Claudia

Well now, it official, I am loosing it! Not only behind in posting pix here on the blog, but taking pix altogether! It happens once in awhile, but now it is happening allot :0( Too much to do and running out of time to get it done.

Claudia brought in 3 quilts... all are quilted, binding attached... and picked up too! That of course is always the best part... getting to share finished quilts with customers. Thank you Claudia, you are the best! btw, I also forgot to give you the cut-offs from your quilts, they are safely stored away until I see you again. 

I did get these pix of one of the three... 

 This is a flannel quilt Claudia made from Woolies. 

Really nice and soft! Picked a thin cotton batting because 

these fabrics are fairly heavy themselves, The backing is a Woolie flannel as well. 

Quilted with Malachite by Patricia Ritter from Digi-Tech

It added a nice texture to the flannels and worked with the border print. 

Claudia's intention was a masculine quilt and I think she nailed it :0) 

Binding has been added since this photo along with the other two quilts for Claudia. One was Kansas Troubles which I, of course, absolutely loved! Great colors, prints and pieced pattern, just my style too. The third quilt was quilted custom and so pretty. I am pretty sad I didn't get pix of both of these beauties ;0( Thank you Claudia, you are very much appreciated.  

Tot ziens, Jo

Saturday Morning Post ~ Two for Claudia

I really have been working on customer quilts in between all of the other 

'stuff' that took over my life... temporarily. Posting pix has not been a priority :0( 

Finished on my Innova are these two quilts for Claudia...

This one was a fun quilt altho, it's the one I kept cutting the batting too small!

Thankfully it was batting from my rolls and not my customer's batting.

We layered two, thin cotton on the bottom against the backing 

with wool batting on top for loft. The background fabric is pure white 

and the only thing I found problematic with Quilter's Dream Wool 

is that the backing fabric shows thru to the top with light fabrics.

The seam allowances stand out against the shadow of the backing. 

To fix this problem, I add a very thin layer of cotton batting 

like QD cotton request. Too thin by itself on a longarm frame
unless you float tops but for layering... it's great!

Below you can see a little bit of the backing, a great bird fabric

 pieced into the backing rolled onto my take up bar.

Custom quilted with a simple motif repeated in each block 

with a single version in the small blocks. Bright White Omni.

The yellow was all ruler work done with 1/4 inch stitching in Omni Banana. 

Quilt two is semi custom ~ an edge to edge with a border 

set inside of the center field instead of a border on the outside. 

 I achieved it using the Mask function altho, not something I will do again

 until ABM comes up with a better version, hopefully it will be addressed 

in the new Mach 3 format that just came out. Way too many tie offs!!! 

A get around would be to connect the ends using Art and Stitch.

 Made with a Charm Pack with fabrics from American Jane

Perfect for this baby quilt, my favorite fabric/block...

is the DOG. Very cute!

Quilting pattern is a new set by Anne Bright named Pickup Sticks

 Wool batting and Omni thread in white and Banana in the inner border

with Pearl White on the back. 

As usual, Claudia's backing is pieced... love it!!!

Well done Claudia, thank you

Enjoy your weekend

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

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

Cool Beans

Love these fabrics by Marcia Derse 

This is Claudia's second quilt made using this fabric collection

Sew nice we did it twice! 

Quilted with Cool Beans

Omni thread from Superior ~ Gray Slate

Batting is Quilter's Dream Wool

Different backing this time

This fabric worked really well with the thread color

So Cool!

Love the saturation of color

Thank you Claudia!

Finishes this week

A wall hanging made by Tess

 Tess' request was for a circular design in the blocks

 This wall hanging will go to a Mammography center.

I quilted a circle of hearts with echo stitching around them

and then repeated that design in the borders and corners.

Added a little ruler work in the HSTs

All quilted with two Glide threads in Pearl and Black

with two layers of batting ~ Wool to give it loft

with an under layer of cotton to help it hang nice. 

Thank you Tess

Tess also dropped of a wool applique quilt that I am anxious to play on.

Meanwhile got caught up on a few more...

This quilt is made by a new to me customer, Sally V

Love the fabrics!

Quilted with Williamsburg e2e

using an Omni thread from Superior Threads

on Quilter's Dream cotton Select.

Love the paisley backing fabric too!

Thank you Sally :0)

One for Claudia

 Quilted with Escargot e2e

Using Omni thread from Superior Threads

The backing fabric is the dark blue background with yellow flowers. I used two layers of batting for this quilt as well. A wool with a cotton layer. The reason for this quilt is because thru wool dark backing would shadow the light fabrics on the top. The cotton helps keep the top nice and bright white. Claudia also added some of the strips to her backing.

 Love the loft of the wool, you can see it in these pix taken early in the morning

 with a bit of sun as it rises.

Thank you Claudia!

Perfect piecing and good fabrics as always :0)

You are very much appreciated

 Christmas in July for Barbara H

Love her pieced backing altho it was a challenge 

to center the top with the backing

both horizontally as well as vertical.

Close up of the back 

with my Points and Berries e2e

Quilted with Omni in Indian Paintbrush

Its a wonderful red! 

 This baby quilt was quilted yesterday for my good friend Janie

She is so creative and loves to challenge both of us!

Top fabric is a knit, that when washed, created the crosshatch pattern

The batting is wool and the back is Minkee!

Kind of like trying to quilt three sponges together! 

Janie raw edge appliqued all of the fabric squares onto the white knit fabric

using a decorative feather stitch on her machine.

That was a challenge in and of itself :0)

Really cute fabrics with Fox, Owls, a squirrel and a hedge hog

Stitching is added to the animal block prints

with Omni and Glide threads

and an extra square of wool batting

 behind the blocks

 and this is Little Tweet on the Minkee backing...

Thank you Janie! 

Took a break this morning to post pix, now off I go to add the binding! 

See you soon! 

Enjoy your weekend

Tot Ziens, Jo

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