Radiant in red

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.

Owl sampler

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.

All squares baby quilt

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.

Squares in blues

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.

Sampler quilt

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?!

All solid printed tops

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.

Doll print

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.

Alternating colours in 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.

Travelling fabric in autumn colours

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.

 

Group mystery quilt

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.

Quilt in autumn colours

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.

Quilt with woodland animals prints

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.

Quilt with fish print fabric

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.

Nine patch quilt

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.

On the beach

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.