California Bound

Not me, unfortunately! I'm due to go somewhere, but my summer adventures are not that adventurous. These client quilts are trekking their way back to their Napa owner, as I type this. She has been a client of mine for many years, and always sends beautifully made, creative work. It's a joy to quilt them. This post has several quilts shown, because you know I have been very negligent in posting. The list of excuses for why is exhaustive. And boring.

This first quilt gets the "most creative use for yo-yo's". These are Dresden plates, with yo-yo's appliqued around the center opening. The fabrics are mostly reproduction.

 I wanted to break up the background a bit, but still keep the quilting relative continuous to manage the cost. The fabric of the outer border has ribbons on it, so I chose a ribbon-meander fill to go closest to the plates. It's like a 2-line stipple (but not as unattractive as a basic stipple).

 The swirl fill that surrounds the scalloped frames which surround the plates is actually quilted in a sea-foam green SoFine thread. I wanted to give a subtle contrast to the background. Because it is 50 wt thread, it does not overwhelm the background.

 I love the paisley pattern placed in the pink narrower border. I saw something similar done on somebody else's blog, and sat down and and drafted half a dozen ideas of my own. It is freehand and unmarked, and fills quickly.

Here is another of her quilts...more repro fabrics. She mentioned she likes feathers and I had not feathered the previous quilt so this one got lots of them. To manage costs again, the squares were done with continuous curve, which can be quilted continuously and fast. The time was spent on the SID and the feathers.

 For visual interest, feathers alternate directions. This quilt is a bed quilt that should be nice and snugly, as it is not overquilted.

Somebody is going to ask about battings and thread...they always do. Both quilts are 80/20 batting only, but threads on the white...I think a 40wt Glide.

These next 2 quilts belong to the same client but they were completed a couple months ago and returned. I just failed to share them, so here goes. 

I told you she does pretty applique, and this one is no exception. I cannot remember the exact size, but somewhere near 45" square.

 Thread is anybody's guess now (code for "I forgot!"). I combined simple motifs that show on the print. One of my pet-peeves is when a busy pattern is quilted on top of a busy print so that neither is visible. The border print only needed simple lines.

Generally, I probably would not feather on a floral print, but these simple and larger molar feathers seemed to look OK. The shapes are framed out to set them off.

 The center medallion of applique is all SID, and also got some very basic top stitching on the larger patches.

 This is one of my favorite whimsical quilts. It is also another crazy use for yo-yo's if you didn't have one (or should i call them barnacles?).

 I just wanted to give the background an ocean-like feeling. I also wanted both areas to have distinctly different but connected quilting - so some gentle movement in the middle, and wavelike action and pebbles around the outside.

 The fish each got some air bubbles added at the very end in a turquoise thread. I marked these using a template, and freehand quilted them. The circles are stitched 2 or 3 times to deepen the line of stitching.

So, there you have it. There are some of the custom quilts that have come in and out of my door recently. I have been working on my personal quilt off and on as well the past 2 months. It's a painfully slow ordeal, but I think I am coming closer to having the quilting done. Today I did 2 E2Es (a markedly productive day for me considering how my days usually go), and tomorrow I have the start of another custom planned. As soon as I muster the patience to rip out some errant circles on my next show quilt, I will be ready for the final push on that one. It will debut in early 2020, but finishing it will involve a goodly amount of time even after I decide that the quilting is done (when I self-impose the "you are done" and cut off the excess that facilitates loading on the longarm!!).

My kids are out of school at the end of the week, and tomorrow starts 1/2 days and finals for my older two (otherwise meaning that my life is over for a while). Hopefully they all continue to sleep late, giving me my morning quilting window. Oy!