Lisa made this adorable little quilt as a baby gift. It is no secret that I love pink and I enjoyed working on this project very much. The quilting design is called “P.S. I Love You” and was an easy choice for Lisa’s quilt.
Kelley made this Bookcase quilt as a gift for her sister. It comes not only with her sister’s favourite books but also has a coffee cup, pictures of the grandkids and the cutest little bookworm. The bottom shelf is dedicated to Harry Potter and contains the Sorting Hat, Hedwig and a selection of Hermione’s favourite books. Some of the book titles are printed on fabric, some are hand-embroidered. We chose a simple overall design called “Taj Mahal” for Kelley’s quilt. What a lovely gift!
This is another project Pat asked me to quilt for her. She used mostly Kaffe Fassett fabrics for this quilt and pieced the backing from leftover fabrics and blocks, if you can even call it leftovers. It ended up being a reversible quilt with the back being as pretty as the front. The quilting design is called “Celtic Scroll”, and this is one of the few times I actually used variegated thread since there was enough black in the quilt for the colours to actually show.
Pat started this gorgeous quilt years ago and worked on it on and off until she finished it last year. I have a vague memory of seeing this pattern in a Keepsake Quilting catalog a long time ago, when the internet was a long way from what it is today and they sent out little paper booklets every few months. I don’t remember the name of the pattern, “Always In Bloom” is the name of the Maywood Studio fabric line with the pretty roses. The quilting design is called “Rose Garden”, a perfect fit for Pat’s floral project.
Cynthia enjoys needlework by hand and pieced and appliquéd this lovely quilt called “Rosa Biddlecombe”, designed by Margaret Mew. The variety of fabrics used for the blocks makes the quilting almost disappear, and we decided on an allover design called “Wild Wind” for this part of the quilt. The centre part is lightly custom quilted, the way Cynthia likes it, with just one echo around the appliqué and a few free-motion feathers in the background.
Dinner Plate Dahlia is another one of Judy Niemeyer’s patterns, and this gorgeous version was made by Lynne. This is (at least) the third Judy Niemeyer quilt that Lynne has pieced, and I really admire her patience and skill. I couldn’t even finish one, let alone three. The overall design Lynne chose for her quilt is called “Tandoori”.
Carla put this quilt together from blocks that her friend Joanne had made and didn’t like. I am not sure why she didn’t like them but I am glad Carla rescued them. Isn’t this a gorgeous quilt? This was a really fun project to custom quilt. Symmetrical layouts and geometric shapes really speak to my brain, and I have no trouble coming up with designs for the different areas. Carla’s only request was feathers in the white on-point squares, and the rest fell into place pretty much by itself.
“Hook, Line & Sinker” is a pattern by Crabapple Hill Studios. If you are not familiar with Meg Hawkey’s designs, they usually involve hand-embroidered blocks and some crayon tinting. Many of them are offered as block of the month programs. “Hook, Line & Sinker” is a perfect gift for an avid fisherman in your family. This is Joni’s version, and I was delighted at the idea to custom quilt it. I had never quilted a Crabapple Hill design before, and I found it much more intimidating than Judy Niemeyer quilts, for example. I finally settled on filling the background and staying away from the embroidery as much as possible. Of course those areas needed to be stabilized as well, and I tried to just give them texture and echo the embroidered lines. I didn’t spend much time on the border, the dark pattern of the fabric made the quilting pretty much invisible, a simple design to stabilize it was all it needed.
“Jack and the Beanstalk” is a pattern by Tula Pink, and this quilt was made by Pat as a gift for her granddaughter. Isn’t this a fun modern design? It has a lot of background space to fill, and “Overlapping Crop Circles” was a great quilting choice for Pat’s quilt.
Ginger made another memory quilt for one of her granddaughters. If you missed her first one, Hudson’s Memory Quilt, it can be found here. This time she cut up Harrison’s baby clothes and turned them into an adorable quilt. The top didn’t have any embellishments, and the lace she had added to the border was stitched down, so there was nothing that could get in the way of the hopping foot. We chose the design “P.S. I Love You” for Ginger’s quilt, an easy choice given all the hearts in the top.
