Custom Quilting

Pattern

New Pattern : Stepping Stones

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It feels like forever since I published the last pattern that was not a BOM block. And there is a good reason for that, I have been extremely busy with quilting this year. It feels like the past four months or so have been one continuous Christmas rush. So if you are planning to get a quilt longarmed by me this year to give away for Christmas, please get your name in the queue right now. I am currently booking for mid-October, and there is only a limited number of slots available before Christmas.

But back to the Stepping Stones pattern: I quilted my sample back in February, and I managed to bind it and even put the label on in March/April when the Covid restrictions had just started and everybody was still hoping it would disappear quickly. And then people realized it was going to be around for a while and they had nothing much to do, and more and more quilt tops started showing up on my doorstep. But I finally finished writing the pattern, and I am very happy with the way my sample turned out. It is based on the scrap quilts I made as samples when I first started my longarm business. I made three small quilts, the tops all the same, but quilted them in three different ways, one with a meander, one with an edge to edge pantograph and one with different custom designs. I honestly didn’t give much thought to the design back then, just threw together whatever I found in my scrap drawers but people have been asking about a pattern for the quilt, and I promised I would eventually write one. The original quilts were pretty small, so I made a bigger version, and I had a lot of fun quilting it. The block design is part of a panto set called “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”, and on the outer border I wanted to try a curved crosshatch that turned out really nice.

Stepping Stones

Digiprove

The pattern is available for purchase in the store section. It does not include strip piecing instructions. All blocks were made individually from scraps. The pattern will be available with a discount until August 25, 2020. Enter the code STONES during checkout for 20% off.

Die Anleitung für den Stepping Stones Quilt ist auf deutsch nicht verfügbar.


 

Stepping Stones Back

Longarm

Emma Mary

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Lisa loves English Paper Piecing and made this fabulous quilt called “Emma Mary”, pattern by Judy Newman. There is a bit of custom quilting in the centre medallion to enhance all those lovely hexies. For the pieced blocks around the centre we decided that they were busy enough and detailed quilting would only get lost, so I used a pantograph in this area. The design is called ” Paisley Curls”.

Emma Mary


Emma Mary Detail 3

Longarm

Rosa Biddlecombe

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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.

Longarm

Broken Dishes (Put Back Together)

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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.


Longarm

Hook, Line & Sinker

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“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.


Sneak Peek

What I Am Working On: Happy Hippo Hop

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I had to drop everything else and make time for this cute project, a quilt I need as a baby shower gift. Baby showers are like Christmas, they sneak up on you, and suddenly they are looming just around the corner, and you haven’t finished your project yet. I miscalculated because of a cultural difference. Baby showers are not a thing in Germany, and no one would ever think of giving a gift before the baby was actually born. I always had late March in my head as the due date, and when I received the invitation to the baby shower for next week, a whole month was suddenly taken out of my mental timeline, and that is an eternity in quilting. Anyway, I got my act together, I had the design and fabrics ready, and I spent the holiday weekend making the quilt top and quilting it. Here is a little preview, this little guy makes me laugh every time I see him. The quilt is done and just needs the binding, but I still have one more weekend before the shower, so it should be finished right on time. There will be a pattern for this but I haven’t even started writing it yet. I also have to make a sample quilt that won’t be given away. I had planned on making the blocks all at the same time but of course that plan went out the window as well.

Longarm

Elephant Abstractions

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This is the second Elephant Abstractions quilt I have quilted for a customer, and this one was pieced by Monette. She liked the idea of quilting different parts of the elephant with different designs which is what I did for the other one. I didn’t quilt it exactly the same though – that would have been boring – but left some things untouched that I really liked with the first version like the ribbon candy for the tusks or the escargot/pebble filler for the tail. I came up with a completely different design for the trunk and used a different leaf design for the background. Monette’s quilt also has borders which the first one didn’t. The very wide outer border is a busy batik fabric, and while the quilting is visible in reality, it doesn’t really show up in the pictures.

Elephant Abstractions


Longarm

Poinsettia Table Topper

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This Poinsettia Table Topper is a Judy Niemeyer design and was pieced by Monette. Her fabric choices make it look very elegant but unfortunately the quilting doesn’t show very well. The backing was a gorgeous white, silver and grey poinsettia print, just perfect for this project, but the quilting didn’t show at all in the pictures I took. Monette asked for custom quilting, and although I wouldn’t want to piece one of these, I enjoy quilting them very much.

Poinsettia


Longarm

Polka Dot Garden

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Marleen made this quilt as a gift for her first great-granddaughter. I free-motion quilted a continuous flower design with loops. Although it is technically custom quilting, free motion allover designs don’t take much longer than pantographs, and once in a while it is really fun to just quilt without having to follow a commercial design.

Polka Dot Garden


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