This is another quilt made by Ruth using a traditional pattern, this time “Trip Around The World”. One of her fabrics had small ivy leaves which made the design “Ground Cover” an easy choice for quilting.
Ruth made this pretty Log Cabin quilt, and when she dropped it off she told me in no uncertain terms that she did not like it at all. I couldn’t see what was wrong with it as it turned out very nice in my opinion. Ruth told me that this quilt was going to be a wedding gift, and someone else had chosen and bought the fabrics, and I began to see the problem. If I don’t love the material, I don’t love working on the project. A long time ago I made a store sample that was all brown and dark blue, and it is no secret that I love bright, bold colours. Making that dark quilt felt like a chore, so I knew where Ruth was coming from. We chose “Starburst” as a quilting pattern in a large size, Ruth wanted just light quilting, and I think it turned out quite lovely, and I hope the recipient will agree and enjoy Ruth’s gift.
There are lots of Japanese logic puzzles out there, Sudoku is probably the best known among them, and you can use the idea behind Sudoku to create a quilt layout. This Sudoku quilt was made by Barbara and showcases pretty batik fabrics. And for my fellow OCD peeps, yes, I checked too, and Barbara’s layout is not a true Sudoku but it is still a pretty quilt. And since the fabric is definitely the star of the project, we went with a simple pantograph and chose “Taj Mahal” for nice texture that stays in the background.
This cute little quilt was made by Terri for her grandbaby. Her daughter selected the fabrics and chose the ruffles that are incorporated in every block. These ruffles made it impossible to do an allover pantograph pattern, the foot of the machine would get caught and possibly flip them over and stitch them down. So we decided that I would just free-motion around the ruffles, and I filled the block section with loops and daisies and added a separate daisy design to the border where the almost solid yellow border fabric makes the quilting much more visible.
This quilt was made by Joan as a gift for her grandson. I love patterns like this one where you put fairly simple blocks together, and with clever placement a secondary pattern emerges. The quilting design Joan chose is called “Taj Mahal”, a simple modern pattern that adds great texture.
Elaine has been faithfully sending me a picture of her finished block every month, ever since I published my first pattern of Barnyard Bash. Here are her first three completed Monkey Business blocks. I love the background fabric she chose, very cute. Click on the pictures for a bigger/slide show view.
This year Sigrid started sending me pictures of her finished blocks as well, and I am really enjoying them. It is so much fun to see what all of you create and how you make my patterns your own. Sigrid creates custom backgrounds for her monkeys by stitching two different fabrics together, what a great idea!
I’ll be happy to post more Show & Tell pictures. If you would like to be featured, email me photos of your finished blocks. My email address can be found on the cover page of every pattern.
Donna made this pretty quilt in spring colours from a panel. The stained glass prints are already busy enough, so we chose the design “Taj Mahal” for quilting, a simple pattern that adds nice texture.
Another finished Block of the Month top from the Chilliwack Quilters Guild found its way to me, this one was made by Janet. Members were free to choose their colours which makes Janet’s quilt very different from Ellen’s. In fact, without knowing these two were part of the same group project I probably wouldn’t even have noticed. Janet has a pretty floral feature fabric, and we went with “Ginger Flower” as the quilting pattern.
This lovely quilt in blue and white was made by Janet. After stitching all the Dresden Plates by hand, she chose an unusual block for the outer borders. I am not sure if it has a name but I like the chain look it creates. The pantograph I used for this quilt is called “Paisley Curls”.
This is Mary’s version of the popular “Labyrinth Walk” quilt. I have quilted some before, and Mary looked at the pictures and liked the “Overlapping Crop Circles” as a quilting pattern for her project. It is my favourite for the Labyrinth quilt, all the corners and angles and straight lines need a curved design that brings some motion and texture, and the Crop Circles are perfect for that.
