Eloise

This is Eloise.    She is an Elephant Abstractions by Violet Craft that Vicki made and added borders to make it queen sized.

 my own Elephant Abstractions, Uncle, kept watch while I quilted Eloise.   I had so much fun with her--I hope you've got time to sit back and enjoy some photos. 

 Vicki's son told her about a year before the wedding that they thought a quilt would be an excellent wedding gift, and that they'd like an elephant.  The bride's favourite color is pink.

 The largest Ribbon Candy I've ever quilted, and I tried a new to me border design by Angela Walters--I really like how it turned out on this quilt--feels a little African to me.

Eloise was introduced to the world at the wedding reception--the first time the bride and groom had seen her.


Here is a pre-quilting flimsy photo. 

Raffia Weave

This is my Raffia Weave- Violet Craft quilt.  I have had the pattern for some time, and this summer happened to buy a FQ pack of Violet Craft's Betty's Luncheonette fabric, so it was meant to happen :)   (I'm currently working on top #5 from this FQ pack, so you'll see lots of this fabric in the next year).  I LOVE how the fabrics just glow against the navy hand-dyed Osnaberg fabric.

 The pattern is written so that you can either paper piece the blocks, or piece them traditionally.  I was piecing at retreat, so I chose to piece traditionally, saves getting up and down to the iron continually.  The only rub was, when I went to lay out the blocks, I discovered that I had pieced them referring to the paper piecing template--which meant they were mirror image.   NO  problem, the layout still worked and together they went.  It wasn't until after quilting when I was squaring it up that I realised the errors of my ways--the lattice work isn't centered because of the mirror image thing. 

I could have centered it, but would have lost considerable size.  It is something that very few people would ever notice, and the quilt is still bright and colourful and warm and cozy, everything a quilt should be.

 Quilted with a design from Christina Cameli Step by Step FreeMotion Quilting book. 

I have gifted this to friends, contacted their daughter and arranged for her to pick up the box and put it under their tree.  The package is labelled as "from Santa", and of course, they will figure out it was me as soon as it's opened but in the meantime a mystery gift from Santa is fun !!

Atomic Starburst

This is my Atomic Starburst, which is a Violet Craft pattern.    I have worked on a Violet Craft pattern 3 retreats in a row--I think I'll have to find a new one for this October.

I had been gifted a layer cake, and was looking for a great quilt to use it in, and luckily at about the same time Violet Craft published this pattern.

 The paper pieced starbursts took a long time, but the rest of the quilt just snapped together. 

 and I had LOTS of fun with the quilting.  I took some inspiration from PhillipaG quilts on how she quilted an Atomic Starburst.  And from some Angela Walters books. 

 A lovely cuddle backing shows the quilting really well.

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

Uncle

This is my Elephant Abstractions quilt, pattern by Violet Craft.

Elephants have long been special in my family, I think because my Dad likes them.  He always used to tell us to watch for elephants when we'd be getting bored on long drives (of which there were many, living on the Canadian Prairies).   One day, in Grande Prairie, he actually did see an elephant out for a walk (the circus was in town).  He came rushing home to get us, so he could tell us to look for elephants, but by the time we were back downtown, the elephant was done his walk and we didn't get to see it on the streets.  

This quilt was fun from start to finish.

First, the fabric selection--I pulled all these fabrics at Along Came Quilting,

  enlisting the help of staff at the store, and of my friend Colleen via texted photos and phone.

Then, the piecing was begun at retreat in October.  I found the wonder clips to be a very useful tool for paper piecing--I could line up the seam lines on both sides of the clip, and thus know I was sewing on the 1/4" on both pieces.

I didn't get it finished at retreat,  but had a good start.

It was here that I could see one problem with my fabric choices--the fabric behind the tusks could have been a little darker--no problem I could fix that with thread!

And then the really fun part began, the quilting!!  I looked at photos of elephants on the interwebs, and then had fun thinking about the quilting texture I wanted to add.  Here's the 'map' I made of the areas I knew how I wanted to quilt.

 I basted it all, so I could roll back and forth freely, and started in on the areas where I knew what I wanted. 

 the threads, most of the tools and inspiration sources

 Once I got the elephant done,  I decided to have lots of fun with the background.... and you can see in this photo below that the quilting helped to differentiate between the tusks and the legs.

 Naming was tough.  Youngest claimed naming rights, but when the time came, she decided it was too much pressure.   I was thinking that this quilt was just Marvelous, and that put me in mind of a beloved Uncle, whom I used to call Uncle M (he having taught me the M stood for Marvelous).  My Dad, though, on one of our long Prairie drives, and probably tired of looking for elephants, thought it a good joke to teach me the word Mediocre, so that quickly put paid the Uncle M nickname. 

 Also, Uncle seems to be a respectful honorific in many cultures, and Elephants, to me, seem to require a respectful honorific....and so, this is Uncle.

and here's a photo of an elephant my Aunt (she of the Uncle M) took, and sent me after I sent her a photo of the completed quilt.