Embroidery - Pumpkin Patch

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Beatrice | December 20, 2024 | 4 Comments

The year is almost over, and Christmas is just around the corner. I have decided to take the rest of the month off, but I will see you all again on January 1 for the first block of the new BOM, Safari.

This year, I did not even manage to send out my Christmas cards. I started making them, but before I could finish, Canada Post went on strike in mid-November. They only resumed working this week, and there is a huge backlog to clear. So, I have decided to save my handmade cards for next year.

Instead, I thought I would share a picture of something I made before discovering quilting: a hand-embroidered Christmas table topper. I also have several embroidered tablecloths that I take out each year as part of my Christmas decorations. I don’t think I have the patience for hand embroidery anymore, but I still enjoy looking at these pieces every Christmas.

Wishing you a joyful Holiday season and a bright and healthy New Year!

Longarm

Japanese Cranes

Beatrice | November 4, 2022 | 1 Comment

Sandra made this lovely quilt in red, white and black, and she didn’t want any quilting over the embroidery in the four bird blocks. We decided on semi-custom, and I used the pantograph “Champagne Bubbles” for most of the quilt and then filled the background of the bird blocks with a smaller circular filler design.

Longarm

Vintage Tin

Beatrice | June 21, 2022 | 3 Comments

“Vintage Tin” is a Crabapple Hill pattern, and this beautiful version was stitched by Sandra. I didn’t have a pantograph that looked like tire tracks, so we settled on “Celtic Scroll” instead, claiming it looked a bit like hubcaps. Maybe it was just our imagination, but it is a simple scroll pattern that worked well for the quilt.

Longarm

Girls Getaway

Beatrice | April 13, 2022 | 2 Comments

If you have been reading here for a while, you might remember Sharon who as a new quilter tackled everything with enthusiasm and made huge progress honing her skills in just a short time. She surprised me again by showing up with a beautiful Crabapple Hill quilt top, “Girls Getaway”, asking for custom quilting. I find these embroidered quilts much harder to quilt than pieced ones but I think I am getting the hang of it. Both Sharon and I were very happy with the way this one turned out.

Longarm

Over The River And Through The Woods

Beatrice | May 19, 2021 | 3 Comments

“Over The River And Through The Woods” is a Crabapple Hill design, mixing hand-embroidered panels with classic pieced blocks. This lovely version was made by Sandra, and she chose “White Out”, a snowflake pattern for quilting. I wasn’t always comfortable doing allover designs across beautiful hand embroidery but Sandra’s quilt is a great example of how good it can look. The snowflake meander blends into the background and doesn’t take away from the exquisite handwork.

Over The River And Through The Woods Detail 1

Over The River And Through The Woods Detail 2

Longarm

Where We Love Is Home

Beatrice | February 10, 2021 | 2 Comments

If this quilt looks familiar to you and you are wondering if I posted these pictures before, you are not entirely mistaken. Last year I posted pictures of Cynthia’s version, and a few months later, her friend Lisa had her version of the top ready to quilt. Both ladies love stitching by hand, and they often choose the same patterns and work on them together. For quilting, I went with the basic plan I used for the first version but changed a few things for Lisa’s quilt. A huge amount of work went into this quilt, and I feel honoured that both ladies asked me to quilt their masterpieces.

Longarm

Vintage Trick Or Treat

Beatrice | December 7, 2020 | 2 Comments

Yes, I know that Halloween is over and Christmas is coming 🙂 But I am months behind in posting pictures, and I am not going to wait for October to come around again before showing this gorgeous quilt that I quilted in July. “Vintage Trick Or Treat” is a Crabapple Hill design, and this version was made by Maryanne. I was delighted to custom quilt it for her. I find Crabapple Hill quilts much more difficult to quilt than for example Judy Niemeyer designs. It feels much more natural to me to come up with designs for geometric shapes than trying to figure out what to do with the beautiful hand embroidery that only needs stabilizing but not really any quilting. If you are wondering about the border, the quilt is supposed to have scalloped edges which will be cut after quilting. Maryanne had already marked where she was planning to cut, and after stitching the piano keys, I stitched around outside her markings to make sure the threads were secure after trimming. This quilt is truly a labour of love!

Longarm

Sharon’s Sewing Center

Beatrice | October 7, 2020 | 1 Comment

Now this was a really fun quilt to quilt. Sharon made it as a decoration for her sewing room wall, and it has everything from traditional pieced blocks to appliqué, from hand embroidery with crayon tinting to button embellishments. She asked for custom quilting to enhance the different parts of the quilt, and I think you can tell how much fun I had with it.

Longarm

Where We Love Is Home

Beatrice | September 28, 2020 | 6 Comments

“Where We Love Is Home” is a pattern by Australian designer Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched. Cynthia put a lot of work into this quilt, she did all the appliqué and embroidery by hand, and there are lots of tiny pieces. This is truly a labour of love, and Cynthia did an awesome job putting it all together.

Longarm

Honeybees

Beatrice | August 19, 2020 | 1 Comment

Hannah machine-embroidered the honeybee blocks in this striking quilt. I love the hexagon honeycomb look of the blocks. She asked me not to quilt over the embroidery, so I only outlined the blocks by stitching in the ditch and added a design to the background. The sashing features bees busily buzzing from cornerstone to cornerstone. This was also Hannah’s suggestion, and I love how it turned out. The outer border picks up the flower design of the sashing print. Quite an unusual quilt, and lots of fun to quilt.