Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2012

Amy over at Amy's Creative Side is again hosting the Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2012 Thank you Amy!

This is my third time of posting a quilt for Amy's show and tell, why don't you post a quilt too or at least pop on over to check out all of the wonderful eye candy!

I'm a longarm quilter living in the Scottish Borders, I only just recently started quilting for customers, but today I am showcasing the last quilt that I quilted for myself

I had a love hate relationship with the quilt right from the start, I lost my motivation during the piecing, even when I loaded the quilt onto my longarm I didn't feel inspired. That was before Christmas last year, I stabilised the quilt and did all the stitch in the ditch work then I had to take the quilt off the frame to do more pressing customer work and it was into February before I got back to it.
I never know what I'm going to quilt, something just comes to me once the quilt is on the frame and the design emerges.  I never intended to quilt hearts, I'm not a heartsy kind of a person, in my defence it was the week of Valentine's Day, now I like it and am keeping it..... this is definitely a large Queen sized quilt and is now on our bed!

 Its a jewel box design that I drafted in EQ so that the borders were an actual design  and colour element.  Pinks and greens always look fresh and clean. To get the scrappy look for the jewels I used part of a layer cake.
The quilt finished at 90 x 90  I used Hobby poly batting and Glide thread in the needle and bobbin. There are four different styles of hearts all freemotion quilted into the quilt.

Check out the colourful batik on the back, it's a lovely match to my duvet cover and pillow cases.

The original post is here

Thank you so much for visiting.......

Have a Heart.....

Remember this?

My jewel box quilt designed in EQ .....

After loading this quilt before Christmas and doing the ditch work, I had to take this one off the frame to do more pressing quilting. I've eventually got it quilted, with hearts...I never intended that...go figure.... but just in time for Valentines Day.

Terry Twists in the 'jewels' and whymsical hearts Jamie Wallen style in the 'boxes'....that's freehand hearts...no marking...every which way?  With a longarm you can't turn your fabric so you have to learn to quilt your design from all angles so when us longarmers say we are practicing that's what we mean...you got to lean to do everything from different angles. I did roughly draw out the hearts in the green border though and they got a bit of McTavishing in the middles! The white background fabric has mini feathered curls and the green background has stipple....you'll never believe that's the first time I ever used stipple in a quilt.  I left that green border till last and by the time I got to it I needed this quilt finished so I used stipple for speed but I do like the different texture it gives. The little white boxes in the border have more freemotion hearts. There's a scallopy curve with even more hearts in the red border with piano keys.....there's a lot of work in that quilt.

I really like the size of this quilt, it's 90" x 90", it's a great size on that queen/double size bed with a little room for shrinkage when washed....I recently said I don't like square quilts, well, this one is square and I like it.
I used Glide thread top and bottom and Hobbs poly as my roll was big enough but also because it's white and I wanted to keep the white fabric looking bright white.

By the time you reach the end of this post I think you will realise that I also like to take photographs...lots and lots of photographs.....

I've had a love/hate relationship with this quilt right from the beginning, then I doubted my decision to use that strange coloured batik backing but in the end it does add another dimension to the quilt and it matches my duvet and pillow cases perfectly, I'm going to keep this one for myself for a change for summer, well, my first freemotioned quilt has been on our bed for a long time, so a change is in order but I'll never get rid of my first real quilt, it will be back on the bed again soon!

Updated 15/02/2012...

My Quilt made 'Quilt of the Week' on MQResource....Thanks so much Suzanne and Jo Ann.

You'll just have to believe me?

It's now too big for my small design wall and my empty floor space so you'll just have to believe me that I finished piecing the whole of my 'jewel box' quilt.....

I know I could have done the pieced border quicker with strip piecing but you know I am pleased with how the border came together and 'seams' more accurate pieced in the more traditional way.

I also love how Karen colour co-ordinated her latest book to match my quilt....lol....

Not the crown jewels...

I know, I'm conspicuous by my absence at the moment but I have been busy...a bit of quilting and a bit of piecing....I've nearly got the body of the 'jewel box' pieced...putting in that green border design threw me a bit, geeze I'm easily confused...lol...but I did get the knack eventually! The rows in the bottom half are stitched but the top half is still blocks so there's still a little room to manoeuvre. On to the pieced border next..it will be a big double!

In my next quilt related post I will let you know what I've been quilting, so watch this space.

Back to Quilting!

It's been a long while since I did anything to do with quilting....but I did recently take the plunge and design an easy quilt in EQ7....I like simple piecing which will showcase the finished quilting design! I think this is a jewel box or stepping stone design.

Chose my fabrics.....I'm using a layer cake to give a more scrappy look...there is still lots left over for another project.

Even used my 'Go' cutter for the first time proper....

And cut out the body of the quilt......

Then made a start on the piecing.....

I think I may change my mind and go with a darker pink outer border to give a warmer look???