Rural Jardin Stars Quilt

I have been so in love with this quilt since I first laid eyes on the fabric. It's been one of the ones that is taking me the longest to finish. The top was finished last fall. Perhaps I want to keep it around as long as I can since it is intended to give to a friend.

My dear friend lives about 4 hours away and invited me to come visit next weekend! It's the first time I will see her since I finished the quilt top, and the second time I'll see her since I told her I was making her a quilt. How can I come empty handed? I definitely want to give it to her in person.

So today I got a backing at my local quilt shop and cleared the living room floor to baste it. (And caress it...) Then stare at it and try to decide how to quilt it!

I'm taking a break and resting my aching shoulders now while I blog. Here is a picture of what I decided to do. Something different again for me, and I really like it! Here's a peek:


I'm quilting "in the ditch" around each star. Tedious and tiring wrestling it on my little machine (the quilt is 70 inches by 70 inches) but really fun. Wish me luck to get it done by Friday!!

Central Park Zigzag Baby Quilt

This is what I was quilting today! Look! No straight lines!



However, I must, must, MUST learn to pull up my bobbin thread (especially when my top thread breaks and I have to restart) when stippling, because THIS happened more than once:



Guess what else I did for, like, the first time? Sewed through my finger. Yup, I was wondering when that was going to happen. Sounds like it is most commonly done while free motioning. I can see why! Wow. Multiple things happening at once! Guess I need a bit more practice?

Quilts at Work!

Some quilts in my house doing what they do best, being loved and used. Here they are made into a tent by my 6 year old for my 2 year old to play in.

Fox Trails Charm Quilt

Working on a simple, simple charm baby quilt from cute, cute Fox Trails fabrics from Riley Blake.  I can't stop straight line quilting a quarter inch from the seams.  It's my favourite way to quilt, what can I say?

William Morris King Size Charm Quilt

This quilt I finished last year, but haven't yet shared it.

I love the designer William Morris, and when I discovered last year that Moda had produced reproductions of his prints, I immediately had to have them. However, at that time, about the only thing I could find was charm squares left of the lines Morris Tapestry, The Morris Workshop, and a little bit of yardage from a Morris Garden. These lines were all designed by Barbara Brackman, whose work I love.



Since the prints are quite busy and so many different colours, I didn't think they looked right when put against each other. So I decided to sash each square in Kona Espresso. The next question was how to quilt a huge king size on my little Bernina. So I divided the quilt in 4 parts and used a "Quilt as you Go" method to put the 4 pieces together. It worked perfectly with my design since it had so much sashing.



I backed it in a coffee coloured flannel sheet and bound it with some blue yardage from the Morris Workshop line found on Etsy.

PS. Barbara Brackman and Moda have produced another line of Morris reproductions called Morris and Company which is available now in yardage and pre cuts and it's BEAUTIFUL!