Quilt finishes

Welcome back!! Sorry it took so long... it's been a busy spring and summer.

Here's another installment of quilting photos. I hope you enjoy seeing what quilters are working on as much as we enjoy helping them.

Week of March 30th-April 4th 2015

Date: March 31st

Lolah's friend: Lorette's commissioned quilts

Name/Pattern of the quilt: one baby quilt and one lap quilt

Thread: Glide 

Panto graph: Starflower (baby) Chartreuse (lap)

Batting: 100% poly (baby) 100% cotton (lap)

Photos and a finish: 

Date: April 1st

Lolah's friend: Lise C

Name/Pattern of the quilt: The Fabric Cupboard's 100 Club 2013 quilt: Churn Dash

Thread: Glide Thyme (top) Coral (bobbin)

Panto graph: Garden Frills

Batting: 80/20

Photos and a finish: 

Date: April 2nd 

Lolah's friend: Christel F.

Name/Pattern of the quilt: 3 quilts: 1) orphaned blocks, 2)Blue batiks, 3) French Braid

Thread: Glide 1) Lava (orange) 2) Blue 3) Lava

Panto graph: 1) Freehand 2) Vanilla Cream 3) Burning Bush

Batting: 100% cotton

Photos and a finish: 

 

 

Date: April 4th

Lolah's friend: Lorette's commissioned quilt

Name/Pattern of the quilt: Irish Chain

Thread: Mocha Glide

Panto graph: Echo of Light 

Batting: 100% poly

Photos and a finish:

Toodles!

Lorette

Tumbling with Irene...

The first time I met Irene, I knew she was special. She came to look at fabrics to make a quilt. She knew what she wanted to make but needed a pattern. I suggested she draw it out so that the next time she came, we'd be able to calculate fabrics. She vowed to return with a pattern. She didn't disappoint. 

Irene came to Spruce It Up with Odette in late January to work on her Tumbling Blocks. Funny sometimes you think you know someone but you really don't. Such is the case with Odette and Irene. They live across the street from each other but neither knew the other quilted until one husband saw the other woman's quilt. Now they share a common interest. How fun to have a quilting buddy...

Irene is dwarfed by Lolah but she is not intimidated. This petite woman is a firecracker! Watch for her at the dart tournaments too. 

I can't remember now when she came in to purchase these fabrics but they look awesome in her quilt. Filtec's Glide thread in Fool's Gold is on top and Denim is in the bobbin. 80/20 was her batting of choice.

Tickle Too panto is what she's working on here... it's a lovely open feather with a few swirls; great for adding motion to a quilt and a fairly simple design for a confident beginner.

Aqua fabrics remind me of the beach... just what we needed when winter was about to set in. Remember this was late January and the biggest storms were yet to come.

The back shows such great texture. Thank you Odette for your help that day and for introducing Irene to Lolah! :)

The front looks fabulous!!! Irene you amazed me with this quilt. It's gorgeous! Your piecing is precise and your quilting is wonderful... steady hand and speed are what get you through it successfully.

Irene looks happy don't you think?

I believe that's a very satisfied customer!

Readers, I'm trying to catch up... bear with me. I have the rest of January and all of February to work on. Good news though... the desktop computer is now back in operation after a new motherboard fan replacement. I can't tell you how happy that makes me!!

For now, I hope you enjoy a few more photos... check out the Show and Tell page!!

Toodles,

Lorette

  

Hollie's threesome!

Christmas ORNAMENTS update....

Before I launch the next session of Lolah's friends, I want to tell everyone that there are still a few ornaments left to purchase... hurry... go have a look and make your donation today. You can call me to reserve yours or email me your request! I'll set it aside for you! PLEASE!!

On with the show...

I first met Hollie in the summer of 2013 at the Lupin Quilt Fair & Sale. I purchased 7 quilt tops and several were Hollie's. As the show was drawing to a close, I went to pick up my purchases; Hollie came up to me and introduced herself. I love her work, she's an expert piecer and she has a great sense of color. We seem to like the same fabrics/colors/scrappy look.

If you've been to the shop in the last few months, especially if there was someone on Lolah, you might have met Hollie. She is a local crafter who grew up in the area; she's very productive and sells her crafts at many local shows and at the craft shop in her village. 

Hollie is a dedicated hand quilter. I remember the first time she came to visit the shop and she looked at Lolah with skepticism. Not her thing! As she worked with those who came to quilt on Lolah, she became anxious to try her hand at it. Soon she was so excited to try Lolah that she even dreamed about what and how she would quilt.

She came armed with 3 lap-sized quilts... not shy at all about the process! Her first quilt is called: To Ryan; she chose wool batting and FilTec's Citron Yellow Glide Thread, a perfect green color thread that seems to glow in black lighting. 

We turned the overhead lights off, turned on Lolah's black light. She quilted this quilt in no time at all. 

Sweet... Hollie is looking for a black light for Ryan's room! How cool would that be for a little boy to sleep under a glowing blanket?

The backing is flannel.

This quilt was done by 10:30am.

What a lucky little boy!

Wasting no time, we loaded quilt no 2 and then the shop got busy. I don't have pictures of Hollie quilting on this one but we have the finish. 

Quilt no 2 is a gift for her mother-in-law for Christmas. This one also has a wool batt and it was quilted with FilTec's Mango Glide thread. 

Beautiful birds on this fabric... all free-motion quilting. Did I tell you that Hollie prefers free-motion to pantographs? She has tried her hand at the latter and she doesn't care for it. 

The backing for quilt no 2 is this gorgeous Christmas fabric... I spot a butterfly... the thread looks gold on the backing! Very good choice Hollie.

Her two quilts...

By the time she finished the second quilt, it was 11:30 am and lunch time. Customers were still in the shop and after they left, we loaded top no 3. This is a Santa panel to which she added a series of borders pulling fabrics from her extensive stash to coordinate with the colors in the panel... very clever. I recognize some, drool over others. 

Hollie brought this panel to the shop one day to find the right fabric for the outer border. This tree fabric was perfect. That day, I thought the panel looked familiar... I reached on one of the shelves under Lolah and took out my Santa panel... exactly the same! No wonder I like her fabrics! 

We turned out the lights again... wool batting made these quilts so soft... this time she used FilTec's Graphite Glide... the color name sounds grey but it looks blue on this quilt.

I took the following picture to record her start time... 

Hollie was anxious to try some ruler work... as a hand quilter with years of experience, she has developed a sense of how she will quilt the top she's working on. That is a big help when it comes to working on a longarm. Here she's quilting it the same as what she intended to do by hand. Only it took her less than 2 hrs instead of a week.

There was a lot of rolling back and forth to work around the quilt which is much easier to accomplish with a helper.

Hollie went looking in her stash and found this plaid for the backing. She's made it a point to use up some of her stash and made a pledge to refrain from purchasing ANY fabric in 2015!! Now I couldn't do that!! 

Well done Hollie! Three quilts completed each taking less than 2 hours. 

All the time she was quilting, she was dreaming of her next session... stay tuned for her second visit! Didn't I tell you she was productive? I wasn't joking!

Toodles,

Lorette