Quilting Quilting Quilting

Hello Everyone!

My what a busy time it has been since my last blog post in March! Forgive me! I don't know where the time went.... well yes I do! Francis and I have been crazy busy quilting. We had our Forks show in April and then our local Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt Club's Show is in July and my back log is becoming more full by the week! So blessed to be busy and enjoying every minute of it! And of course I'll take anyone's quilt that would like me to work on it, you may just get it in 2 months instead of 1! Thanks for being patient :)

Here are a few projects that have taken place over the last 2 months...

Custom Quilt #1

This lovely panel was made by Linda.  When I owned the shop downtown Alanna helped her pick out some of the fabric. It was fun to see how Linda had incorporated it into this wall hanging.

  

When Linda came to see me she had a game plan of what she wanted in the quilt. She knew she wanted the moon to stand out, the one loner block in the bottom right corner to be different and something dramatic in the black borders. We discussed what to do and boy is it dramatic!

 Simple strait lines in this area of the quilt were perfect because it did not distract from the cranes in the center panel.

Linda wanted the moon to stand out so we did a double layer of wool batting and the effect was perfect! I did not want to quilt in the center of the moon because it would have made it look "moonless". I did create some radiating lines from the moon out into the rest of the negative space to give the effect of moonlight radiating. It also helps draw your eye to and from the cranes.

 Here is the sashiko in the black! Really loved working on this because it was a creatively challenging quilt! Thanks Linda!


Custom Quilt #2

Beautiful applique done by Diane from our local quilt club! She always does such beautiful work, this one happens to be a William Morris pattern. When she came to me to have this quilted she wanted custom work to compliment her quilt. The book she was working out of even gave an example of the quilting she wanted and when I saw the picture it was perfect!

She also had a request.... "don't quilt the borders!"..... Um... ok?... Why not?! Well, because she was going to flip the border over and use it for binding. While it can be done, the borders not to be quilted, I found that it was a challenge to stitch 1/4" inside the seam that joined the body of the quilt and the border. I had to keep reminding myself.."don't quilt the borders!" It all worked out in the end! 

A beautiful close up picture of the block and the quilting!

Brianne's Project

I ran across Sew Kind of Wonderful and their patterns on Instagram and I just had to get this pattern and their ruler, along with a few others for the show in Forks! So... with a week to get it pieced and quilted I was on the go!

This is Sew Kind of Wonderful's "Metro Medallion". Their ruler is amazingly easy to use and the pattern is easy to read! Loved the colors I chose, as my challenge was not to use white as negative space. I think I did pretty well in color choices!

Of course, my passion is the longarm quilting! I love getting up early in the morning to quilt as the sun is rising over the hill to the east. The beautiful rays just fill my studio and show off the texture at the perfect time! I did a lot of curved lines and pebbling in the five of the blue negative blocks. The reason I only did 5 of them was because I was pushed on time to get it done! I completed this quilt the night before we were to leave for the show and I had just enough time to put the binding on! Phew!!!

This picture captures the straight lines in the pinks and the blue block to the right. It was quite tight straight line quilting but I loved the effect. I did use a cotton/poly blend which I liked, but it doesn't give it enough depth when hanging up. Wool would have been a better choice on the top of the cotton/poly! I just wanted to play around and see the effects.

Brianne's Project #2 

I just have to show you this! It is called the Bionic Gear bag and you can find the pattern here. It took me a whopping 5 hour class to complete, which apparently is bionic in itself! But you don't have to do it so fast, two days would be a reasonable amount of time. I am not normally a bag person but I just had to try it because a bunch of ladies were making them and of course I had to jump in and try it! 

It has 4 zippered pockets and 4 pouches that can fit scissors, pencils, pens, rotary cutters, chargers, seam rippers, 8 spools of thread, I mean a ton of stuff! I wasn't really convinced and then I took it on a retreat and HOLY TOLEDO!!! It really can fit all that stuff in it! I even put a roll of painters tape in mine and it still closed! There is another added feature if you want to put a "dumpling dish" with magnetic clips into the front pouch to hold pins or whatever you can. Go to the site I linked to above and seriously get on the Bionic Gear Bag Train. You won't regret it! All your friends will love you for making them one too!

I just had to share a picture of an ice cream cone. Here in Sequim we have this amazing market called Hardy's that dishes out ice cream that is perfect for the end of a hot summer day. My husband and I decided to go out and get some the other night and I chose one of my favorite butter pecan flavors. Deliciousness!!! Also, we took our sweet dogs with us and they each got a slice of turkey! Best home town feeling a family could ask for! Go down and get an ice cream cone if you can this summer!

I hope to post another blog soon... if I don't you will know I am Dancing with Francis or out getting ice cream! Enjoy the little things in life everyone! 

Until next time... Brianne