Purple & Gray Table Runner

This was made for a Christmas gift and because I didn't want it to be seen ahead of time, I haven't posted it yet - just a sneak peek on my Facebook page. I've had these bright colours here for a while and love the way they pop with a gray background!

 This size of table runner is so versatile - here it is on my dresser as a dresser scarf - great bedroom accent piece!

 Quilting is kept simple with a meandering all-over machine quilted pattern.

 And binding is machine stitched to the back and then top-stitches to the front.

And backed with a muted lavender print! I hope the recipient was happy when she opened this gift!

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - December 19

This bright colored quilt was finished today for my grand-daughter. She's the one busy making art in the picture below!

Charm square quilt

Beautiful artist!

These are the fat quarters of fabric I started with and the photo on the right is what I originally thought I'd make. I cut each fat quarter into a couple 2.25" strips for binding and the rest into 5" charm squares. (I've lost my work sheet that I used to figure it all out, so there are no exact instructions here today!)

I love my design wall because I can see the whole design before I sew anything together. In this case, the layout was just too busy for me - it came down rather quickly as it seemed to jar my senses every time I looked at it. After some rearranging and rethinking the design, this was the final result! 5" charm squares separated by 2.5"x5" strips of white Kona cotton, put together in rows.

Normally I send my bed size quilts out to be quilted, but this quilt was quilted by me on my Janome 4030QDC machine with straight line quilting. The back is a pretty butterfly flannel that will coordinate with the butterfly sheets that will be on her bed (totally unplanned!) The binding was machine stitched to the backing, flipped to the front and top-stitched by machine for a beautiful finish. I've only recently started to machine stitch my binding and it's amazing how quickly it goes.

How about you? Do you make quilts for special people? Do these quilts always go as planned or do you change things up as you go?

--Ann

Linking up with:
Quiltsy WIP Wednesday #41
Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday #70
Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday

Seasons Mini Quilt Swap

Maple Leaf Seasons Mini Quilt

Summer leaf details

Here's the finish on the Season's Mini Quilt that I posted about earlier this month. The maple leaf block is one I've used many times, but this time I didn't piece the stem. Instead, I machine stitched the veins in the leaves and the stem with a variegated green thread and then did a close stippling on the sky blue background.

I'm still waiting patiently for the quilt my partner made for me and will post it here as soon as I get it!

--Ann 

Custom Quilts Headed to Texas

 Just came back from the Post Office where I sent these quilts off to their new home in Texas! It's so exciting to see where my quilts are ending up and these bright blue quilts were a pleasure to make.

These photos are taken in our basement guest room which was repainted earlier this year from a chocolate brown to a creamy white. The room is much brighter now and the neutral colour means I can now take photos of my quilts there. I still need to make curtains for the window and am thinking that just a plain bleached muslin fabric would be perfect with a little black trim or  embroidery to add some detail.

Blue Tempest #1

Blue Tempest #2

The pattern chosen by the customer was the Tempest from Cherry House Quilts. Isn't it gorgeous here in shades of purple Kona cottons? The pattern was lost in transit and so I just improvised so I could get these quilts completed, but Cherri is resending, so I'll have a copy soon! Cherri is the author of the quilt book "City Quilts" which I've borrowed from the library and is on my quilt book wish list!

My sewing machine has been humming and I will be busy this week finishing gifts for Christmas!

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - December 5

My Little Chickadees from HoneynCloves

 I think I've burnt out on making quilted stuff for my Etsy shop and am ready to make a few things for myself! I recently bought this little chickadee wool kit off Etsy from HoneynCloves and I hope to piece it together over the holidays. Just a little low key, relaxing handwork.

Four Seasons Mini Quilt Swap on Flickr

And I did sign up for another mini quilt swap on Flickr and the due date was November 30. I had lots of wonderful ideas in my head and thought I'd have plenty of time to finish this, but only got it done today! Here's a peek and you'll see the whole quilt when my swap partner receives it. And here's the link to the Flickr Mini QT group so you can see the other mini's that were swapped!

Blue Tempest Quilt (pattern from Cherry House)

The twin custom quilts and pillow shams are at Blueberry Hill Quilts in Chestermere, Alberta to be quilted by Marie. Someone asked me about the pattern last week and it's based on the Tempest pattern from Cherry House quilts. I did order the pattern off the Cherry House website, but it has not yet arrived, so I'm just winging it from the photos.

Today I am linking up with other quilters at:
Quiltsy WIP Wednesday #39
The Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday #68

--Ann