Carol's Latte quilt.

Last week one of my customers came over to Borderland Fabrics in Jedburgh to pick up her quilt. Carol and her Husband travel all the way from Glasgow to bring quilts for me to quilt and then to pick up quilts again.

This quilt was an educational exercise, as Carol was teaching herself to use her embroidery machine on Sateen fabric...nice and slippery it was too!

The caffe latte coloured sateen bordered the cream sateen blocks with the fabrics right side up and reversed and with alternate cream cotton blocks. Twin needle work surrounded the large embroidered central motif.

Loading the quilt onto the longarm was a little tricky with the slippery sateen fabric, the slippery side of the cream fabric was against the wadding/batting. I used flowing feather swags with piano keys in the borders, a spineless feather in the sashings and then feathers and more feathers to pin down the blocks. I opted for continuous curves in the twin needle setting triangles and some swirls and curls around the feathered hearts.

It was a really happy day when this quilt came off the frame, Carol was thrilled to see the quilt finished and couldn't believe how beautiful it looked as she never thought that it would ever be a finished quilt, she named it 'Latte'! Oh, and I think Carol has that embroidery machine stuff down patt now don't you?

Vi's Beautiful Baltimore...

Warning this is a photo heavy post, if you have an aversion to quilting photos turn away now.... :)

Bet you are all still here?

Again, I've been very privileged to quilt a very special quilt, how lucky am I?

Vi's  quilt was already a beauty in Baltimore style with lots of negative space for quilting. The spaces were large and needed to be broken down into smaller areas. The colours of the applique are just the colours I would have chosen myself, lovely purples, pinks and lilacs with a gentle relaxing green moving through and around the quilt. I was asked to quilt a 'ghost' flower border throughout the large pillow tuck area so first needed to draw out a design, I'm sure that Vi would have had this in her pattern but by the time I realised that I needed it I didn't want to waste anymore time waiting for the pattern to come in the post so I drew one out to match the other borders. I marked it directly on the quilt with my own fabrication of a light box light box and purple air erasable marker. I didn't want to use any kind of a marker that would leave anymarks that needed to be soaked or washed to get them out, in my experience the only reliable marker that will disappear quickly is a Madeira purple marker.....but....you have to work fast as depending on the fabric and atmospheric conditions the marks can disappear in anything from 30 minutes to 3-4 days.... I drew the pattern, marked the pattern, loaded the quilt and quilted that design straight away, no messing around just in case those marks were only 30 minute marks!

I then carried on and outlined stitched all of the applique adding a few stitches inside the flowers where necessary to give a bit of added definition. I used Superior Monolon in the needle and white Glide Magnaglides in the bobbin. For the quilting designs I changed to a cream So Fine thread in the needle.

 

There are roses, sweetpeas, pansies, rosehips, rose of Sharon, hearts, wreaths, bouquets and posies, flowers of every kind.
I wrapped the feathers in and around the flowers, in and over the crosshatching filling in with pebbles, crosshatching and straight lines where needed.

My favorite block, I know I shouldn't have favorites....

Vi quickly bound the quilt and sent me photos of it in pride of place in her home, it's already been well admired and praised. Thank you Vi it's a very special quilt!