Memorial Quilt: Fallen Soldier

I have been working on a memorial quilt for the daughter of a Colonel who lost his life while serving in Iraq. 

When I received the box of clothes I was more than moved at the items that I had been sent. Included in the box was his favorite shirt (a red, white & blue Ralph Lauren cotton shirt), his camouflage jacket, a blue polo shirt and his dress uniform - in which he walked his daughter down the aisle when he gave her away at her wedding (black dress jacket & blue trousers with gold ribbon stripe.)

The quilt pattern is a Lone Star - which I think can be a very majestic pattern.

 

 There are feather swags between the points of the stars.

Each star point is made from the gold ribbed ribbon that went down the side of the dress pants. 

If there were any fabric remains the family had asked for a pillow or a doll. We had enough fabric for both. The pillow has many of the patches that I took off the camouflage jacket. The doll is made from some of the camouflage jacket and shirt material. Her hat is made from a cuff from the camouflage jacket and I added some gold buttons from the black dress jacket. My girls were cuckoo over this doll and kept coming to ask where the doll was, to stare at her AND asking when they would get a doll too.

The backing is flannel and the batting is wool. Even with the dense quilting the quilt was not stiff. Here is a shot of the back of the quilt for those of us who are obsessed with seeing the back of a quilt too!

Once the quilt was folded up ready to go home it looked so regal - I felt quite overwhelmed. I do hope that the family love it.

If you buy one thing this year ...

... it should be a couching foot.

Save your pennies or sell an arm or a leg. This thing is so much fun it should be outlawed!! (And yes this is a non smoker, non drinker, passionate free motion quilter talking - so I have a pretty low base to what 'fun' is!)

I went through my sketch book and tried pattern after pattern.

'What not to do' Quilt

Before I start ranting about this quilt I also want to say how much I have learnt from this quilt. Despite really struggling to finish it - but finish I did. I'm still not loving it - but I'm concentrating on the fact that it was a big learning experience for me.

Cloud 9 Cirrus Solids

I'm sure you have seen this advert for Cloud 9's range of Cirrus Solids. They are GORGEOUS colors and fabrics to touch. I was really taken with them when quilting this top - soft and vibrant.

Charity Quilt for Quilt Con

This was a challenge set by the Modern Quilt Guild. There was a particular color palette set & a style of quilt set - to play with grid work. (I found the post on Grid work pretty interesting on its own.)

I always enjoy reading the information that comes through from the Modern Quilt Guild. So when this challenge was announced I pretty much expressed interest in quilting a quilt for the charity challenge immediately (I do wonder that I perhaps mentioned too many times that it was only the quilting I was interested in!)

Memory Quilt: Toddler Dresses

Just to recap these toddler dresses were given to me to make a pillow. I couldn't bear to just cut chunks out of the dresses without using up all the material given to me - so I suggested a quilt as well.

I have had this idea of having an actual dress sewn to the middle of a quilt - as if in a picture frame for a while now. This quilt is for a 4 year old girl - the youngest of all the sisters who have worn these dresses.

The back of the blue dress was so pretty with its buttons and wide bow -  I knew that was the dress to use.

Moroccan Tile Quilt

I love the texture on this quilt for many reasons.

Two Metallic Threads for Quilting that won't break

I have wanted to quilt with metallic thread for ages - but I've been scared of the potential disaster that could ensue with constantly breaking thread or large rats nests at the back or various other possibilities.

Recently I have discovered two brands of metallic threads that are extremely strong and will not let you down while you quilt.

Yenmet Metallic Thread 

and

Glisten by Fil-Tec.

Ode to Foot Quilt

This is another top made by Earamichia. The top was made as she was recouping from breaking her foot after running a half marathon! Respect enough for the running - but also for a lovely top.

The top is quilted in So Fine #50 in #504 Silver Screen the bobbin was Bottom Line in Silver. (Batting is my favorite Hobbs Heirloom Wool batting.) Quilting the whole top in grey was a big move for me - usually I would change threads however many hundreds of times - but I'm trying to be braver ....

I love the main motif in this quilt. It is a idea I had seen on one of Judi Madson's quilts - I was eager to try it on this quilt.

Flora & Fauna

"Fauna is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is Flora." - so Wikipedia tells me.
This is a quilt I have been thinking about making for quite some time - not so much the flora & fauna aspect of it but the big colorful initial in the center and then detailed flowing quilting all around on the white fabric. 

Groovy Curvy Quilt

This quilt top was put together by the lovely Maria. You can see some other of Maria's quilts here and here. Maria's quilts are a dream to work with. Her piecing is wonderful, the colors she works with are amazing and her backs and put together in a way (1/2" seam allowance pressed open) which makes me as a longarmer swoon with gratitude.

This is a quilt pattern called "Groove" by Carolina Patchworks.

Best Beetle Ever

There are some really special moments when I hand over the quilts to the families I have been working for. 

I was sad not to be able to hand this quilt to Asia & S in person because they live some distance away. I was so utterly thrilled to hear their response to the Bess Beetle quilt was more than positive!

To quote the adorable little S - "This is the best quilt ever. I love Bess Beetle's babies there are so many of them"

Kids Art Quilt: Bess Beetle

There are few things I am more passionate about than turning clothes into quilts - but making quilts from kids art work is probably up there too. This was a quilt that I took some 8 days to longarm - that is about 64 hours of non stop quilting - which for a good sized twin sized quilt is a pretty decent amount. This quilt has some fun surprises in it too. The original drawing of Bess Beetle can be seen here. 

To begin with I began Googling 'beetles' to get some ideas. Beetle tracks popped up - and I liked that idea. So there are beetle tracks all over the quilt. I made my beetle tracks with a round foam brush and black fabric paint. Once the paint was dry & heat set with a hot iron it was time to load the quilt onto Freddie and begin quilting around those beetle tracks.

Memorial Quilt: Men's Cotton Shirt Quilt

This is a quilt made for a family whom lost their father. Their father loved to wear bright colorful shirts.

I don't often see patchwork patterns that I immediately want to make but when I saw this pattern called Simply Woven by Jessica Kelly - I knew that it would make an amazing quilt from recycled materials. I made my quilt a little larger (it is probably around a king sized quilt) - I had so many shirts I didn't want to waste them!

I also added a border to my quilt as the family have more traditional tastes and I think formal borders always make things seem a bit more traditional in style.

Mix and Match Quilting Designs

I love the idea of throwing lots of different quilting motifs together into negative space on quilts.



Here are two little baby quilts I put together using various different motifs. The motifs for some reason took on a beach theme. With shells, swirls, waves, pebbles, ripples and can you spot the attempt at a razor shell type shape?

A Quilt without Borders

-->

Margaret is a lovely member of the NYC Metro Modern Quilt Guild and her niece - a quilter who lives in France and who volunteers for the International Festival of Extraordinary Textiles - asked Margaret for her help. 

Margaret guided members of the guild to create a modern quilt that will be used during a picnic in the Jardin Lecoq park. The picnic will be done "flash mob" style with people showing up, a quilt under their arm.  Then when a text message arrives the quilts will be opened and spread on the grass. After the picnic the quilts will be auctioned off to benefit Doctors Without Borders.

Kaffe Kassett Hankerchief Corners

This is another beautiful quilt made by Andrea. Andrea claims no originality in this quilt - but having not seen the fabric or pattern before - I think it is just gorgeous. (I understand the pattern is from the book Shots & Stripes.)

Rainbows and a Blooming Nine Patch

I understand that the blooming Nine Patch Quilt Pattern is an easy pattern to accomplish - but one that looks utterly beautiful. Well the next quilt in the pile from Andrea just brought rays of sunshine and spring to my world.

My new years resolution was to be braver with color. I meant this more of being brave with my thread colors when quilting as I have typically only used white or invisible threads in my early quilts.

Andrea's quilts are so full of color - I wanted to take a serious plunge into color. I decided to use Rainbows thread by Superior. These are an absolutely stunning selection of threads. They have a color change every 1 inch. I do have the Superior color charts at home so I was able to select threads that blended perfectly. The actual colors of the thread do differ from the photos online quite a bit - so the color charts are well worth their small investment. 

Longarm Quilting Services

It seems that I have inadvertently started a Longarm Quilting service! I got Freddie to help me with the charity I am trying to set up 'Quilting A Memory' - so that I could quilt my memorial and memory quilts in an easier, more effective way and to a better quality.

It is true that Freddie lives in my bedroom. It is true that we are now deeply in love.

So I have decided to post some information about the cost of my longarm quilting services in the sidebar - and if you feel moved to do so - please contact me and I would love to quilt for you. 50% of all quilting costs go to Quilting A Memory. Quilting A Memory is a charity that provides free quilting services to the families of fallen/lost service men & women - making memorial & memory quilts filled with love from their clothes and or uniforms.

So to celebrate posting this - here is a quilt I just finished for a client Maria Gualdoni. Maria was so pleased with the the result of this quilt - she proudly showed it off at a recent guild meeting - which I have to admit felt really good.  I hope you enjoy the quilting eye candy that follows.

Kids Art Quilt: Fabric Building Blocks

This quilt has been finished for a while but I was trying to find a hanging solution for my larger quilts to make photographing them a little easier. (I should of used more quilt hangers but I only had 3 picture hooks at this time.)

This was such a fun quilt to make. I loved that I didn't have to do any designing and my two girls laid it all out for me. To learn about how they designed this quilt you can read more here.