Simply Imagine...

When Hollie decides to quilt on Lolah, she comes armed with a bundle of quilt tops. She makes quilts to sell at Keepsake Crafts in Murray Corner when the shop opens for the tourist season.

All three quilts started with the same panel but each was done a little differently. The batik backing was purchased at the Bargain Fabric Outlet in North Bedeque while on a road trip to the island. It did not come cheap but it was a wide backing.

This was Hollie's first time using a pantograph for her quilts. She wasn't too sure she would like it and was worried about the experience... dreaming about it too.

You can see in the photo above that two quilts are loaded close together and the pantograph was worked across both. It requires someone on each side of the quilting bed: one to quilt the panto and one to "spot" making sure the foot doesn't slide under the quilt top as it hops from one to the other.

Tea berry Glide which is a pale mauve/pink has been a very popular thread color and one of Hollie's favorites.

Her husband Micheal came in to check on her progress and was even given a chance to try out Lolah! He did an excellent job!

Micheal is a contractor so he has experience guiding hand tools.

This pantograph is called Hearts in Bloom... it's been quite popular because of the easy design and the open quilting. This fabric has the same flowers in it. 

Once the panto work was done, Hollie decided the third quilt would be done freehand.

This is where Hollie is most comfortable...

She even wrote in the "blank" blocks...

What a sharp eye she has for transforming a simple panel into a wonderful keepsake quilt!! I absolutely love the log cabin setting.

Gorgeous backing...

Hollie you amaze us all! Can't wait to see your next three quilts...

Simply Imagine what YOU can do on Lolah!!! Call us and book your date!

Toodles,

Lorette

UPDATE: April 9th, 2015

Hollie reminded me yesterday that I forgot to include an important photograph because the photo was taken with my phone.

Blair is a good friend of Hollie and Micheal and our contractor who happened to come in while Hollie was working so she asked him to quilt on her top... 

Blair has been known to mark his wife Sally's tops for hand quilting. He is skilled at hand tools so it was no surprise that he did well. Sorry the Lolah's light is too bright to see what he quilted!

Thank you for the reminder Hollie!

Lorette

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

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

Logging with Hollie!

Another commission from our DIL's mother... I purchased this log cabin quilt top in the summer of 2013. I've always been attracted to navy and beige/white quilts. As I was picking up my purchases at the Lupin Quilt Fair and Sale, Hollie came up to me and introduced herself; she had made a few of the quilt tops I had bought including this one. It's always nice to put a face to a name and I was so very pleased to meet her. Now Hollie is one of my employees!

I used FilTec's Glide thread in Mocha on top and Glide Beige for the bottom thread, 80/20 batting made it soft, and a 108" wide backing in cream completed the quilting sandwich.

I wanted movement on this top and what better way to create it than to use feathers... this pantograph is from Urban Elementz and is called Chartreuse © 2014  Patricia E. Ritter. 

Hollie's tops are a pleasure to quilt... they lay flat and square. This pantograph looks amazing on a log cabin!

Hollie and her friend Shannon happened to drop by that day. It's hard to get photos of a large quilt when you're alone!

Thank you ladies! You were a big help.

Another closer view of the back...

Only one more commission left to write about and then we'll resume customer quilts. Stay tuned!

Toodles,

Lorette

Pass the Mint Julep please!

One of the tops I was commissioned to quilt is this one called Mint Julep. The blocks are large and have a modern look so I decided to quilt it MODERN with straight line ruler work! I drew inspiration from the book "Quilting Modern" by Jacquie Gering & Katie Pederson 2012.

I used FilTec's Glide Thread in Tidewater color, 70/30 batting in black and a 108" wide backing in navy.

This was free-form, easy quilting; no marking necessary so it went relatively quickly.

It looks great on both sides. The binding was included with the purchase of the top; I put it away for safe keeping while our contractor was finishing my sewing room. After the renovation, I couldn't find it! :(  I had to resort to using the left-over backing to make a new binding; there was plenty of that.

When we arrived in California, I had a little more than half of the binding hand sewn. All the other quilts we brought were completely finished. 

Here it is... done and delivered!

Ready for cuddles!

Toodles,

Lorette