French Braid Finish

Beckie's French Braid

Finished at 95 x 105, this beauty completely covered my worktable and down the sides! My friend Beckie is making this quilt for her brother and fiance for their upcoming wedding. Wow! A labor of love! Beckie also finished pillow shams and a table runner for them in the same Shimmer fabrics. I saw them at lunch on Monday, gorgeous! 

 Quilting around the last corner and down the bottom border.

Quilted with Quilter's Dream Wool for that wonderful loft. Also a good choice for batting because it doesn't add allot of weight which is really nice for large quilts. Threads are both from Superior Threads, a Fantastico in a variegated gold for the top and SoFine#50 for the back. Just realized I forgot to take a pic of the backing! It's one of the medium gold fabrics used in the braid, really pretty. Beckie picked up her quilt last night. Kind of sad, letting it go! My frame looks so empty right now! 

 The variegated Fantastico worked great on the lights

as well as the dark fabrics and blended with the mediums... 

adding nice highlights to the gold in the Shimmer fabrics! 

Quilting design is a set by Nancy Haacke at Wasatch Quilting.

Well designed and it stitched out perfectly!

 Gorgeous quilt Beckie, I would not accomplish this detailed of quilting

without your perfect piecing! Thank you xoxoxoxox

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

Christmas Catchup and Friends

 Saturday Morning Post with quilts from the end of the year

A quilt made by Donna L

for a grandson at Christmas

A fun quilting design for a fun quilt!

Crazy Swirls by Donna Kleinke

Quilted with a bright green Magnifico thread from Superior

Batting is Quilter's Dream Wool

Two quilts were finished in December for Beckie. One was in Christmas prints with Cardinals in snow covered Pine Trees that was custom quilted and apparently I neglected to get any pix. Bummer, it's really pretty! Beckie made that quilt for herself, she loves birds. Beckie also made this second quilt for a family member for Christmas. This one features a wolf print with some Stonehenge fabrics.  

Quilted with a pine tree and pine cones quilting design by Thomas Schick

Thomas has really great wildlife and outdoor type designs available

on Jessica Schick's website ~ Digi-tech. It's a great site with lots of designers to pick from.

One of my go to sites for designs and Jessica is really helpful to fix format issues

Wool batting from Quilter's Dream. LOVE the loft!

One more, this quilt is made by Kathryn,

a Christmas gift for her mother

Shenandoah is the pattern, Kathryn picked some great fabrics

Quilted with a design I refer to as Hummers 

It has small leaves with humming birds. Worked really well with the small leaf prints,

especially the backing. Quilted with a Fantastico variegated thread from Superior

with, guess what... Quilter's Dream Wool :0) Love the loft!

Here is a close up of a humming bird...

Thank you Kathryn! Donna and Beckie too!!!

I am so pleased to call each of you friends, there are five of us that meet for lunch every Monday, Nancy too. Not a quilter per say, I have quilted a vintage Dresden Plate quilt for Nancy that was made by a member of her family. Some days we are joined by more quilters, Karen and Kathy W, customers as well. I have the best customers!

Donna, Beckie and I have known each other from Cathy's, before Honey Run made the move, many moons ago ;0) Kathryn, is new to the group and the 'office'. What is really amazing, Kathryn is also new to quilting! Karen loaned her one of her sewing machines, Beckie started supplying her with fabric from her stash and she has taken off from there. She made a second quilt as a Christmas gift for her MIL and quilted it herself! We are all pretty impressed by this very talented young woman! 

There are more quilts to catch up on. Between the holidays, a bug I caught and just trying to keep up with life. There are more quilts to post, for another day, some quilts in the works right now. Getting used to a new to me camera, a point and shoot of Michael's that is working out for now. Another challenge is taking pix indoors. We are getting rain... lots of it, which is a good thing, but not for taking pix outdoors. All good, we need the rain! Yea!!!

Enjoy your weekend!

Tot ziens, Jo

Beckie's quilts at ASQG 2015 quilt show

Beckie with her Peacock quilt

Beautiful!!!

My friend Beckie exhibited quilts in ASQG's quilt show for the first time! 

Peacocks was quilted on my first longarm.

Beckie's Peacocks

The next three are quilted on my Innova...

Beckie's Birds

Gorgeous fabrics! Quilted with wool batting, an Omni thread

and a design called Bird in a Nest

Beckie's Birds with a Viewer's Choice award!

This quilt Beckie made for Steve and can be found hanging in his office.

Steve's Quilt made by Beckie

It has birds quilted in the gold border because, 

in case you haven't figured it out, Beckie loves birds!

and one of my favorites, Shenandoah

This quilt I did a custom e2e with Williamsburg 

with a layout flipping and mirroring the design.

Quilted with a wool batting and a gold Glide thread.

 close up of a corner
and the center of the back

Thank you Beckie!

and thank you Steve for helping us with take down after the quilt show :0)

Saturday Morning Post ~ Beckie and Claudia

On my frame this week ~ 

the Autumn Medallion Sampler for Peggy pictured in the previous post.

Birds for Beckie and something different for Claudia

Birds for Beckie

LOVE the fabrics Beckie put together for this quilt! 

The colors and a great pattern to showcase the prints. 

Quilted with a sweet little pattern ~ Bird in a Nest

Omni thread in Verbena

Quilter's Dream Wool batting

Just like the Autumn wedding quilt, the fabrics are the star.

The quilting is there for the texture

Beckie used the focus fabric for the backing as well

Absolutely gorgeous!

Thank you Beckie, see you later today :0)

Beckie and I are starting a new quilt project together ~ Moon Glow

and plan to work on the second block today.

This one is quilted for Claudia

again, the quilting is the texture that adds to the quilt

Quilted with a cotton thread from Signature in just the right shade of blue

and a wool batting to make the quilting pop

On the frame where you can see the texture of the design

Woven Wind by Apricot Moon

Also made with great fabric choices. And made well!

Borders are the most common problem area for longarmers. When borders are cut too small or too long and/or just added to the edges of a quilt top without measuring thru the middle, it makes for a challenge to keep the quilt square without quilting in tucks. Making a quilt like this one is is a good challenge in getting borders right and Claudia always does a beautiful job :0) So does Beckie. Sew nice to have good quilters as these two women for customers. Thank you Claudia and Beckie!

The backing fabric.

Almost finished is a sample quilt for Honey Run that will go to PIQF.

Checked in a couple more quilts this week that will go into ASQG quilt show

coming up in November, the weekend of the 7/8th

Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico
You all are invited!

Have a wonderful weekend
Tot Ziens, Jo

Holiday sample quilt

Love this pattern Beckie chose to make this holiday sample quilt

for Honey Run Quilters made with these cute holiday fabrics at the store.

All Christmas and Halloween fabrics are on sale this month! 

 The fabric folded on the right is the backing

Quilted with an e2e by Kim Diamond ~ Sweet Dreams Studio

using a black Omni thread from Superior Threads

with wool batting from Quilter's Dream

Soon to join the first sample Beckie made for Honey Run

It's up on the wall at the store right now...

Temps are back in the triple digits this week which makes for early mornings at the longarm while temps are cool. My early morning schedule has cut into my morning blog time and I miss it! Looking forward to some cooler temps the rest of the week.

Tot Ziens, Jo

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."
Native American Proverb