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

January Circles

When I first bought Lolah, I attended the Lupin Quilt Fair and Sale during our summer vacation for the purpose of purchasing quilt tops to use as longarm practice pieces. I never got the chance to quilt them until we moved back to NB and obviously until this year. This one was called Dresden Circles and I loved the color and piecing of the stripes. 

Our DIL Ming's mother commissioned me to make 4 quilts, so at Christmas, I had her chose 3 tops and I promised to make the 4th one from scratch. 

I decided this one would look pretty with some ruler work and freehand designs. FilTec's Glide in Cream was used for both top and bottom threads; it has a 100% cotton batting and a 108" wide backing

The blocks weren't all precisely pieced, the centers didn't all match but besides that, the top was easy to quilt.

The backing shows the quilting better...

Here's a tip when you're applying binding if you have 2 spool pins or if you're like me and have a multiple spool holder sitting at the back of the machine. I don't like to have the roll of binding all over the floor picking up dust and loose threads. It stays clean and does not twist saving time.

We've delivered the quilts to California and they will soon make their way to Indonesia. This is Ming (DIL) and our son Jonathan. Over the next few posts, I'll show you the rest of the quilts.

Toodles,

Lorette