Janie's Crazy Quilt

Crazy Quilt made by my friend Janie 

Janie has her quilt after I basically just stitched it down for her 

using invisible thread so that her beautiful machine stitching would shine! 

This quilt started after I gave Janie oriental fabrics from my stash. The Floral print in the center of each block is one of them which became her focus fabric, pulling fabrics from the fabric gifted to her as well as from her own stash. In fact, I see three fabrics from Amaretto Cottage that we worked on together last year. Foundation pieced onto muslin, then Janie added her decorative stitches, sewed the blocks together and added the green stitching. Beautiful! She added the borders and then started adding embellishments. I had to stop her at that point! "No more metal objects until the longarm quilting is done" was my request! 

  

I used a smoke invisible thread from Superior to stitch down the blocks. First time that I've used it on my longarm and my Innova handled it beautifully! This machine just keeps amazing me! I switched to a black SoFine50 to add a design in the borders and some white to SID along the inner border. Last was to add Janie's binding, the same gorgeous fabric as the backing...

Batting is Quilter's Dream Wool 

Gorgeous quilt Janie! Thank you

So happy you joined us for lunch yesterday!

I have one more quilt to finish today to complete the month with every quilt promised in March quilted. It was a crazy busy month and April looks to be about the same, overbooked trying to squeeze in quilts along with those set aside last year after Mom's care and passing. Crazy business is longarming. Crazy as a quilt!!!

Tot ziens, Jo 

Wedding quilt made by Betty

Love the fabric colors Betty pulled together for this Pineapple quilt. 

It's the second Pineapple I've quilted for her, the first was years ago on my 

previous longarm. We settled on a different quilting pattern

 for this one, Wild Swirls by Anne Bright.

It's a set including a border and corner design. 

I added a string of pearls in the inner border.

Quilted with Omni thread in a soft color called Buff,

it blended with the fabrics really well. 

Batting is Quilter's Dream Wool ~ love the loft!

Beautiful! and beautifully pieced!

This quilt made it's way to the happy couple in Betty's family.

Safe travels Betty, thank you :0)
It's a pleasure to quilt for you 

Definitely wedding quilt season, this is the second for Betty this year

 plus the French Braid Beckie made. She has a second one in the works! 

Made good progress this month. Quilts are getting quilted faster 

than getting posted on the blog! 

Tot ziens, Jo

Saturday Morning Post ~ Sandy

Sandy's Diamond Girl
Quilting for Sandy on her diamond log cabin... this is the center of the quilt 

with this wonderful embroidered image made by Kathy Thomas

The entire quilt on my big worktable 

Rain was back the week I finished Sandy's quilt so it was back to indoor pix 

This pic with the quilt draped over my frame shows the fabric colors better.

Many lovely vintage Robin Pandolph fabrics!

Some close ups of the quilting, front and back...

Quilting design in the center field is from One Song Needle Arts

Sierra Peaks ~ a collection of diamond, half diamonds both vertically

and horizontally and a quarter motif. They worked well for these blocks

Pearls were added to the stop border & the outer border is a p2p triangle.

Quilted with a soft pink/peach Omni thread

on Quilter's Dream Machine batting

Our preference would have been wool batting, however, with light fabrics

wool can leave a shadow effect, especially with a dark backing fabric.

Even tho this quilt has a light backing, the seam allowances were still obvious.

I am having the same issue with another quilt on my frame right now.

Thank you Sandy!

Sandy has her quilt finished earlier this month. This week has been a challenge with a customer showing up with five large quilts when last I heard, she was not able to come to Chico this month. Busy, busy busy!

Enjoy your National/International Quilting Day/Weekend/Week

(there are so many variations of it now ;0)

and sales too, The Quilt Show/Bernina is sponsoring a big one

The Sisters Collective QS and Sew Expo in Sacramento is this weekend

Big sale at the Colusa quilt shop, Friends Around the Block, too
right on the way to Yuba City!

Lots to do this weekend! Enjoy

 Tot ziens, Jo

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

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