An urgent job

Last Thursday I was contacted by a local curtain parlour. They moved shop, and after the move, her quilting machine refused to work, and she urgently needed a quilt.  I could feel her pain, but was hesitant to accept, as I know they use either curtaining or upholstery fabric, but she was in a pickle.  After looking at the fabric and size, while she sent me thick upholstery batting too, I had to inform her that I would not be able to use her thick batting along with the fabric on my entrée-level quilt machine.  She then agreed to use quilting batting, then the size worried me.  The longer side was 136” with the shorter side just fitting on the width of my frame.  Hubby promised to help me advance the quilt as I neared the end.  It was extremely thick by then. The rheumatism in my wrists and thumbs did not allow me to roll this thick mass.

Luckily, I did not have another quilt on the frame, so I could finish this one the next day (Friday).  I don’t think she would like the lack of loft compared to the thicker batting, but that was the best I could do, and I got it finished so she would not disappoint her customer.

However, no good deed goes unpunished, and although they fetched the quilt on Monday, I have yet to receive payment.  I already sent the manager a message and she promised to find out what the problem was, but as of yet… nothing.

Duvet cover turned quilt

My daughter bought a duvet cover made from an extremely slippery fabric, which led to the inner sliding down to their feet at night, leaving them without a cover or heat for their bodies. No problem for her; mom can quilt, so the cover, as is, was simply dropped off by me.  Sides not unpicked or cut, no batting and somehow, I had to work with a backing the same size as the top.  Sadly, I had to cut her top smaller to accommodate my side clamps on the frame.

This quilt also does not have 90° corners, as the purchased cover was so skewed and I wanted to use most of the available fabric.  Luckily, on a bed, the corners will hang down the sides; hopefully, it will not be that obvious.

After putting it on her bed, she sent me a photo.

In my previous post, I mentioned cleaning house, and I decided to take it a step further by cleaning out my e-mail list too.  Often, over several years, I’d read a blog post talking about a new pattern, block or technique, and in an attempt to find out more, I had to join their mailing list.

I helped hubby in our business for several years. On my way to the office in the morning, I’d stop by the mail box to get the new mail.  Once at the office, I’d open these and stack them in a pile, starting from the top. I would work through all the mail, doing reconciliations where needed, paying what needed to be paid, or simply responding to questions. 

Then I took an eight-year break. When I returned post was almost non-existent, and e-mail took over.  I hated it!  I preferred my stacked-up pile, seeing how it gets smaller with every finish, but e-mail never stopped coming.  I would still attend to number 5 when 2 or 3 new emails would pop up.

After selling the business and going on pension, I deliberately cut down on my computer time, especially e-mails, but then when I eventually got to it, I had heaps of emails and mostly junk I had no interest in.  I unsubscribed from a bunch of sites.  Now it is almost fun getting behind the computer again, checking out what I want to; not having to work through all, mostly wasting time.

Big blocks for a little one

This grandmother is expecting a new granddaughter soon and decided to make her a quilt using only large blocks.  She is also not a fan of dense quilting and opted for the large-scale meander.

Wildflowers

I had no quilting for just a little more than 2 weeks, and decided to take a serious look at the cleanliness of our house.  I do clean once a week and try to do it as thoroughly as possible, but still some things are overlooked.  Treating the leather furniture and polishing the wood are two things I can immediately think of.

During the ‘no-quilting’ weeks, I continued with once-a-week cleaning but had to tackle at least one other task on the other days.  I did well; things look great. I’ve also changed my cleaning routine somewhat in that I express clean most every day, which then includes those previously neglected tasks.  Now I have shiny windows (I found a new recipe for cleaning these on TikTok), mirrors, wood, leather and even the insides of cupboards are wiped down.

I don’t think anyone likes cleaning, but there is no better feeling than looking at my clean house with no less than 7 pets living indoors, and knowing I cleaned it!

Then I got this quilt named Wildflowers by the quilter.  This will be a gift for a little one.

Group mystery quilt

This is the fourth quilt done as a group mystery in 2024 that I had the honour to quilt.  It is amazing how the use of different colours in the same pattern can make every one of these look individual.

This quilt maker has every intention to use this one on her bed and chose just an edge-to-edge design.

Quilt with no name

This is the 60^th quilt I’ve completed this year, and I am finally done with all the quilts that were piled up in one guest room. It very seldom happens that a quilt maker gives me the name of the quilt/technique or block, and I always forget to ask.  When I write my blog, I only worry about the heading and then scramble to find a suitable title.

With this one, though, I contacted the maker and asked her and guess what?  Along with her friend, they decided to design their own block pattern and make the quilt using that.  I am therefore none the wiser; this quilt sadly has no name.

With the high contrast between the border fabric and quilt body, the maker and I decided on an edge-to-edge in the middle and then a different motif (and thread colour) on the borders.

On this border, I got to use one of my newly purchased Sway rulers by Natalia Bonner after watching heaps of her videos.

Quilted runner

 I had absolutely no idea what to do, quilt-wise, with this runner when I got it.  Then again, I seldom have a full and final idea of what to do on any custom quilt.  I would have a rough idea for certain blocks or just the border, but the rest falls into place when I get to that area.  Some work out wonderfully and some not so much.

With this one and the pattern making such an impact, I didn’t want to distract from the picture done by the runner itself.  So, no fancy curls, feathers or pebbles to move the attention away from the overall look.

I decided less is more and kept this all-straight-line quilting with the help of rulers.

Picnic quilt

This quilt maker went through a difficult period with her health and lost her quilting mojo.  Now, somewhat better, she looked through her fabric stash when her daughter noticed these fabrics and said the granddaughter would love a picnic quilt from those.

I trust this marks the beginning of her improved health and many more quilts to come.

 

Beginner squares

This was made by a self-taught newbie quilter who used YouTube to learn.  She was very apologetic about her first attempt and here I thought she did very well without formal classes.

Very befitting, when I showed her a selection of edge-to-edge designs, she opted for the meander. All of us used this on our first quilts.

Second floral coral print

This one not only used the same pattern and fabric, but was also done by the same quilter.  She was gifted fabric and decided to use it all.

The only change here from the previous one was the quilting motif.

A quilt with birds

I never asked the quilter the name of this pattern, so it simply turned out to be a quilt with birds. It felt like I would never finish this small wall-hanging, not due to bad piecing or problems with the quilt, but rather due to personal circumstances.  The people fitting the new windows and doors finally arrived, three weeks after we had paid the deposit.  Our house was a freezer with all the old windows and doors removed.  This took them 3 days to finish.

Then it is school holidays for our little ones, and the youngest grandchild is with us full days and finally my own addiction…. Wimbledon.  It feels like the quilting never happened, and if it happened, it was in tiny increments before being interrupted. 

I promised myself that I would not be glued to the TV in the first week as I have way too many quilts waiting, but I just “quickly” check on who is playing and then time simply slips by me.

Then on Wednesday, the little one went with granddad to run errands, and I finally had time to finish this.

Coral floral prints

After completing the previous colourwash quilt, I realised I had enough time, before my husband returns from golf, to load another small edge-to-edge.  I managed to finish this one on the same day, as well.

Another colourwash quilt

I welcomed this quilt, although it was almost identical to the one I finished on 3 June, as an edge-to-edge design was just what I needed after spending nearly a full week on the previous chevron custom quilt.  This quilter had the quilt already quilted by someone else, was not satisfied, decided to unpick, for me to redo.

With hubby playing golf on Sunday mornings (in this bitterly cold weather we now have), I cleaned and oiled my machine and decided to spend a quiet morning by myself (and the pets) and do this one.

Queen-sized Chevron quilt

 I had a great deal of fun working on this one.  I recently joined Susan Smith from Stitched by Susan on one of her podcasts, and as usual with any new online class, video, or podcast, I learned something new.

Susan discussed many topics, but one thing stuck with me……” deliberate practice”.  She talked about how we won't all get some shapes or motifs correct and then get disheartened and give up, and she challenged us to do what we struggle with on an actual quilt and deliberately practise.

Now I was never satisfied with my pebbles in a straight line, random pebbles I manage perfectly, but oh dear, don’t have these lined up in a row.

With this quilt, it was now or never, and I chose to do heaps of pebbles, and I must admit it did get better.  Still not perfect, but way better than I used to do it.

Somehow, I also chose the perfect combination of motifs; it went fast, filled the spaces in the quilt and gave a pleasing end result.  However, in the border, I had a motif that I hated midway through the quilt and then simply had to plough on, which is never fun.  The rest of the quilt was a breeze.

No good deed goes unpunished

I’ve heard this saying so many times and didn’t quite get it until this quilt arrived.  This, along with the previous one, came when I already had enough quilts to keep me busy for a couple of weeks.  The quilter, leaving for Australia at the beginning of July, asked if I could quilt these, and initially, I refused, but later felt guilty, thinking how neatly she made them, how eager she was to gift them, and I agreed.

I did the previous one for her brother with no problems whatsoever, BUT instead of laying my 3 layers out, as I always do, I simply assumed this quilt could be loaded exactly as the previous one.  Big mistake!!  I got to roughly 2 inches of the bottom edge and realised the backing was too small.  I know backings can be joined on the longarm, but I didn’t want a seam in the backing.

I therefore spent a whole weekend and a day just unpicking.  No more feeling sorry for or pushing someone up in my quilting line-up.  I’ve learnt my lesson.

Quilt for Henri

This quilt was made by one of our younger generation quilters. She and her boyfriend will be leaving for Australia at the beginning of July. They’ll be living with their host family/employers on a farm, and I guessed this quilt was for the host family’s little son.

Squares in autumn colours

This quilt has a sad history. The maker quilted in a group with a good friend, but the friend died during COVID-19. The maker then decided to finish some of her projects. This was the first one I got.

Squares and rectangles in tan

 This is the second of the edge-to-edge quilts I popped on before the partially done custom quilt. It's day one of doing this, and this is already my second quilt for the morning. I’m starting to feel better about my time management, but alas, I don’t have dinner planned for tonight. There is always just one spanner in the works.

Blues for a baby boy

I am inundated with quilt work and stress about the number of quilts piled up in the one guest bedroom.  I don’t sleep well, wake up tired, get up and quilt in the wee hours of the morning, and still the requests come in.  I never go back to sleep once I’m awake, but yesterday I think my body just rebelled and said “no more”.  I woke up at 02:45, stayed awake and alert until 5am, then crashed.  Got back into bed and slept for another hour and a half.  It helped!

When a couple of edge-to-edge quilts came my way, I was glad for this finish fast and at least I feel the pile is getting smaller.  I took a partially done custom quilt off the frame to try and finish a couple of the edge-to-edge quilts, and this was the first one.

All red and white quilt

This quilt arrived at an extremely busy time in my life. So much is happening, and I don’t get to do as much quilting as I would like to. My youngest granddaughter, who stays with us after pre-school, now comes out earlier as the older classes are busy with exams. My mornings, therefore, are much shorter. Hubby is finally finished with the renovations inside the house and is now waterproofing the roof. 

On Wednesday, I finally had the skylights (there are three rather dark areas in the house) I so badly wanted installed. Then, we are expecting workers to fit new windows in the kitchen and replace the two wooden back doors with glass doors. When it rains, the wood swells, and we struggle to close the doors. So, the glass doors should eliminate that problem. (They never came this week...ughh!)

Furthermore, either one of us must always be on chicken duty.  House hen still threatens to kill the little frizzle, and we dare not leave them unattended. I just have too few hours in a day to do all my household chores and get a fair amount of quilting done, too.

This morning, I started quilting at 02:20 while hubby and the pets were still asleep in order to make some progress, as I’ve been working on this quilt for a whole week. The kids came over for Father’s Day as DIL made us lunch.  Needless to say, I took a well-deserved nap afterwards, but was able to take this all red and white quilt off the frame and pack it to be returned.

Wholecloth

 This was from a quilter whose friend wanted a solid white quilt, which she plans to gift along with a blue and white Peaceful Star quilt to go in the centre of the bed as a finishing touch.

I don’t design the inside of these solid-colour quilts (this is a different skill level), so I offered to do an edge-to-edge design.

Colourwash quilt

The maker of this quilt is the same lady who made the beautiful runner I so much enjoyed working on.

Because of all the different printed fabrics in the centre, I opted for an edge-to-edge design with just a little detail in the sashing and border.

Table runner

I get to see many beautiful quilts and as many pretty fabrics, but occasionally I get this one quilt that rings all my bells.  I received a parcel with two quilts, but could not get batting locally. I did not open it immediately as I had a couple of quilts already open, just waiting for batting. Being bored one weekend, I gave in to the urge to open the parcel and saw this absolutely stunning table runner.  It was small enough for me to decide to use some of my own remnant batting and get going with this.

Not being in a hurry to quilt anything else, I had time to think about the design and motifs and took my time deciding on this.  Most of the time, I feel rushed to finish a quilt to satisfy the customer, eagerly waiting for their completed product.  This little runner is a perfect example of what can be done when one is not rushed to finish.

Sadly, I finished this way too fast, due to the small size, and now have to wait for batting to do another quilt.

Group mystery in green

This is the third quilt by a member of one group who made a mystery in 2024. It is in lovely autumn colours.

Floral squares

This quilter made this quilt for her mom with soft mint-coloured fleece as the backing. I am sure it would be much appreciated and enjoyed with winter creeping up on us.

Group mystery quilt

This is the second of one group’s mystery quilts for 2024. I finished quilting the first one on 2 March of this year.

How different these two look simply because of the fabrics used. The first one is all pastels, while this one is bright and bold.

I again used my own motif, the one I doodled for the quilt done on 16 April, but added another little plume and the odd loop to travel to the next area.

Another pillow sham

 Oops! I forgot to post about this one.

This is from the same quilt maker as the previous two shams, and on this one, a simple ribbon edge-to-edge motif was done.

Protea print quilt

I met this quilter the first time just after I hatched a premature chicken whose eggshell was trampled by the hen.  This was early December, and I didn’t know if it would survive the night.

Now she is all grown, very demanding and inquisitive and a very special part of our pet family.

I finished this protea print, a gift to a co-worker of the quilt maker.

Scatter cushion shams… I think

Two smaller tops, I believe the smallest I’ve ever quilted, came my way. I can only imagine these would be used to make shams for scatter cushions. I picked up a little difference in the piecing between the two, but it is not my job to judge, and I always believed a completed project is way better than a perfect project.

Interlocking runner

There, I thought the previous quilt would be my last for a while, and then I received a couple more. I am not complaining, though.

This quilt maker made several quilts throughout her quilting time, but never got them quilted, and she seems to have decided to have them finished now.

The colours and border on this runner would be suitable for a Christmas table.  I, unfortunately, did not ask her what she intended when she made this.

Stars in pink and purple

 This grandmother made a quilt for her teenage granddaughter, and I felt so ashamed, as the last quilts I made for any of my grandkids were when they were babies or toddlers. I’ve attempted to piece a quilt again, but the mundane straight-line quarter-inch stitching got to me, and I realised that the freedom to move the machine to create motifs was far more fun. I think I should simply stick to free-motion quilting.

Got up at an ungodly hour the morning I was due to start this, and with hubby still asleep, I watched an episode of a series I started watching the previous day, but had a pencil and scrap paper on hand and doodled quilting motifs while watching.  I got to create one that I knew would work as an edge-to-edge and decided to give it a try on this quilt.

The colour on this photo is not the best and a better picture can be seen on my Gallery page.

Teal hexagon wall hanging

This is the last of the five quilts in the same pattern I’ve done lately. As much as I ran out of ideas on motifs to quilt each one to make them look different, I also realised I love the process. I can never guess the outcome until the very last stitch and the quilt are taken off the frame.

The Bothaville quilt maker will come to the city today and fetch her 3 quilts. With this done, I can phone the quilter of this one and have her arrange for it to be fetched by courier. Then I only have one more quilt left to do.

Positive quilt

This quilter had strips left from a previous project. She decided, “Waste not, want not,” and used these in a brand-new quilt. She says the wastage from the previous quilt turned into a positive when making this one.

Hexagon wall-hanging in green

 This is number 4 of 5, and after watching videos, I hoped to do something different.  I trust the quilt-maker will be satisfied.

Hexagon wall-hanging in blue

This is number three of quilts received from the same pattern, and I still have two more left. I ran out of ideas to make them all look somewhat different, so I got up before 4 a.m. and used this time to watch some YouTube videos for inspiration, and I got just that. I am always amazed at how many tips one can find on the internet and how things you already knew can take on a whole new look in different quilts.

Here are close-ups of the border and centre of this quilt.