Marie's Batik Braids

It should come as no surprise to many people that Marie's quilts are large! She loves to have them cover the bed and hang down the sides to cover the sheets. Mattresses today are quite thick... could the quilting industry be behind this trend?

She brought in her Batik Braids to quilt on Lolah. What a beauty! Feast your eyes this color splash...

Marie loved the idea of using a colorful thread; she chose King Tut #933, a variegated cotton thread.

 

Her favorite pantograph is called Chinese Crescents which is a 4.5" repeat printed in a double row, 100% poly batting.

It's important to stand straight when you quilt on Lolah... So I reminded Marie often to straighten up.

I absolutely love her fabric choices. She's a collector of batiks, and on one of her trips to Calgary, she picked up some of the coordinating fabrics. Her border and sashing fabric looked familiar...

It's one I recognized from a kit I purchased at Road to California last year. The quilt kit is called "A to Z", a letter quilt designed by Janet Stone for the Quilt Show.

Chinese Crescents panto looks like the swirls in the fabric... pretty cool!

Lovely color and pattern...

Notice something different??

Marie quilted this one over 2 days... this is a large quilt and one pass of quilting is only 4.5". Marie also prefers to quilt in one direction; for that you break the thread at the end of every row.

It was worth the time spent working a pattern that she liked... look at this backing... what texture it has!

A marvelous finish! It's a wonderful quilt! Well done Marie!!! Your quilt gives one the feeling of warmth and happiness looking at it!

We're all anxious to see your next project on Lolah Marie.

Toodles,

Lorette

2015 and Annabelle's quilt!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It's hard to believe we're already in 2015! This time last year we were in the packing mode as the house had sold and the movers were coming the third week in January! A lot has happened since then...

Our 4 children and their spouses (except one) were home for the holidays. It was great to have them all under one roof again... it was a wonderful Christmas! They've all gone home now so yesterday was spent sprucing up the house and shop, getting it cleaned in time to ring in 2015!

Now it's time to catch up on blogging! Time has slipped away and I'm late with a few posts! Sorry about that! 

A while back, Marie was in to quilt a special quilt, one for her grand-daughter Annabelle's new big-girl bed. Frozen was the panel of choice and since her favorite color is blue, Marie chose King Tut #915 called Suez, a variegated thread of blues, purples and aqua. 80/20 batting made it soft and warm!

I was asked to keep this post secret until after the quilt was gifted.

The pantograph Marie quilted is called Cotton Candy Vanilla Cream... Marie has since decided it wasn't her favorite pantograph. There will be a greater choice of designs in the near future! Lolah needs variety!

Marie takes great pride in piecing her quilts; she's a perfectionist! The quilt lays flat and square! I love how she made this beautiful panel larger.

Look at the border fabric too... 

It was a fun day working with Marie! Anyone who knows Marie, knows that she is always warm. Sleeveless year round while I wear sweaters year round! So it was no surprise to have her change into capris and take off her shoes! 

The border fabric is also the backing! Gorgeous!

Well done Marie... Annabelle's quilt is beautiful!

We hear Annabelle sleeps better cuddled under the new quilt grand-maman made!

Happy New Year everyone... I wish you all a great year of health, happiness and lots of sewing time!

Thank you for taking the time to read the blog, visit the shop and come in to show us your creations! We've enjoyed a wonderful start to Spruce It Up Quilt Shop and plan to continue to provide you with quality goods at affordable prices.

Keep an eye on the Show and Tell page... some new photos will be added soon! 

Toodles,

Lorette

Catch up!

It's been a busy time here in the sewing room. Not much else to do when the weather isn't improving as rapidly as we want. When it rains and the yard is all mud, the best thing to do is to sew. That's what I've done.

First I promised photos of the lunch bags I've been making!

Very roomy! I think my daughter-in-law will have enough room for her lunch! I made a second one using the precut fabric I planned to use as lining in the previous bag. The lining in both is a water resistant nylon.

Lolah was awakened from her long sleep to quilt up some batting samples. I also wanted to test some new thread... this is Glide thread... gorgeous sheen and it quilts like a dream!

Lolah is sporting a new look... in order to increase drag when quilting pantos, I added bean bags... I really must make them prettier!

Then it was on to dressing her up for some serious quilting. This is the largest quilt I've loaded and it's probably at the maximum width on this 10 ft frame. If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know pantograph quilting is out of my comfort zone. I bought several quilts at the Lupin Quilt Show last summer in order to practice pantos on Lolah and this is the first one. 

This is my WIP for this week... check out the creative people at The Needle and Thread Network and Let's Bee Social.

The sun came out yesterday and it promises to be around today and tomorrow. That makes me happy!

Toodles,

Lorette

PANTO WORK!

Dreaded Wednesday! I scheduled Wednesday to quilt 2 baby quilts for the Rotaplast (surgery to repair cleft palates) charity our guild supports. I loaded them side by side on Lolah. First mistake! One backing with 2 quilt tops might work but not 2 separate quilts... I ended up taking one off and quilting them separately. Won't make that mistake again! I'm still on the learning curve!

Then I set up the pantograph and went to work! I'm not comfortable with panto work... PERIOD... I'm told though that it becomes easier the more you do it! I hope so! The panto I chose is called Cotton Candy (6") from Simple Quilting Stitches; several pantographs were included with the purchase of the machine.

It's an easy pattern to quilt but I'm not comfortable being on the "other" side of the machine! I call it quilting blindly! All went as expected for a beginner quilter! Not bad but not so smoothly...

The backing is the same on both quilts... pink!

What I didn't like about the panto on the first quilt was the frequent advancing because there was only one row of pattern to work with! So for the second quilt, I decided to trace the pattern making 2 rows.

NOW that worked much better and faster.

As I was deciding what to quilt on this little doll quilt, I noticed the little flower in the background and thought, how nice it would be to draw my own pattern for such a flower.

And after I drew the design, I decided it might be too advanced for me at this stage and I should try the design on a practice piece first. I made it 50 inches across with a 13in width. This is what I will work on today after I apply the bindings to these little quilts!

NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED - You can't get anywhere unless you're willing to take a risk. Chaucer (c. 1374)

Toodles!

Lorette