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.
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.
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.
I finished this protea print, a gift to a co-worker of the quilt maker.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is number 4 of 5, and after watching videos, I hoped to do something different. I trust the quilt-maker will be satisfied.
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.
I thought to myself that I should do this small(er) table runner next, thinking I needed something that would finish up fast, but alas, all that could go wrong in longarm quilting did go wrong on this little runner: thread shredding, breakage, thread nests on the back, tension problems, and horrible eyelashes, to name but a few.
I unpicked
more than I quilted, and I am still not satisfied with the
quilting. After taking it off the frame,
calling it a day, I had to do intense problem-solving. Whatever I did of all the things done, one
was right, as now the machine works like a charm again.
Phew! This is the last of the 3 quilts from Bothaville, and a combination of edge-to-edge and custom work was done. The reason for this was that no matter what colour thread I chose for the centre, it would look horrible on the border and the medallion sashing or even the other way around.
This is the second of the 3 quilts from Bothaville I received last Tuesday. The piecer intends to use this as a couch blanket and only needs edge-to-edge quilting.
Another quilt I cheated on regarding the date and time received, but I knew I would be able to finish this one fast. The maker knew exactly what she wanted, and I had nothing to plan or think about.
The other
reason for popping this one in early was that it made the pile in my guest
bedroom look less, as I get nervous just opening the door to the room.
Now off to
start the others, still waiting.
With this one, I broke my own rule of finishing quilts in order of the dates and time (if I got more than one quilt a day) I received it.
After the
intense custom quilting on the Owl sampler, I just needed a quick finish, so I
popped this all-red and white quilt on the frame. It was also the first time I got to try out
my newly fitted bobbin winder, and it worked like a charm. As a rule, I use pre-wound bobbins, but these are only available in the most basic colours (in South Africa). When receiving a somewhat different colour quilt, I must use my winder to match the thread to the fabric.
What a week this has been. After finishing the “all squares baby quilt”, I went to Bernina to fetch the bobbin winder they ordered, and with a handy hubby, it was fitted in a jiffy. As I stopped at the shop, I had a call from a new quilter from Bothaville who saw my work at another quilter and asked if I’d quilt for her as well. I said yes, and she then said they would be in Bloemfontein the next day, which they were, but I only expected one quilt; I was pleasantly surprised to see she brought 3!
It's not that three quilts are all that strange, but by then, I knew I was also expecting quilts from three other ladies from out of town, and when their quilts arrived, they had four in
total.
A local
quilter warned me she’d finish a quilt for a friend on Thursday, which she also
did and just before she came, another local quilter brought another quilt. To say it lightly, I was somewhat
overwhelmed….. actually still am. Most
of these are custom quilting, and what makes it harder is that 3 of the quilts
used the same pattern as one I did a while ago.
Guess I’ll have to come up with different ideas for every quilt.
Decided I
can only do my best when I can, and tackled this, the first quilt. Surely the name is not Owl sampler, but the
owl caught my attention when I opened it up, so I simply named it.
This quilt arrived via courier on Thursday, just before our long weekend in South Africa and my sister visited me. It had to stay on the back burner until Sunday after my guests left. Initially, I had no idea what to quilt but as with most quilts, even if you have an idea, it might change relatively fast once you get going.
In the end,
I think the motifs chosen worked well.
With this last quilt, after the influx of quilting, I had during February and March, I noticed my bobbin winder not working. Having my machine for more than 7 years I suspected it not to last forever although I mostly used pre-wound bobbins. I also knew I did plenty of quilting daily, so I thought it was time to give the machine a good full-body treatment and check if I didn’t have any thread or lint caught up in the winder.
I got a rather unpleasant surprise when the machine was opened up and I noticed the cables to the winder were cut and definitely not when I owned it. I then too remembered the heaps of problems I had after the initial purchase and several so-called ‘components’ having to be replaced. Now those were luckily still under guarantee and, as far as I know, I purchased a new machine. Now with the cut wires, I am seriously suspecting a refurbished machine was sold to me, with Bernina, the local distributor, hoping I’d never find out. I am sure Grace USA is totally unaware of this and when I mentioned it to the local technician in Johannesburg, he just chuckled, not denying it, not arguing or trying to prove me wrong. I am really disappointed in Bernina South Africa.
Anyway, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and with external winders (on my Pfaff domestic machines) I am still able to wind bobbins, if needed and I finished the all squares in blue by doing just that.
I just received a quilt all the way from Nelspruit but with a long weekend coming up and me having my sister visiting, not much quilting will happen until next week.
This is an Annie du Toit, a local designer, pattern made by the daughter-in-law of a quilter who was once renowned for her quilting knowledge but sadly lost her life in a car accident in 2009. I was however glad to see the quilting tradition continuing in the family.
The maker
just wanted an edge-to-edge quilt, and it turned out to be one of the smaller quilts I did with the most unpicking ever. The quilt has 3-D blocks with points and triangles that are loose. More than once, I stitched over these. The quilter did not mind, but I am sure she would not have appreciated it when I
quilted the triangle in the wrong direction.
When I told
this to the maker, she replied “if you don’t learn to love unpicking, don’t
start quilting". How true is that?!
I just finished the little doll printed top and got 3 more similar ideas. The printed tops had to be layered with batting and backing and turned into quilts by adding the stitching. These went fast as they were not big and had no seams that I had to be careful with.
This is from the same quilter in the previous post, meant for her little granddaughter and was a solid piece of fabric with little dolls printed on it. Again, she did not want any detailed quilting so we opted for squares.
This was for a new customer who disliked any patterns or motifs and just wished to have something as plain as possible and not too dense. Large scale meandering to the rescue.
The fabric used in this quilt has an interesting story. A friend of a quilter gifted her a jelly roll in autumn colours. She kept it for years, not really knowing what to do with it, and eventually gave it to another quilter in her group.
The latter
quilter then made this interestingly pieced quilt and returned the top to the
original quilter. I then had the honour
to quilt it and afterwards, the completed quilt will be gifted back to the
friend who originally gave quilter number 1 the jelly roll.
One of our local quilt groups worked on a mystery quilt in 2024 and one of the quilters brought her queen-sized quilt to be quilted.
The colours
were perfect and so relaxing to work with. Whenever I entered the frame room, just looking at the fabric brought me calmness.
The third quilt using this pattern, with the loveliest autumn colours and for this I did the echo paisley or teardrop, which I haven’t used as an edge-to-edge pattern on any previous quilt. I have used it in smaller sections of other quilts, but never covered the whole quilt and it worked well.
Phew! With this post my blog is finally up to date again. I've started to share my quilts on Facebook and neglected the blog. Now I feel much better.
As said, the same pattern as the previous one, just with woodland animals printed on some blocks. For this one, thinking of a forest, I chose the leaves free motion pattern with the odd loop to travel to the next space.
This specific pattern must be the all-time favourite for this quilter as she uses it frequently and in fact, the next three quilts I’ll be sharing are all the same pattern, just using different prints on fabric.
I again
used the free motion water motif as I felt it suited the little fish printed on
some of the fabric blocks.
Apart from beautiful, this quilt was massive. I tried to take a photo of the completed quilt but it hung over the queen-sized bed and touched the floor!
The colours
used, however, were striking with the quiet background to tone it all down.
In several blue batik fabrics, this was made by one of our local quilt shop owners and looking at the quality of her work, I wonder why she makes so few quilts.
She has all
the best machines, stunning fabric and resources available to her, but one quilt
in a year is quite a lot.
Therefore, I came to the conclusion that she is simply lazy! (sorry
Marie)
Having so
many printed fabrics would have been a waste of not only her money but my time
to try and do custom quilting. The
motifs would have disappeared, and with the blue colour and beach name, I did an
edge-to-edge water motif.
This must have been the tiniest hand-embroidered blocks I’ve ever seen on a quilt and so extremely well done; I had to touch a couple of blocks as I thought the pictures were printed on the fabric.
I really
had fun doing this one.
This one was sent from the city of diamonds, Kimberley and a neatly pieced sampler in shades of blue with a pop of shimmer in one of the fabrics.
The quilter
only wanted an edge-to-edge and something floral, so I chose the clover
flower.
After a week of no quilting, it suddenly streamed in. First this divine bunny quilt all the way from Nelspruit. I couldn’t find pictures of log cabin block motifs or those I saw, I already did on other quilts, so I had to put on my clever hat and come up with something different. Luckily, doing plenty of tiny pebbles made me see that one of the wheels on my frame did not make proper contact with the rails. Handy hubby came to the rescue and now I feel like the master of pebbles again.
This was
made by a grandma for her adult grandson and if I don’t have this wrong, he
chose the colours.
This was a
variation of the Ribbon Pole quilt by Rob Appel and the maker apparently had
several sessions with the seam ripper.
For this, I chose the "Loop-de-loop" as an allover design.
It
turned out rather striking.
The quilter made the centre sampler many moons ago and when she heard of someone hinting to own a quilt, she decided to add plenty of borders to make it larger.
I love
doing a sampler and with all these borders, I would not have minded to have
this hanging in my frame room as an example of all the different motifs that
can be done in a border.
As much as
I quilt, I do occasionally run out of ideas.
This quilter sent me a message, wanting to book a quilt for mid-January, and told me she had made a quilt for Stella’s nanny. Now I see a lot of quilters and yes, I have conversations with all of them, be it about their families, friends, quilt groups or just things happening in our city. I do listen but sadly, I cannot always remember everything.
After
reading her message I thought who the heck was Stella and if she told me about
her, I would obviously not have taken it in properly.
Upon her
arrival with the quilt, I asked her about this Stella and it turned out to be
their rescue dog. I knew all about her
but I already have trouble remembering human names, so I never bothered to
memorise this name.
Whoever
Stella’s nanny is, is a very fortunate person to receive such a stunning
quilt.
