Linda's Ripple Quilt

Ripple made by Linda D

 Not for the faint of heart, all of the blocks are on bias.

Linda did an amazing job of keeping her piecing flat and square! 

With perfectly matched intersections. Well done Linda!!!

We choose a repeating quilting design that would work well in the blocks,

another great design that works really well for a custom e2e.

Celtic Cross by Jessica Schick, designer and owner of Digi-Tech 

 Batting is Quilter's Dream Machine

Thread is an Omni by Superior Thread 

Colonial Gray which matched perfectly with Linda's background fabric

I was surprised to learn from Linda that her backing fabric was not from the same collection of fabric. The colors were absolutely a perfect match! Love how Linda pieced the backing with one narrow strip of a solid. From the perspective of a longarmer, very much appreciated because it reduced the bulk when I lined up the center seam of the quilt top with the backing. Yea! Great fabrics and color choices by Linda. 

Linda made Ripple in one of Kelly's workshops at HRQ, plus she is finishing up Snack Time,   Kelly's most recent workshop. An encore of Snack Time workshop is coming up on March 20th plus Kelly is planing a BOM with Toes in the Sand. Lots of fun to be had at Honey Run Quilters! Kelly is coming by the studio today with one of her own quilts, can't wait to see what she brings in! I have the best customers! Thank you Linda! 

I am off to finish the quilting on Beckie's gorgeous French Braid. 

Enjoy your Leap Day! We have an extra day to play!

Tot ziens, Jo

Saturday Morning Post

Star quilt made by Linda E

I am always amazed at the quilts that venture into my studio, and Linda's are no exception! This is a Mariner's Star quilt Linda made. Linda also made the Farmer's Wife quilt posted earlier this month. This is a better pic of the entire quilt...

 Farmer's Wife by Linda E

With the change back to dry weather I had a chance to take some whole quilt pix outside. The Schedule is updated with a few more to finish for February, still happy with the progress made. There are several custom quilts in progress, one is Beckie's French Braid pictured in the previous post. 

A couple more that went out the door...

 A quilt Carol F made in a Linda Ballard workshop at Honey Run Quilters

  A Tilted Nine Patch Carol made using up stash fabrics

 The back is pieced as well...

Love :0)

 Two for Goldie ~ A Bargello

also with a pieced back

This quilt is a sample for a class Goldie plans to teach at HRQ

Let's Begin by Goldie 

A beginning quilt class Goldie taught at HRQ, many moons ago ;)

Ripple made by Linda D

This is a quilt Linda made in a workshop with Kelly at Honey Run Quilters. Snack Time is the newest workshop with an encore on March 20th at HRQ. Will blog more details about these finished quilts next week. Meanwhile, taking the weekend off with plans to attend a quilt show in Auburn, CA today! One more pic of a quilt with a whole quilt shot...

  Star quilt made by Leslie

 Love the fussy cut border! Great quilt

Thank you to all my customers! 

Enjoy your weekend

Tot ziens, Jo

Progress on a French Braid

This week I started quilting a French Braid quilt for Beckie. This quilt is absolutely gorgeous! Beckie did an outstanding job of piecing too. Makes quilting this beauty that much better!

Beckie put together the perfect fabrics starting with a Shimmer pack. She added the lights in the center which make it glow! One batik that pulls together the fabric used for the center blocks and inner borders. Doesn't this motivate you to make a French Braid? It does me! 

 The first stitching for the top border and corner...

The triangles are quilted plus a start on the vertical borders...

First stitches on one of the braids...

 Progress down the borders and

more on the braids... getting close to the center block

The gold variegated Fantastico thread is working great 

on all of the fabrics, even the lights

Batting is Quilter's Dream Wool 

Love the loft!

and the quilting in the center block...

Beckie, it is a joy to quilt for you! Thank you

Quilting design is a set by Wasatch Quilting specifically for a French Braid. I did have to morph the blocks in the braid to make them fit Beckie's quilt. Love my Innova! This was the first time I've purchased a design from Wasatch. Very impressed with both the design and how it stitched out. Will consider them again, especially for custom sets. Very nice! 

I took pix of completed customer quilts and will post them this weekend. A sneak peak with the one above made by Carol F (more to come). We had some nice sunny weather so I was able to take some good whole quilt shots. A few were picked up this afternoon and evening. A good end to a productive work week. Tomorrow I have plans to attend a quilt show in Auburn, Ca with my friend and fellow longarmer, Judy R. Looking forward to that! Enjoy your weekend! Take the time to make some stitches...

Tot ziens, Jo

The earth laughs in flowers ~ Emerson

It's been nice to have see the sun again with some warm weather

 The trees and bulbs are blooming

Much needed rain for the west coast would be welcome too

Two for Cindy ~ SIC & Buster's quilt

A Single Irish Chain made by Cindy G

using blocks she won at our guild's BOM program

Fabrics are from the Downton Abby collection.

Quilted with an e2e set up with the repeat in each block. 

Another good example of a custom e2e 

 Quilted with Quilter's Dream Wool batting and Omni thread from Superior.

Design is Adora by One Song Needle Arts

The print was pretty busy so I choose a thread color that would show up

nicely on the backing

In this case, the design also worked well as it carried out into the outer borders.
An elegant feather and pearl design to complement the fabrics
with a little whimsy with a hint of a face in the design.

Last year Cindy and I both lost a furry family member.

Cindy was working on the following quilt during a Linda Ballard class/retreat

when Cindy received news that her dog, Buster passed

so Cindy named this quilt Buster Brown's Day on the Green

 

One of the prints had text that all ends with 'ful'

One being Playful which described Buster

and the reason for the playful quilting design 

Not a design I offer often as the density is pretty high 

however, decided it fit since Buster was a star in Cindy's life :0)
Lonestar by Kim Diamond
Thread is one of the new variegated threads from Superior ~ Omni V
 

 Cindy pieced the backing with some of the same fabrics from the top

to complete this fun quilt. Thank you Cindy!

Enjoy your Sunday 

Tot ziens, Jo

Custom e2e for Claudia's Jelly Roll

One of my favorite ways to use e2e designs is to line them up with the blocks or pattern of a quilt. I look for designs that work well with either straight set, alternating or set on point blocks. To take even a simple quilt and step it up with the quilting, Claudia's quilt is the perfect example of doing just that...

Made with a Jelly Roll with graphic fabrics and a good piecing pattern, add a graphic quilting design with texture and wool batting for loft, it's a recipe for a fun quilt! 

I love quilting on my Innova. Having the capability of laying out the design on my computer, loading the quilt on my frame, lining up the computer screen to the blocks of the quilt and then stitching it out. Easy enough with individual block designs. In this case, the design is a b2b. Echo by Anne Bright. 

What I refer to as a 'custom e2e' when lined up with the blocks on a quilt. Once set up, it is stitched out in one continuous row just like an e2e or b2b. Depending on the size, rows can be linked together as well. A design can also be flipped and/or mirrored, then linked back together and still stitched out as an e2e. It offers my customers something in between a random all over and custom.

  

Above is the design from the back side of the quilt. Just like a quilt block pattern, it's great to see secondary designs created once they are stitched together. 

Claudia has a great sense of color, fabrics and texture. The combination works well in this quilt along with it's backing. She is hands on when we are choosing a quilting design for her quilts. This new one worked out great Claudia, good choices! Thank you

Recently quilted is a quilt that Linda made, her Farmer's Wife quilt, posted here. It's a good example of what can be done using an e2e for set on point blocks.

A custom e2e takes a little more time to set up, however not as much time as it would to quilt each block individually with a bazillion tie offs. Sometimes it's a little 'thinking outside of the box' by not stitching sashing individually or adding allot of SID.

Semi custom, as was done on Linda's quilt, is another option. It works as a b2b design that is only quilted in the center field. It can be a design lined up to blocks or a random all over, then framed with a border/corner quilted in the outer border. In this case I took another e2e, cut it apart, divided the ends to make it a repeated border and then added a block design for the corner.

With the recent technology in longarm quilting, it's great to offer customers more options and good choices which often times comes down to price.  

On to a new week...

Tot ziens, Jo

Happy Valentine's Day

Good to have a sweet Sunday Valentine's Day! 

following a productive week of quilting customer quilts for Leslie, Claudia, two for Carol, two for Cindy, plus quilts for the Goldie Girls including a new class quilt Goldie will be teaching at HRQ. They will be ready for pick up soon!

Among the quilts picked up this week...  

Peggy's family photo quilt 

It was pieced by her daughter, for a first quilt

she did a really good job! 

 Interesting was that this same block design

quilted on 2 different fabrics 

in the same thread looked different

Quilted with black Omni except on the white photo blocks 

with Quilter's Dream Cotton Select

Mostly using a p2p leaf design by Apricot Moon

plus a block design for the alternate blocks.

Thank you Peggy!

Also picked up were two quilts by Rose and Gloria

made to give to grands for Valentine's Day, sweet!

Thomas the Train panel and border print quilt made by Rose

 Quilted with Catrina e2e also by Apricot Moon

A second panel quilt with alphabets and animals

made by Gloria

Quilted with Animal Crackers e2e design by Patricia Ritter

Both with Omni thread and Quilter's Dream Green batting

Finished for Gloria with machine stitched binding

Cute backing fabrics too, this co-coordinating print for Gloria's

and a bright stripe on the back of Thomas the Train. Perfect!

Thank you Rose and Gloria

Fun little quilts and how perfect to give to grand kids! 

Enjoy your Valentine's Day with your family

Tot ziens, Jo