Latest Customer Quilts

I have been working hard to try to finish some quilting commissions recently.  I just finished quilting a stunning log cabin Christmas quilt.  It was pieced by my customer Teresa's mother, whom I have not met.

Teresa chose an off-white cotton thread called 'Parchment," which coordinates with the warm block centers, and also allows the quilting to show up well in the white areas of the blocks.

The fabrics in this quilt could be interpreted as Christmas fabric, since there are holly leaves, red ribbon, and poinsettias.  However, it is not so "Christmasy" that the quilt cannot be used or displayed year-round. We originally planned on doing an all-over design, perhaps even a panto.  As I loaded it up, I decided it needed to have some beautiful quilting to enhance the perfect piecing.

It is not custom-quilted, but I stitched leaves, swirls, ribbons, and flowers that curve over the very linear design of this quilt.

Did I ever mention that is my favorite type of quilting?

The back is a snowy white-on-white fabric.  It has great texture with all the quilting.

And, as I was going through my quilts-in-waiting, I remembered this one that I never finished for my sister-in-law Debbie. 

There was a tension issue on the back of two areas with micro-stippling.  Ripping it out took hours and hours.  I worked on that this week, and requilted those areas.

Then, I remembered that I had already made the binding for this quilt, and was actually able to locate it in the euphemistically described "disorganized" sewing room upstairs.  I was almost finished applying it by machine when I realized that it was about two feet short of the perimeter!

I could not find any more of that blue fabric, so I searched the stash for something that might work.  Surprisingly, it was a hand-dyed blue fabric that matched almost perfectly with the tone-on-tone muted blue print of the original.  Can you tell where they join?

So, I am almost finished hemming it, and it will soon be delivered to Debbie.  It will join its mate that I delivered last Thanksgiving.

I have only had these since my father's 85th birthday weekend, which was September 2008.

Can you tell that although these turned out beautiful, I did not exactly relish working on them?

I have one more to go of these quilt tops pieced by Debbie's grandmother.  That will make about six of these quilt tops that were languishing in plastic bags in Indiana until Debbie rescued them and brought them to me to finish.