Oh... So Modern!!

Lise is on a mission to quilt up tops that she's been working on for a few years. She has booked time on Lolah to quilt them all! How cool is that?

This one is extra special! When she first started quilting on Lolah, we discussed some of her quilts and from that discussion, I purchased a few special pantographs. The one she chose for this quilt is one of those.

It's called Seaside... a 14" panto by Kathie James and sold by Willow Leaf. Lolah having an 18" throat means she can quilt up to 14in... that means this panto would have to be adjusted. Lise was up to the challenge of making it work!

She chose Graphite Glide by Filtec and 80/20 batting for her 92x95 quilt. It proved a great combination.

Rachel and Muriel dropped by the shop and started chatting with Lise... turns out they're related! 

A great pattern...

and some steady work...

Quilts of this size require some help to get it done...

This is one project that also requires a little filling in with free hand work. You wouldn't want a half pattern at the edges so we planned our rows accordingly filling in at the end with some free-motion quilting.

What a beauty!!! I bet it will look great on any bed!!

 A great finish!!!

You have a right to be proud Lise!! It's stunning!

Always awesome...

Toodles,

Lorette

A Santa for Ming!

The last of the 4 quilts commissioned for our daughter-in-law's mother was the most fun for me. Other than a request for a Christmas wall hanging, there were no guidelines or preferences.

We started with a panel and coordinating fabrics cutting up the tiles into blocks then adding sashing and borders. It helps to have someone well-accustomed to designing quilts from panels working in the shop. Thank you both Hollie and Marie!

Choosing the right thread is always fun... here you see the choices lined up on the quilt top and the bolt of fabric used for the backing. Since there was so much color on the front, I decided to base my choice on the backing fabric. 

I love the pantograph called Starflower by Jodi Beamish for Clothwerx; it looks like a snowflake. Because of that, and the fact that there are silver snowflakes on the blue background, I chose FilTec's Glide in Graphite. It's the one on the left...

There's not that much difference between these threads. It was a toss up... Tar Heel was another great color and would have been lovely too!

It quilted up beautifully... since this was going to be a wall hanging, I used 100% cotton batting.

Graphite was the perfect color to match the snowflake shapes.

Did I hear Ming say this quilt may not make it to Indonesia?? Ming LOVES Christmas... she's all ready for 2015!!! You heard/read that right... and I can see this quilt hanging on the wall behind her during the holidays!

I loved making this top! I too love anything Christmas especially quilts! Come by the shop and you can see my Christmas quilts!

Wish we had had this snow before 2014 holiday season!! Perhaps it would be all melted by now!! Don't we live in an amazingly beautiful country!!

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