Camouflage fabric quilt

The last of the quilts sent to me from Nelspruit, some 800 kilometres from where I stay, was returned to the quilter on Monday.  The next quilt was only booked for Wednesday, giving me a day off on Tuesday.  Cleaned the house and then decided I could treat myself to some sushi for supper.  One day less to cook and I’ve been craving this for days now.

I also had time to binge-watch From Scratch on Netflix but even though it had raving reviews from other watchers, it was not my cup of tea. I am not into sad love stories.

I have this morning off again and will enjoy breakfast with a friend.

This quilt was made from old garments as a memory quilt for the parents of a young man who lost his life in a car accident.  There are apparently two more to come for the same family.

Applique sampler

I do not get sampler quilts very often but they do remain my absolute favourite to quilt for the simple reason that I don’t have to repeat one quilting motif in several blocks to give the quilt a uniform feeling.  With a sampler, such as this applique quilt, I can go bonkers and do something different in every block.  I just loved working on this one.

I only took photos of some of the blocks to try and show the fun I had.

It’s all about the rose

This quilter not only used rose-printed fabric as the main attraction, but even some of the matching fabric had roses or other flowers.  Then she placed 4 rose applique blocks in the corners to get this amazing look.

This quilt will be sent to Australia as a gift for her daughter. I chose a flower for the edge-to-edge design in most of the quilt and then just ruler work around the appliqued roses.

Abundant hearts

The second quilt where Waffle Weave was used as backing, this one too worked equally well.  Here, however, I did custom quilting with plenty of detail.

Tester

A shop owner from a nearby town wants to have soft cuddle throws made and sent fabric to test.

I am not sure what the name of the fabric is but it was a nightmare to work with, way too much stretch and movement in both ways and I had to admit I don’t see my way open to quilt with it.

Precious in pink

When longarm quilting for others, one gets to see so many different and beautiful quilts and I realise I won’t live long enough to try them all.

I was really drawn to this interesting setting of blocks but knowing how impatient I am I also knew that I would never get around to even figure out the pattern, let alone make it.

I think this is a stunning piece.

The quilter used Waffle Weave as backing and I just loved the look and feel this gave to the quilt.

Strip twist

This was a UFO I discovered in my sewing room almost two years after we moved to the new house.  I however had little free motion quilting to do over December and I tackled this one to finally finish it.

I am extremely proud of the quilt I made using only scraps from my collection, in keeping with Bonnie Hunter's philosophy of using what you already have.

Disappearing 9-patch

Another small quilt was fully completed by the same quilter who did the quilt in my previous post.  The other amazing thing is that she wants these custom quilted, so not just a matter of doing something fast to get the three layers together.

Breakwater or Dolos quilt

This is an offshore structure to break waves as a form of coastal management and I presume this was made during a technique class.

The one thing about this quilter is that no matter how small the quilt turned out, she will have it quilted and fully completed.

Butterfly print quilt

To create this darling little throw, the quilter used a butterfly print alternated with light pastel-coloured fabric.

Rainbow quilt

This little carefully laid out rainbow effect quilt was also a breeze to quilt.  We decided on ‘n cloud like motif to go with the name.

Disappearing 9-patch

I got two quilts booked for Wednesday but on Tuesday late afternoon a quilter phoned to know if she could quickly drop her quilt off by me.  She planned to go away for the Easter weekend and said she was in no hurry to have the quilt finished, she just needed it out of her house while gone.

She dislikes dense or custom quilting and meandering at a large scale is her favourite, so before the two booked quilts arrived, I could load and finish this.

This easy, almost loose meandering, was a welcome relief after the gruelling almost 20 hours spent on the two tractor quilts.

Tractor panel quilt number 2

This quilt differs from the previous one in that only the larger centre tractor was used with 4 quilt blocks at the top and 4 more at the bottom.  It was also a little smaller than the previous quilt.

Here it shows some of the detail in the sky.  The completed quilt can be seen on the Gallery page.

Tractor panel quilt number 1

I received 2 quilts made from the same panel and although very much alike there are some differences.  This one, the larger of the two, used 3 parts of the panel with 5 quilt blocks at the bottom.

As can be seen, plenty of detail was added and I can’t remember when last I was this nervous to quilt anything.  This quilter came to show me these some 3 months ago, already quilted by someone else and she was not happy.  She then undertook to unpick everything and wanted me to redo it.  Honestly, I could not see much wrong with the quilting and I said to her I don’t believe I can do any better.

There is this unwritten rule in longarm quilting: if you make a tiny mistake, just go on and if you finish the quilt and can still see or find your mistake, only then do you unpick and redo.

With this quilt, however, every tiny spot where I missed a ditch or a line felt like the end of the world and I was convinced it would be the first thing the quilter would notice.  I stuck to my unwritten rule and I could hardly spot mishaps afterwards.  So, if this quilter plans to scrutinise the quilting, she surely will find mistakes but seriously, then she should do it herself.  I did my best.

This picture shows some detail on and surrounding the tractor.

Third pink and white squares quilt

This quilter started off my quilting for 2024 when she brought me two similar but smaller quilts just as the New Year started.  There is something special about the first quilt in a new year – as if it is the start of something new and wonderful.

These were made for two little girls in her family but when she gifted them, one older sister wished for something similar, as she fell in love with the smaller ones.

The quilter did not let this request go by without fulfilling her wish and made her a larger quilt.

Grandmothers' flower garden

I’ve seen heaps of these, either in the process of being made or as completed as small runners or other small projects; I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in this size, completed.

This garden was huge and I think the quilter can be proud of such an amazing end result.

Seed packet

I received this all-Kaffe Fassett fabric quilt last week.  It was a welcome change in my current daily routine. I finished a scrappy quilt at the beginning of this year (I started the previous year) but it seemed like the spark I needed to get my sewing room sorted and get to piece again.

Whilst decluttering the cupboards I came across a UFO, not sure when this was started, but I made it a priority to finally finish this. I only need roughly 7 more blocks to make a queen-size quilt and although the pattern truly baffles my brain occasionally, I am enjoying the process. More about this one later.

This quilter dislikes dense quilting and for this seed packet quilt only requested large-scale meandering.

Jelly roll roses

The quilter used a jelly roll, with mostly rose prints, as well as the other matching fabric and just by adding a couple of borders created a beautiful quilt for her granddaughter.  This quilt can even be reversed with the back being just as nice.

Crib quilt

This quilter needed to make a neutral quilt for a crib as the gender of this little one is not yet known.  She used pastel-coloured sheeting and this quilt can easily be reversed as the backing was also pieced.

Second pink squares quilt

This is number two which I referred to in the previous post.  I changed the motif to a water puddle look, just to have a difference between the two quilts.

Mostly pink squares quilt

I received two very similar quilts, using similar colours as well. These are either for twins or two girls in the same household.

On this, I only did the trusted meander as the quilter was quite satisfied with the motif.

Royal squares quilt

Not having done any quilting during December to allow myself more family (and cooking) time, I however had time – the first in years (in fact October 2021) to piece a quilt again.  This too allowed me to get to know my sewing room after the move a little better.  This led to me rearranging my cupboards and what interesting things I discovered!  Yes, most I knew I bought but I either could not find them after the move or forgot about them.

I tried to find all the extra wide backings and these filled 2 racks in one cupboard.

While I needed 2,5” strips for this quilt, I also gathered all my previously cut strips, measured them, and rolled them neatly into a basket.

Finally, I finished this scrappy quilt and it turned out good.