Stars & Stripes for Bill {A Finish}

Stars and Stripes for Bill was made (August 2015) in honor of my Father-in-law, William "Bill" King, who passed away in 2008. He retired from the Air Force after 20 years of service and when the idea came along to make a quilt in his honor the quilt pattern, "Happily Ever After" by Mary Jeanine Ibarguen was the perfect design.

I changed some of the color placement and made a smaller version from the original.

In the original the center red square was all blue with only the third row in red. I really like the balance the red center brings to the quilt.

Quilted on my Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 875Q home sewing machine I chose to quilt stars among loopty-loops with white thread.

 One of my favorite binding choices is stripes cut on the bias so that they appear to wrap around the edge of the quilt. I was thrilled to find the perfect fabric for this.

One of my favorite photos from the photo shoot. It's as if little Red Henny Penny was inspecting the quilt.

Another favorite from the photo shoot with all twelve of our chickens along with the quilt.

Quilting and Chickens two of my favorite things.

The all important label.

Quilting Stats:

Quilt Name: "Stars and Stripes for Bill"

 Finished size: 68" x 68""

Quilt Pattern: "Happily Ever After" by Mary Jeanine Ibarguen from Just Us Quilters

Batting: Heirloom Premium Batting 80/20 Blend

Quilting Thread: 50wt. Aurifil - White #2024

Quilting: Free Motion Quilted using my Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 875Q

Thank you for stopping by and sharing in my quilting journey!

Happy Quilting and God Bless,
Marcia

Radical Rose {Free Motion Quilting}

In June 2015 I had the privilege of Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) this amazing quilt which was appliqued and pieced by a the beautiful quilter Joan. She had taken Aunt 'Reen's class on Modern Machine Applique where she created this amazing beauty, called Radical Rose & Reel.  Joan had also taken my Beginners Free Motion Quilting class and decided that with practice she would one day be ready to do beautiful work, but since that would take time she brought her Radical Rose Quilt to me and asked me to do my thing. She gave me complete freedom to quilt it as I wished.  Talk about pressure! But I was in awe of being given this quilt top to enhance. This was a quilt I desperately wanted to make simply to be able to quilt it and here I was being entrusted with Joan's finished quilt top.

Of course I started with layering the quilt sandwich using my favorite pin anchor Pinmoors.

Then I was off!! I started by out lining all of the applique pieces and both sides of the thin pink border. Once everything was outlined I began doing what I call Free Form quilting.

 What is Free Form Quilting, you ask? 

Free Form Quilting is the swirls, paisleys, pebbles, and so on that I quilt without a predetermined plan where each motif flows into the next. It's my favorite type of quilting to do on a quilt top. I'm always excited to come across a top that calls out for this type of quilting.

 Once the Free Form Quilting was complete it was on to the outer Hour Glass border.
I didn't want to over quilt this outer border, thinking that the center Rose and Reel needed to stay the star of the show. So my original plan was to do a simple Stitch-In-The-Ditch (SID) along all the seams of that outer border. But once that was complete two things were obvious; 1) the SID work caused the white sashing to puff up and draw your attention to them and away from the center medallion and 2) it appeared very plain without any quilting, especially sitting next to all the quilting in the center of the quilt.  I spent several days contemplating what I could do in this border to calm down the puffiness and make it not so plain. Finally I was able to see the solution, Ribbon Candy in the white sashing and graduated loops in the triangles. I was very pleased with how it turned out. 

Testing quilting design with wax paper and a purple air erasable marking pen

Then in September the following year, on my birthday no less,  I received this note and photo from Joan:

 "I wanted to share with you that a wall hanging that I made from a class on modern machine applique by 'Aunt Reen and you quilted won First Place in the Traditional Mixed category. The show was the Coastal Quilters Guild "Harvest of Colors 2016 Show in Santa Barbara, CA. Comments made on the judging form stated "Individualized quilting motifs greatly enhance this quilt". Thank you so much for helping show case my wall hanging. Joan"

So happy for Joan to have received First place and a blue ribbon for her work and honored to have had the privilege of quilting it for her.  Reading the judges words felt pretty good too! 

Quilt Details & Stats:

Quilt Name: "Joan's Radical Rose & Reel"
 Finished size: 42" x 42"

Quilt Pattern:Radical Rose & Reel by Collector with a Needle available HERE

Batting: Quilter's Dream 100% Cotton

Quilting Thread: 50wt. Aurifil White #2024

Quilting: Free Motion Quilted using my Husqvarna Sapphire 875Q domestic sewing machine

 

 

 Thank you for stopping by and sharing my quilting journey!
God Bless and Happy Quilting!

Marcia

Proverbs 31 Woman {A Finish}

Last year I was asked about the possibility of making a quilt featuring select phrases from Proverbs 31, specifically the verses often referred to as the Proverbs 31 Woman. 

This got the wheels turning and I pulled out the graph paper and colored pencils. I actually own the EQ7 software, but I haven't figured out how to use it efficiently yet, so I'm sticking with graph paper and pencils for now.

 

My first design wasn't too bad.

For the center cross portion of the quilt I used the Log Cabin Christian Cross pattern from  Quilt FOX Design as my inspiration. I did a few things differently, so it's not an exact match to the original pattern. 

After creating the first layout design my next task was to decide how I wanted to put the words on the block. I could use any of a plethora of applique techniques, drawn them on with water color pencils or markers, use fabric paint, machine embroidery or hand embroidery. 

I had so many choices that I worked myself into kind of a "quilt paralysis." What I wanted to do was to do it all by hand embroidery, but I knew that would take huge amount of time. Every time I made a decision I'd second guess that decision and end up going back to my thoughts on doing hand embroidery for it all.  All this back and forth indecision only caused me to waste valuable time that I could have been using to stitch words.  After too many months of waffling I FINALLY decided I should just suck it up and get started doing the hand embroidery. I knew I wouldn't be as happy with any other method. 

Thankfully just before starting on the hand embroidery I was inspired to redesign the quilt. I'm so glad I did the redesign I like the more formal symmetrical layout of the blocks.

 To create the phrases and layout of the words for the blocks I used the "PrintShop2 for Mac." 

Each phrase was then printed out on regular 8-1/2" x 11" printer paper. Since I don't have a light box I use my plexiglass extension table with a small light under it to create one. This allows me to place the fabric over the printed sheet and trace the letters onto the fabric. 

I back each block with a piece of lightweight flannel which has been pre-washed.

The main fabric is the Designer Essential Solid in Pearl from Free Spirit Fabrics. 

Since these pieces are so big I baste the layers together to make sure nothing shifts when it's being hooped or while I'm stitching.

My needle couldn't handle the many, many  hours of embroidery work.

I chose to use a combination of satin stitch and stem stitch for all the words.

There are 14 embroidery blocks, with 440 hours of hand embroidery 

time using 22.5 skeins of DMC floss #782. 

 Each of the Embroidery blocks was framed in another Designer Essential Solid from Free Spirit Fabrics this time in Scarlet. Using my flannel design wall I started laying out the 2-1/2" squares. Of course my goal was to have a nice balance of the different colors spread through out what I would call the background of the quilt. I suppose it could also be considered the sashing.

Pieced and ready for borders.

 After all the 2" squares were pieced it was time to add borders. At this point I made the decision to add a third border to the two that I already had planned and cut. I kept the dark chocolate border next to the squares and added a cream border, using the same cream fabric that's the background of the cross. From there I kept the 6" Scarlet border as the final outer border.

Layerd and pinned using PINMORS and straight pins. 

Time to Quilt. My favorite part of the entire process!!

 

I started with some ruler work along the edges of the cross then moved to FMQ the pebbles behind the cross. I really wasn't thrilled with how the pebbles looked after I completed the first section. I thought it was too busy and possibly a distraction. But, at that point I had stitched so much I was committed to seeing it through. I'm so thankful I did too. Once all four quadrants were finished I found it to be much more appealing, verging on the perfect choice for background quilting that kind of faded away to almost being unnoticed.

More ruler work in the outer border.

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) Swirls and Paisley in the middle border

 Binding and label finished. Ready for delivery.

 This is a one of a kind quilt for me.

Quilt Details & Stats:

Quilt Name: "Proverbs 31 Woman"
 Finished size: 95.5" x 112.5"

Quilt Pattern: Log Cabin Christian Cross Inspired by QuiltFOX Designs. 

Surrounding Blocks and layout by Little Pink Rose Quilting

 Fabric: Designer Essential Solids by Free Spirit (Pearl & Scarlet)

Batiks Tonga Firestorm by Timeless Treasures

Cream Stonehenge #3934 bySunshine Cottage for Northcott fabrics

Chocolate borders and binding A year to Crow About by Red Rooster Fabrics

Batting: Heirloom Perimum 80% Cotton 20% Poly

Quilting Thread: 50wt. Aurifil Burgundy #1130, Pine #2892, Toast #2930,

Very Dark Brown #1130, Limoni di Monterosso - Verigated #4658,

Light Beige #2310, Shining Green #5017

 Embroidery Floss for Hand Embroidery blocks DMC #782 (22.5 skeins used)

598.5 hours to complete

Quilting: Free Motion Quilted using my Artistic Quilter SD18 Longarm.

Thank you for stopping by and being a part of my quilting journey!

God Bless and Happy Quilting!

Marcia

Custom Free Motion Quilting {Aunt 'Reen's Mediterranean Tile Quilt}

I recently had the honor of being asked to custom quilt an original quilt design by Aunt 'Reen.
Of course when I say recently I mean several months ago.....last year in fact.
I'm still playing catch up with sharing all the projects I've been working over the last year.


And now with no further ado I present Aunt 'Reen's Mediterranean Tile Quilt.



It laid out so nice flat and square. I love it when quilts come out square.
For this quilt I used 1-1/2" curved safety pins to hold all the layers in place while I quilted.

Ready to pin the layers

The "grout" lines aka sashing between each of the blocks gave me the perfect place to start quilting and stabilizing the entire quilt. I started by Stitching-In-The-Ditch (SID) up and down the longest strips of sashing. I started with the center most strip by stitching down one side of it and back up the other side. From there I moved over to the center strip of the left half and did the same stitch down one side of the strip and up the other side and quilted all the long strips in this manner. By doing this it stretches the quilt in both directions and keeps the quilt from being pulled in only one direction which would cause it to become wonky.

After all the long sashing strips were SID I moved on to quilting the shorter sashing strips stitching in the same manner as the longer strips, with the one exception of the added travel stitch at one end of each short strip. This took a little longer due to all the stops and starts required.

"Grout" lines stitched

Once all of the grout lines were stitched down I continued my SID work in the 16-patch blocks.
While it's not required to do SID in those pieced blocks it does give the block a more finished look it adds to showing off even emphasizing the piecing work. The added benefit to me as a quilter is that later the SID work will keep the fabric from migrating or moving while I work and it make the quilting designs I add to the block even more precise.

Compare the two 16-patch blocks in the picture below. You can easily spot the difference between the block that has been SID and the one that hasn't been stitched yet. The block on the right hasn't been SID yet and it looks nice but not nearly as nice as the block on the left which has the SID work done.

Compare the 16-patch blocks: Left block SID work finished, Right block no SID work yet.


When I had all of the SID work was finished along all the seams I started working block by block with SID work along the edge of each applique piece and then adding the additional quilting designs.

Applique blocks quilted viewed from the back of the quilt

When quilting the applique blocks the only lines I marked were the straight lines forming the pearl frame. Everything else was stitched free-form.

Front of quilt showing quilting on in the applique blocks

With all of the applique blocks quilted I moved on to quilting the 16-patch blocks.
For these blocks I again used a blue water soluble fine-point marking pen to draw in all the straight lines for the inner frame and corners. All of the pearls, loops and flower petals were stitched free-form.

Quilted 16-patch block

I never get tired of how the quilting shows itself off on the back of a quilt!

The goal I was given was to do some amazing custom quilting that will enhance the quilt, but not take attention away from the quilt itself. We didn't want the quilting to overwhelm the applique designs, but instead to play well with the quilt and keep the quilt the star of the show.

Quilt Details and Stats:

Finished size: Approx. 74" x 74"
Quilt Pattern: Mediterranean Tile by Doreen Johnson
Batting: Quilter's Dream Blend 70/30 Cotton/Poly
Thread: Aurifil Sand #2326
Quilting: Machine Free Motion Quilted on my domestic Husqvarna Sapphire 875Q

Be sure to stop by and visit Aunt 'Reen's Place. She does beautiful, amazing work and is such an inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my quilting adventures with you!

God Bless & Happy Quilting,

Marcia