Friday, June 29, 2018

Marylou's French Roses quilt

Fellow Girl Scout leader Marylou asked me to quilt her French Roses quilt that she made as a gift for the co-leader of her troop. 
It is a raw edge applique pattern and once it is washed the loose edges will curl up and make the flowers "bloom."
Marylou requested simple basic meandering but I also echoed each flower.
Choosing a thread that worked the best across all the colors in this quilt was challenging but I found a cone of King Tut Luxorious that was perfect.
The quilting added much needed texture to this pretty top.
Marylou was thrilled with the result and I'm sure her co-leader will treasure it.
Thanks Marylou for letting me quilt this for you.  She's already brought me another top to quilt (an adorable baby quilt) and hopefully that one will up on the lineup and on the frame soon.

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

New goodies acquired

Since there hasn't been as much sewing going on here in recent months, I've had no reason to buy a lot of fabric or other quilting goodies but I did snag a few things that I'm excited about.

I attended MQX East again this year (I love that the show is only 3 hours from me) and although I was only there for a couple of days it was enough to see all the pretty quilts and to take some great lecture classes.  One of those classes was Margaret Solomon Gunn's Dense and Dainty and I was so impressed with what I learned that I decided to purchase 2 of her books.
Oh how I love thread so of course I had to get some of the new Innovatech thread to try.
More thread....a few cones of Bottom Line (which I don't use much of yet) and a few cones of So Fine 50 in colors my stash was lacking.
And a few more cones of my favorite Glide and Hab+Dash's new Glide 60, which I could only buy 1 cone of because they were sold out.
I never miss adding every single Kate Spain fabric line to my stash and her Voyage line is no exception.  These pretty charm packs came home with me from MQX.
I recently read on someone's blog about using this small laser marker instead of having to draw lines across squares when making half square triangles so I ran over to my local Harbor Freight to get one.  I haven't had a chance to use it yet but I'll report back when I do.
I added a few more Kate Spain charm packs to my stash...this time her new Bungalow line.
Have you seen the Hoffman Dream Big panels that everyone is quilting up in so many beautiful ways recently?  I fell in love and wanted one too but two ended up in my cart as I couldn't decide between them.  When finished one might end up in Sunshine's room.  

And lastly I fell in love with the Moda merit badges so of course I had to have them. :)  I am a Girl Scout after all and badges are our thing! I used some gift money I received and bought every set. I just had to have them all!
I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the badges yet though I have a few ideas.  If you've collected the badges too and have actually done something with them I'd love to see your project. 

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Charmaine's batik star quilt

I just realized that I hadn't published this post yet though I thought I had. Oops. Between end of year events for both of the kids, Jammer's Boy Scout troop and my Girl Scout troop, things around here have been just a tad bit busy.

This is the beautiful blue batik star quilt that I quilted for Charmaine. This is the "before" picture.
All loaded on the frame and ready to go.  Truth be told...she picked a different panto to use but right before I started working on this, I put the tracing sheet of that panto on the quilt and didn't like it.  It took over and the gorgeous piecing was overwhelmed so after some texts back and forth with pictures of other options with Charmaine we agreed on a different panto.
Here is the quick "all done" pic.
I had to lay it out on the floor in my great room to get a full shot of it.
It's a nice cuddle size of 75" x 75".
The quilting makes such a difference and adds such great texture.
The panto we agreed on was Whirlygig.  I used So Fine 434 for the top thread and Hab+Dash's Primo Soft in Rock Navy in the bobbin.
Of course the quilt inspector insisted on invading the photo shoot.
Charmaine brought this pretty blue batik for the backing.
We both agree that the Whirlygig panto softened the piecing lines just enough while still letting the pattern shine.
Once it was washed I'm sure this was super snuggly.
Thank you Charmaine for letting me quilt this beauty for you.
She entered it in our guild's recent show where the theme was "Stitch Upon a Star"and while Charmaine didn't have it judged, it received many wonderful comments from those who attended.