanted an edge to edge design, and while I did consider a few pantographs I thought would look great on this quilt, I wanted to look at all the blocks, so  I chose this freehand open swirl from Kathleen Quilts book Diary of a Young Swirl

 I think the fabric Vicki used for her sashing and borders is a stonehenge.  It worked beautifully for this project. 

Elevated Abstractions - Mt Hood

This is my Elevated Abstractions - Mt Hood quilt, a paper pieced pattern by Violet Craft.  

We love the mountains in our house, and are very fortunate to live close to Banff National Park.    We can see the mountains from afar as we drive around Calgary, and quite regularly make the drive, in both summer and winter, for camping, hiking and skiing.

I had a lot of fun quilting this wallhanging, going for lots of angular stitching patterns, with some curves to change things up a bit here and there.  The wind is blowing in the evening sky, and the moon is high.

 I put a faced binding on this wall hanging, a type of knife edge finish, so you don't see the binding on the front. 

I simplified the piecing of the moon A LOT from the pattern, I used only 2 fabrics, but they were batik, so I got lots of movement and color variation, and didn't use as many pieces as the pattern called for.   I was getting lazy by then LOL

I had fun playing with different threads

and here is a photo of the 'flimsy' so you can see the texture added

Soulful Windows

I saw this Soulful Windows (pattern is currently available on Pat Bravo's site) quilt on Kathleen Quilts blog, and knew I wanted to make it.  Luckily, Quilting from the Heart was selling kits, and dh just happened to be driving through Camrose the next day.  So he had to detour and pick up a quilt kit for me.

I pieced it, and then it had to sit and wait (since 2015!!) in the queue while other quilts took precedence, but finally, this past summer, it was time!

 I looked at Kathleen's quilt one more time, and then took some photos and did my own sketching.  I loved Kathleen's work, and wanted to be inspired by hers, but not to be the same, so only the one referesher peek.

 I like to put some tracing paper over the photo--that way I can set aside designs and come back to them....then I did a 'master copy' so I'd have a reference as I quilted.  I did change some things up as I went along, but it is useful to have a map.

Because of the diagonals on this quilt, I basted the whole thing, and then I could roll back and forth with abandon.  I wanted to quilt in the diagonals,  Which meant for a LOT of rolling.   I started in the corners. 

 And after a while I decided to add some more texture to those outside white diagonals. 

 

I started out with some piano key lines around the gold (where the spirals are now) but wasn't happy with it, so out they came.  I'm much happier with the spirals.  

 The swirls/spirals are repeated in a few places, but also a little different. 

I can happily spend a lot of time looking at this quilt.  I used some designs from the classes I took with Jodi Robinson. 

The backing is a soft flannel.  When kids start to move out in a few years, I've got a quilt ready for the guest bed !!

Yellow Brick Roads

 I had a chance to quilt these three Yellow Brick Road quilts for my church.  Sadly, we are moving though the inventory quickly this year, and so I wanted these done before they were needed. 

 This one has already been gifted.