Thread Tales From A Scrappy Quilter

Pat was referred to me by Sandra Kollath in Minnesota.  We met several years ago at one of Denise Green's Judy Niemeyer retreats.   Sandra became a certified instructor for Judy Niemeyer as well and Pat was one of her students.  Pat's quilt is really special because she told me it was her 97th bed sized quilt and she was 87 when she pieced it!  I choose to accent her beautiful 2 color Vintage Rose with some digital quilting designs.  Most are by Carrie Barone of Peak to Prairie Quilting, some are by Nancy  at Wasatch Quilting and ditching and some designs are my own hand guided designs. Such a pretty quilt!  What an accomplishment to be able to work on complex designs like these in your 80's. This was Vintage Rose #4 that I have custom longarm quilted.   #5 has already been quilted and shipped as well.   I have a few more in my line up for this year, each very different from all t...

Cathy's beautiful purple and beige Vintage Rose with the full pieced borders.  There are several variations of this quilt for the borders. Lots of purple in this one!  I do love purple too.   Cathy wanted matching thread to the fabric so I choose only 1 thread  for most of the purples.  The lights in the small pieced border did get a lighter purple, but that still made 3 purples that I used.   Invisifil for ditching, the one lighter purple for that border then all the rest I used Damson Glide.  I knew those solid like colors would look awesome with Jessica Schicks design for Vintage Rose in those borders and it did not disappoint.  I used some digital designs from Jessica, Wasatch and some hand guided longarm quilting to customize this quilt. This makes #3 VR that I have quilted, I have 4 more in the line up! All 4 very different from the 3 I have quilted.   3 I alread...

This beauty was pieced by my good friend Lou Ann and I custom quilted this for the current year fund raiser for Golden Needles Quilt Guild.   I choose to try  digital quilting designs by Peak to Prairie Quilting.  It turned out pretty spectacular!  Tickets are now on sale. One view as I was building and stitching out the designs.  I basically stitch one element at a time. Having a 26" throat space which shrinks down to about 22" quiltable area, to quilt these designs in a continuous stitching path, you must turn the quilt.   Hand guided, you can roll back and forth but it is such a pain!   You have to unclamp from each side, roll, clamp each side again and stitch - then repeat!  Center details in red thread.

Of course just about everyone in my WWIT (What Was I Thinking) paperpiecing world was so excited with the release of the new Vintage Rose Quiltworx pattern.  Most of us started planning ours immediately.   Denise Green hosted a retreat to offer tips and techniques last May for this quilt which upon reviewing, I don't have any pictures on my blog!   I started mine at the retreat in May this past year and managed to get mine all pieced and quilted in time for a local show. The interior of the petals are digital designs.   The upper half is Jessica Schick, the lower half is from Wasatch.    The zigzag petals and backgrounds areas are hand guided. I loved the rose detail.   I had a hard time stitching over my piecework but loved the rose motif.   I added a curl to each side, ditched the units and echoed the outside edge all around.     When the light ...