Thread Tales From A Scrappy Quilter

I went to the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston's quilt show... Joy of Quilts today.   It was a lovely show and I had a few quilts hanging with my name attached as my own or quilted by me.   A couple of these have not been blogged about yet so this is the first you will have seen them. Let's just start with the best.   1st place!  Pieced Wallhanging - Large.   Lou Ellen Hassold's "Star Bright quilted by me!   Lou Ellen had a vision for this quilt and thankfully I was able to step up to the challenge.       2nd Place - Group Quilt - Pam Heine  Double 4 Patch.   This one makes me really happy as this is an e2e design.   I think our shows need to include a category for e2e quilts because they may be impecabbly pieced and have great color composition but if they are not quilted to death they lose points to those more elaborately quilted pieces.     ...

It finally happened!  A prolific quilter said, let's try this.   We chose an edge to edge design for her beautiful Paradise in Blooms, complete with needle turn applique.  I must say I am completely happy with this and would not hesitate to recommend doing this again.   Surf digital edge to edge design by Anne Bright,  Quilters Dream Wool, Glide thread in Warm Gray #4.         Thank you Alice for such a lovely quilt and being brave enough to try this.   We both think it turned out awesome!

Here is one of my new favorite designs, stitched out on Sally's fun quilt.   I do not know the fabric line, fun modern fabrics that screamed for some type of geometric quilting.  This design is called Bubbles b2b (border to border) by Anne Bright.    It is awesome!   Well to me anyway.   I've already used this one on another quilt and look forward to using it on your quilt.   The really nice thing about using a digitized design, is that it can be resized smaller or larger to fit the scale of your project.   I could not do that with hand guided pantos.    Of course I could not do backtracking circles with hand guilded either!   So naturally, this one is a favorite of mine.   Not too dense, good coverage and very interesting across solids or busy fabrics. One small enough I could hang!   Lately I've had a run of really large quilts.   Thanks Sally for s...

More computerized edge to edge quilting by Pamela and Pat.   This first one is a really big 120" scrappy quilt by Pamela that I did not even try to get all in the photos!  Thimbleberries patterns come to mind but I don't know if this was a specific pattern or blocks she put together herself.   I used" bd 2010 pano 001"  by Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio.    Before quilting, on the frame Back view.   I love this design but it is a monster to stitch out at this large size of quilt.   The pattern was sized at 18" and stitched up and down until it completed one row.  Because of this stitch pattern and large quilt, I could not complete one pass on one bobbin of thread.   It took TWO bobbins per pass to complete.    I don't think I have ever run a panto that used 14 bobbins of thread before.   I'll maybe try this on a smaller quilt with pre-wound 60 wt bobbins, other...

It's been a long hard week! For every success it seems we then have an extra difficult next day.  Repeating the very same steps because all we are working on mastering is edge to edge at this time.   So frustrating, but they say give it a few weeks.   The positive side, my 26" (aka The Kraken) stitches beautifully.       The above is my Summer in the Park.  It has been on my custom list since 6/2013.  I decided to do a simple, fast edge to edge on this and give to one of my granddaughters.   I used Pink Lemonade Glide thread on top and bottom.  Colors are a little washed out, its brighter in person.  The last 2 on the frame shots show the correct colors.  I need to perfect my camera phone skills for the new location. Now it needs to have binding made! 2 more little ones, again one open fun design on the bright colored squares. The muslin was  my first "quilt" even though just a ...

Here are 2 very different quilts, both quilted with the same, hand guided, pantograph pattern, Clematis.  All over designs really look very nice on many quilts.   Some fabrics do all the talking in some quilts, other times an all over design is just a better choice for the budget.  I've seen applique quilts that have been quilted with all over designs and they were still gorgeous.   Some quilts beg to be custom quilted but many times an all over design is just what the quilt needs.       These were all fabrics that I could use a light lavender thread that showed on the white as well as all the med/dark fabrics used.   Often the biggest obstacle is choosing thread when you have a range of light, medium and dark fabrics and many colors.   Somewhere the thread is going to blend.   This particular quilt also needs careful consideration when choosing a design because you don't want the background fabric t...