tilliestudioblog

Symbols of comfort

 
Friendship quilts really move me. They commemorate events with joy, love or comfort via the hands of many caring people. Such was the case with this quilt, finished in a hurry for a grieving family. It was not lost on me that I was listening to the Sept. 11 ten-year-anniversary tributes on NPR as I finished quilting this project.

Sarah, who coordinated and assembled the quilt blocks sent by the family's friends, asked that the names of all the family members, including the child they lost, be randomly quilted into a pattern of butterflies.  The all-over quilting pattern looked like butterflies, but the actual name of the design is Angel Wings by Jodi Beamish for Willowleaf Studio.

And while not everyone shares a faith that includes angels, I have to say that the butterly/angel shapes I was stitching into the top to hold the layers together seemed to trigger a feeling of hope and acceptance in me as I made the last stitch. 

Sarah added the binding, made the backing and is blogging about it, but she pieced a message on the back that was perfect: 

 

Solution for a too-small backing

One of the most important factors in quilting on a longarm machine is having enough fabric to attach the whole thing evenly with room for testing stitch tension. That's why I ask customers to make sure they get backing and batting that is 4 inches wider and 4 inches longer than the quilt top.

Patty had already cut a backing piece that was roughly the same width as her quilt top and she was going to try quilting it herself on her home sewing machine, so she prepped it with safety pins holding the "sandwich" of back/batt/top together. Then she ran out of time.

She unpinned it all at my request, because each part of the sandwich needs to be pinned onto the machine separately. But she she had already cut the backing fabric.

To get the extra four inches, she used some of the left over fabric from the top (a sweet design by Elizabeth Hartman called Frames), Patty sliced the back into two pieces and sewed a 4.5-inch strip of the leftover print from top to bottom to each backing segment -- making a more interesting back for the quilt.

Patty asked me to quilt it all together with a design called "Labyrinth." She'll be finishing it with a yellow polka-dotted flannel binding in time for the birth of her first grandchild.

Sweet.

 

Her determination got me

My business model never included making completed quilts for sale. It was always about helping others complete their pieced tops by providing the quilting. So when Rachel wrote  trying to find someone to create an entire custom queen-sized wedding quilt for her, I was not going to go there. But she certainly deserved the courtesy of a reply, so I  wrote for more details without committing to the project.

Making a custom quilt can be expensive, so I asked her if she had a budget in mind. Rachel said she was prepared for that, but she was determined to give a quilt to the couple. She said the bride and groom were both close friends she had worked with and she introduced them and will be a bridesmaid in the wedding. But the clincher: The bride is a quilter who  has made many, many quilts for others as gifts. "I just  thought it would be nice if she got one," said Rachel.

Rachel doesn't quilt, or sew. This did not deter her. She had a design motif in mind and was willing to help in any way, "even if the greatest help would be not to help," she said. I  just couldn't say no. We met and she carefully  chose fabric to reflect  the couple's colors: natural tones of earth and foliage.

  The design Rachel envisioned was a variation on the bargello style. I found Becky Botello's Easy Peasy Bargello Quilt pattern (there on the left) and purchased the pdf. (This pdf, by the way, provided a clear, well-illustrated set of directions for an exacting result and was well worth the $5 cost of the download.)

Rachel was even game enough to take a lesson from me in how to blind stitch down the binding so she could finish the quilt herself by hand. (BTW, there are many videos out there that show ways to hand finish a quilt with a narrow binding. Rachel said they helped, but she was glad to see the blind stich done in front of her -- it gets easier the more you do it.)

The wedding's in early October and I know the quilt will be well loved because she put so much love into making it happen. Thanks for the experience, Rachel.

Back to the woods

Nancy Cook sent her beauutiful Stacked Coin quilt top variation designed by Denyse Schmidt to be quilted. We discussed several options, but her choice turned out to be my favorite pattern: Knotty.

I've raved about this design before and it's still the most affordable, classic-yet-modern design out there.

Nancy stitched on the binding by hand and posted the finished quilt on her delightful blog, Sew Nancy.

It is such an honor to be trusted with these treasures. Thanks, Nancy.

Sampler x 2

It's fun to receive two interpretations of the same quilt design to work on. That's what happened when Lauren (top) and Joan (above), a daughter and mother who took a sampler class together at Cool Cottons In Portland, brought me their assembled blocks to be quilted.

Each quilt block was a traditional pattern and used the same selection of fabrics, but the students could chose how to arrange the fabrics in their piecing and in the borders.

For her longarm quilting, above, Lauren chose Razor Grass, a panto designed by Jodi Beamish.  I liked the way it cut across the piecing and varied fabrics to help unify all the block designs.

Joan chose another Beamish panto design, Labyrinth, and it took a softer route over the surface of her quilt but still allowed her precise piecing to shine.

Taking sampler class is a good way to power past a fear of traditional piecing and actually finish a larger quilt. And you can compare notes with other students and get a gentle critique from the teacher. Bonus: You'll really notice improvement in your work. Check out your local shops to get a class list.

Summer's almost here in Portland, and business has slowed a bit, so if you have a top or project that needs quilting for the holidays, this is a perfect time to send it along!

 

FUNd raisers

What's more fun than kids' art? Why kids' art made into a quilt, of course.

Dana, the mother of almost-5-year-old Emmeline (Emme for short) wrote me to help with a project for Emme's San Francisco preschool. Dana sent me a top pieced with playful fabrics framing abstract  masterpieces by students in the Peacock class.

The children were given permanent fabric markers in basic bright colors to draw on white Kona cotton. They added their names in proud block letters. One parent pieced the back from the same fabrics used on the blocks. Dana  then sewed up the top, alternating the kids' squares between sashing and log cabin squares to fit a 50-by-60-inch rectangle. For the quilting, Dana requested a simple (fast) allover panto, and "Labyrinth" by Jodi Beamish was just the ticket.

Why the rush? A fund-raising auction for the school in April. I'm thinking this will fetch a tidy little sum.

Studio note: The batting is 100% wool, provided by the customer, and I LOVE quilting on this wool. It's dense, yet light and really warm and makes a puffy surface without becoming stiff.

And here is the full-size result, with binding to be added by Dana.

 So now I'm thinking about using a few of the many fabulous drawings done by my grandchildren to make a memory quilt for each of them. Instead of having them draw on fabric, I can scan existing work, which is on plain white paper, and print it out on my Printed Treasures sheets that go through an ink jet printer. Or maybe we can combine both techniques, to get more color on the drawings.

Anyhoo, thanks Dana, for a fun project!

 

 

 

 

Bubbles

It just made me feel buoyant, working on this top made by Lee Fulton of Brooklyn.

This is Lee's first quilt, made for her daughter. She pieced it from a pattern of Alicia Paulson's called Ollalieberry Ice Cream using a zingy collection of fabrics. When Alicia made it, she stitched echo quilting around each square about one quarter of an inch inside the seams. But Lee chose "Bubbles," a panto by Herminone Agee. This allover pattern creates little puffs over the surface of the quilt. The back, shown below, is nicely bubbly, too.

Lee said:
"Quilt arrived safely yesterday, and I love it!  I'm really pleased with the bubbles pattern and my daughter's dramatic reaction.  She's four, very opinionated about style and decorating, and the quilt is for her new bed."

This is why it's sooo rewarding to help people finish their quilts: approval from a stylish four year old. Way to go, Lee!

Pattern love

The quilting design you see above is "Knotty," a quilting pantograph (sometimes referred to as an all-over pattern) designed by Gali Design. When I bought it I had no idea how versatile it would turn out to be. Now it's one of my favorites. The design looks nice on solid cloth as well as on patchwork with multiple prints. It quilts up quickly and is affordable for most customers.

I just had to show you some examples from recent customers, who gave me permission to display their work.

First, pictured above, is Marci Glenn's color-rich quilt for her daughter, who did not want anything frilly or fussy. The woodsy feel of Knotty was perfect.

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Group quilts. I've quilted several sampler quilts with blocks made by sewers with expert skills and beginners with more enthusiasm than skill. Knotty can unify and make them play nicely together. Customer Erin Salimena rated the result: "Five out of five stars."

 

Melissa paired Knotty on a shop sample quilt for Bolt Neighborhood, with fabrics from Monaluna's Woodland Friends line. One print in that line has stumps on it! Loved the subtle connection.

 

Ruby Gates' quilt also fit beautifully with the forested feel of Knotty. The brown & mint deer print is delicious.

Finally, Susanne Grant chose Knotty to complete her Postcard Block of the Month quilt hosted by Rhea Daiute of Alewives Fabrics using lushly saturated prints by Kaffe Fassett. Here's the versatility of Knotty. It holds up to -- but does not compete with -- all the patterns and colors of the patchwork.