Monday, December 21, 2009

Bound for TX and SC

My longarm quilting has not slowed down just because Christmas is 4 days away. There's a lady in TX whipping up the last of her presents, and dare I say at the very last minute. I initially didn't think I'd get to these until after the holidays, but when they arrived and I had nothing else to do, I got them quilted and back into the mail. This first one is lap sized and is all from Gobble Gobble prints. She sent me a sketch of a meandering loopy-leafy pattern with pumpkins in it. Yes, PUMPKINS. I gasped and had to sit on the thought of how I'd quilt pumpkins nicely on the quilt. Then after a suitable waiting period, I made a 2-3" template, strategically marked 32 of these on the quilt and carefully did the meandering fill to connect with all of them. It worked marvelously! There are 2 pumpkins per 12" block, carefully placed in the same larger blocks.
It is a bit more evident on the back. The backing shows the quilting very well because it is so dark.
Her other one is what I call "Stars Fell on Texas", or the Red White & Blue Stars quilt. It's very much in Americana fabrics, and she specifically asked for meandering stars. I started this in a great variagated blue thread, but quickly abandoned it when it became a pain in my ass with thread breaks. The cottons often are harder to tension, but that coupled with being variagated was my demise.
I ended up using a 50wt navy blue polyester. It was a tad hard to see quilting, but is much more user friendly.
And bound for SC, is really a very girly and pretty quilt. It was made all from vintage sheets (I think). If not vintage sheets, then all vintage fabrics. It's what I coin a "Gramma's quilt". I just love these old-fashioned prints. It wasn't that impressive just as a top, but once quilted, I fell in love. It's soft & snuggly, and so pretty. I can't wait to see how Michele binds it. It's not my best picture becasue I took it in the dark, but I wanted it to show the wonderful texture of the quilting. It will wash up so soft & crinkly!!

Next up...Beth's cuter-than-ever Christmas quilt. Stay tuned, and have a fun week!

4 comments:

marlene@ByTheSeam said...

All wonderful quilts but the one with the vintage fabric is terrific. Wonderful job on the quilting.

Rhonda said...

Your long-arm work is excellent. My favorite is quilt with the pumpkin quilting. You are GOOD!!!!!

black bear cabin said...

more beautiful quilting! i LOVE the quilted pumpkins...wonderful work! :) im sure she will love them too!

calicodaisy said...

You are really finding your way with that machine! I finished one of two quilt tops last night. So, after I can organize the backing, I'll be sending another! I blogged about you today, so you'll have to stop by. "Gramma's Quilt" -- I'm glad you named my quilt. That makes it extra special! -- michele