Table topper

I guess this quilt-maker did this in her group or as part of a technique class.  Now finished, she has no real use or plan for it, but still wanted it quilted and opted not to spend too much money on custom quilting, but just edge-to-edge quilting to keep the layers together.

I think this would look nice as a table topper.

Squares only

 

After the death of her husband, this quilter moved to a retirement village but also gave up quilting for a couple of years.  In her new community, she met a lady with some fabric who wished to make her daughter a quilt for Christmas.  The quilter then helped her cut the squares, have her piece the blocks and then assisted in joining the rows.

I just had to do the easy part and stitch the 3 layers together.  I must admit, after doing the previous dense quilting, having this one on the frame was a breeze.

Sampler quilt

I don’t think I’ve ever worked this long on any other quilt, but being a sampler, I loved every moment of it.  The quilt is large, with blocks that are big and plentiful. Whenever I have decided on a motif in an area, I have had to repeat it over and over, and it often felt as if the end of this quilt would never come.

This quilt also posed a couple of problems in that I found lots of puckering in the blocks themselves, as if the sashing around the blocks was cut too small, or it could even have been the diagonal sashing between the blocks.  I had to make a decision between keeping the sashing flat when quilting, moving the puckers to the blocks or keeping the blocks flat and allowing the puckers to gather in the sashing.

I planned rather dense quilting in both sets of sashing, so I decided to do less quilting in the blocks to move the puckers and give the illusion of loft instead of puckering.

As much as I enjoyed working on this, I am glad to finally have it off the frame.  I think my machine now needs plenty of TLC and a new needle.

Shop or class wall quilt

One of our local quilters will be moving to a coastal city towards the end of the year and has one extra-large spare room in her new house.  She intends to use this not only to teach quilting but also to sell fabric.  How fortunate are those people?

One of her quilting friends made her this beautiful quilt to put up against a wall, not only to show how the same block in different colours looks, but also how shifting a little bit can make a huge difference.

The recipient asked for not too dense custom quilting.

Sage green quilt

 The daughter of this quilt maker asked for a sage green quilt, and mom had no other choice but to oblige.

Zig zag solid fabric

This is the second fabric sent to me by the same quilter as mentioned in my previous post.  Hopefully, she feels better about her need for quilts and can further concentrate on the quilt she is currently working on, using a pattern.

Sleep print solid fabric

 This quilt maker, currently busy with a pattern that is time-consuming as she wants it as neat as possible, realised she needed two quilts for everyday and everywhere use and decided to simply purchase fabric with an appealing print and have me stitch through these.

This was the first fabric.

Table centrepiece

This is from the same quilter who made the previous quilt for the beach house.  She found pre-cut charm squares and decided to join them to make a little table centre piece.

Beach house coach quilt

This quilt maker was invited to visit a friend in a coastal city and decided to make her a quilt for her couch in their beach house.  We opted for a water free-motion pattern seeing that we don’t have waves in our province.

Denim combined squares

The maker of this walks by a satellite house on her daily route.  In South Africa, this is an orphanage in a more family-oriented set-up.  Each home has house parents with a couple of kids living under their care.

The maker saw the kids outside on the lawn and, with the help of another quilter in her quilting group, the two decided to make them a picnic blanket to sit on, outside.

A rather heart-warming gesture.

(Bad) memory squares

These pieced blocks have a long history dating back to 1998. For a while, I thought of digging up old memories, but then it turned out way too much to type. Bottom line is, this friend (not a quilter) went to the USA as an exchange student and saw quilts for the first time there.  These were made by her host family.

After returning, getting married and with two children, she went through a bad spell and made these blocks, sewn by hand, over telephone message paper squares and finally finished them this year.  All but perfect, but she is very proud of her quilt.

This was also my first introduction to what I knew then, as patchwork. I only about two years later, heard the term “quilting” and with this, pieced squares, my hobby started.

Royal squares

One of my favourite patterns, and I already made two of these, but this one was not done by me.  It was, however, nice to see a familiar and, in this case, beautifully pieced quilt.

Heaps of squares in this quilt. The maker even added more squares in the border.

Then she went ahead and made 2 pillow cases to match.

Painted blocks

A new mom asked family members to each paint her a block for the baby.  Mother-in-law then took these and turned them into a cute quilt.

 

Photo birthday quilt

This quilter and her family are celebrating a 70th birthday and have decided to make a quilt for the recipient, featuring photos of all the family members printed as blocks. 

On-point blocks

I finally took time to spend at my computer, the first time in a couple of weeks.  Our little frizzle laid an egg, and this time decided to stay on it.  Of all the spaces and places in this house, she decided to do it behind one of my computer screens.  Now, whenever I try to work at the computer, she makes the most horrible screeching sounds, which really make me feel unwanted.  I’ve tried to avoid the computer, but one can only wait this long before some things need to be attended to.  Today, I decided to just ignore her noises and get up to date at the PC.

I have a hair appointment this morning and am really looking forward to it.  I do cut my hair regularly, but it is simply cut and not at all in any style. I’ve worn it long, medium, short and even shaved.  I searched for short haircuts for older women, and I think I might be satisfied with the latest one I found.  Hoping for the best.

This quilter made two similar quilts previously and had enough fabric and/or blocks left to make this for her domestic helper.  Wonder if I offer to clean her house, I too, would be rewarded so generously?

Printed circle fabric

Although not pieced, I loved this fabric and its colours, and decided to stick to the circular patterns printed when I did the free-motion quilting.

To refer back to my previous post, the payment was made, for which I was extremely grateful.

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.