Tillie's Treasures

This wondrously scrappy quilt belongs to Colleen, and the blocks were made by herself and several people in her guild.  The quilt is remarkably flat and square for one made by so many hands. 

 I love how many secondary designs can be seen--chains and crosses and stars.

 a floral edge to edge design added simple texture, which is all this quilt needed.

 I love the little pops of unexpected color here and there. 

Flannel Flowers

 This lovely quilt was a collaboration between Noreen and her daughter, and the quilt is for Noreen's granddaughter.  I think the daughter did all of the piecing, and then stalled on the quilting, so Noreen sent it to me.

 The top is all lovely, soft flannels, with lots of florals, so I kept the quilting loose and added freehand flowers and loops.

 and a nice little hexagon fabric....

 The backing was also pieced flannel, and I have to share what Noreen did with the backing.

 Noreen knew the backing wasn't big enough for the longarm, so she added strips (the dark grey below) on all 4 sides so I'd have enough room for attaching to the leaders, and for my side clamps.   I recognized the fabric from these strips--they are the cut off bits from other backings.    The straight line of stitching down the right hand side of the floral flannel is my basting stitch--so Noreen can cut those grey strips off and no-one but you and I will ever know :P.    And, as added bonus, she'll have the strips to use again if necessary.   The straight stitching across the bottom of the photo shows there was a little more leeway on that side of the backing, but still fantastic to have those extra leader strips.  I would have been worried without them.

Colleen's Under Covers

This is Colleen's Under the Covers quilt, and I forget what she called it.    You've already seen this one twice--Vicki's For the Girl, and my Walking Humbly.

The green is a floral fabric, so I quilted echoed flowers on this one.

Dorothy's Applique Quilt

I haven't met Dorothy, but her daughter is one of my clients, and she brought me this quilt to finish for her mother.

Isn't it lovely?  I hope I can do work like this when I'm Dorothy's age (who am I kidding?  I don't do hand work like this now LOL)

We decided on a simple continuous curve in the pieced blocks, and a large flower in the setting blocks.

 The applique was outlined (not ditched), which is a faster and thus less spendy treatment, and then echoed.  I think it turned out splendidly.    I did stitch around the center of each flower, as they are too large to leave unquilted.  Aren't those birds great? 

and I added the floral design from the setting squares in the negative space left between appliques at top and bottom center.

The photo of the back shows that there was no ditch stitching in the quilt--and the designs from the borders flowed into the setting squares, so not even between the body of the quilt and the border.  Not every quilt needs ditching.

Thanks Dorothy, for letting me play with your quilt.

Quilts for the Church

As part of the Quilting Ministry at Symons Valley United Church, I quilt liturgical wallhangings, such as Covenants , and also the compassionate quilts made to give to people in the congregation as needed.

We had, at one point a few years ago, built up an inventory, combined with a few years where people stayed relatively healthy, and thus we hadn't had to make compassionate quilts for some time.  When the quilts were all gone, we had to start making again.   These two were needed and gifted almost as soon as they were finished.  So, they have found their homes, and are providing comfort to people as a tangible reminder of the love, hugs and prayers from the remainder of the congregation.

 The compassionate quilts for adults, to date, are all Yellow Brick Roads, and all batik fabrics.  For a very long time, we had leftovers from the permanent banners in the sanctuary that went into the quilts, (and scraps from the quilts that predated the banners in the banners), but we have exhausted that supply now. 

One of the quilters says her husband even recognizes the pattern now, when he sees it.  He should!  I  think we've made about 40 of these. 

 we use a very plain backing, as members of the congregation will sign their well wishes on the back before it is gifted to the recipient.

 I like to quilt these in pairs, as I can get two on the same wide backing.  The quilts usually measure about 49x50 (give or take an inner border) 

This next one is for a child or youth when needed, the last time we made one it wasn't used for 7 years, so we hope to be as lucky with this one, and it can age well in our cabinet.

 The fabrics in this are so fun, and, it  uses bits from the prior child/youth compassionate quilt, so there is that continuity. 

Periodically we gift quilts to the elders (that's a much gentler and better word than Octogenarians--which is hard to determine, since some people age so very well, and we aren't allowed to ask)  in our congregation, unsigned, but able to be signed should the occasion arise.  We want the elders to be wrapped in our love when they are well, having reached such a lofty age, they shouldn't have to wait to be ill as well.  We are working on building our supply of these as well.

and this last little quilt has gone to the Foothills hospital, as part of the quilts my other guild makes for babies in a unit at the hospital.

For the Girl

I think For the Girl is what Vicki called this quilt.

This is Vicki's version of the Under Covers Mystery Quilt that several in our guild did last year, and she gave it to a special young lady.  

I came very close to buying that floral fabric she used as well--so I really enjoyed spending some up close time with the fabric while quilting.

 with the floral fabric, and the quilt going to C, Vicki chose a floral E2E quilting design.

 If I recall correctly, Vicki bought these fabrics at Rumpled Quilt Skins, Okotoks and Chinook Fabrics, High River. 

and there is a gorgeous minkee on the back--so hard to photograph nicely,

I like how the value changes make the quilt look a little different--Vicki and I both used dark backgrounds, but our light/mediums were switched.   You can see mine here, if you want.

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.