Dorothy's mom Florence sent me another 3 quilts to do. The first is a bright and beautiful 9 patch and window quilt.
A large scrappy quilt with lots of color and I love how she places a yellow in the white for all the window blocks.
Florence loves a traditional topstitch with white thread. Cathedral windows were perfect for the squares of this quilt.
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| The back, white on white. |
Clair brought back a box of linen remanence from Mrs. Snip's in Dublin, Ireland. With a few of the pieces she made this wonderful lap quilt.
Quite the accomplishment for a beginner quilter to patchwork linen as it has a life of its own.
It frays, moves, and is generally unruly taking a steady hand and as I suggested to Clair, a whole lot of starch.
We had a time thinking about what to topstitch onto the quilt with all the lines and checks. As soon as Clair saw another quilt done with the feathered scroll, that was the one. It also made sure that all of the seams and pieces had multiple stitching through them all.
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| A lovely final look. |
This helps to bind all the pieces and stop any further fraying over time. Looks cool too!!
As an added note I wanted to show you what happens to a bobbin winder gone wrong.
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| What a mess!! |
Not to be shown until Christmas was the word from Clair.
Being Christmas gifts she asked that the surprise kept a secret until the big day! And how perfect are these peak-a-boo snowmen for the Christmas blog.
Snowballs and warm woolen toques ready for winter fun.
Once the eyes and details are added they are sure to make anyone smile and want to go out to play in the snow.
And not to be left out is Clair's wonderful tall snowman lighting the way on that chilly winters night!
Getting too close to Christmas for Rose to finish all of her Xmas gifts in time she asked if I could load up 9 little Christmas trees and a table runner.
So I loaded up a very long sheet of fabric and started topstitching away.
Loading the back and the batting allowed me to topstitch from one across to the other and back again making short order of all the large hangers.
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| Close up. |
Only having to make one thread change also sped up the process. And are they not just the cutest crooked trees?
Even the backs turned out spectacular. With enough time left for binding, wrapping and gift given with love!
I finally finished the Koi quilt for my bedroom.
It was a challenge to longarm as I used a heavy micro fiber blanket for the back and still added a winter weight batting.
In order to pull it off I had to rise the hopping foot of the longarm and could only do the waves across the quilt in one direction.
With a lot of thread breaks, a bit of swearing and a few "never again" moments I managed to finish the quilt.
One of the worst things was the clean up after. Cutting the edge seams of the blanket meant that there was blue fuzz everywhere.
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| Nicely on the bed. |
Would I use another blanket like that with the batting...definitely NOT!
But, not bad for a quilt that took a day to put together using a panel of left over fabric from the curtain and the hand dyed fabric I made this summer. Added a few meters of grey fabric, and the day on the longarm, a half day to bind on the sewing machine and day of re-calibrating my machine. A bit of clean up, and I have a very quick and stunning quilt to match my room. And ... is it warm with just the perfect weight for sleeping in a cool room. I love it!!
Dorothy's quilt is beautiful.
Topstitched with feathered scrolls in a butter cream colored thread added movement in the quilt without taking away from the beautiful pattern.
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| One of my favorite topstitching patterns. |
Henry did a wonderful job on her first Whack and Stack quilt.
Wanting something simple yet unique on her first quilt swirls were topstitched in the center of the quilt,
And birds and bee's joined with loop-de-loops in the borders.
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| Very pretty. |
Then add a very soft and warm fleece on the back and you have the perfect lap quilt for the colder months.
Great job Henry, and so glad you loved the topstitching, me too!!
Pauline has been at it again and sent me a box of "a little bit of everything"!
From Pumpkin pie (ok not pie but it sounded yummy),
To heart my heart.
Table runners with special labels.
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| Great way to use those little extra pieces. |
And of course just in time for Christmas....Frosty.
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| Just makes you smile, doesn't it? |
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| Complete with a home for the birds! |
Thanks for all your wonderful works over the year Pauline. Big hugs and a very merry Christmas!
