A week of finishes

 I had a great week, finishing some customer quilts and working on some repairs and commissioned projects. It is nice to have a week every now and then, when I don't have meetings interrupting my day's work. Anyhoo, let's get to it!

Here is the finished quilt that I had to patch. The customer washed it and the dark red backing bled horribly until the top was fuchsia! It is such a beautiful quilt, so well done, that I decided to try the 'bleeding quilt' remedy. After three, twelve hour soaks, this is the result I was able to achieve. Slightly pink, but way better.

The thread stayed a pink color, making me wonder if it was a polyester product.

In case you forgot, here is the patch I applied over the big hole on the back.

Isn't this a lovely quilt? It is all soft quilter's flannel in colorful plaids. I think it may have been a jelly roll project. 

I used the diamonds pattern that looks so good on this type of quilt.

The color of the back is really much darker than this picture shows. A black and gray houndstooth pattern.

I love this Christmas quilt! It must be a panel that the customer cut and enhanced with more blocks.

The panto is Let it Snow, in shiny white Glide thread.

Beautiful chickadee and greenery backing. Perfect!

Another Christmas project was this elegant panel.

I used a more open pattern, Twinkling Stars, to keep from overwhelming the words on the panel.

I also used Glide thread on this in Military Gold color.

Here's the back.

This tee shirt quilt is a Christmas gift for one of the customer's family members.

Same diamond pattern for the quilting.

Watery looking backing.

This was a challenge to quilt! It is a huge memory quilt for the customer's daughter with tee shirts, embroideries, puff paint pictures, 3-D embellishments and some photo transfers. I couldn't use a panto without hitting things and breaking needles, and it is too giant for un-paid full custom quilting. I decided to meander most of it, missing the important motifs and adding some custom designs to other places.

My favorite block is this three generation photo of hands. Grandma, Mom and Daughter.

Embroidery, paint and plastic puff paint were just a few of the obstacles to the quilting.

I made a candle in the wreath block...

some outlining in the child's painting of a bird, and holly in the red bit.

The backing is this wonderful flannel, full of Christmas cheer and Santa Clause.

Here is the quilt made from the orphan blocks I hinted at last week. I used the blocks for my teaching samples in the Block-of-the-Month I did a couple of years ago.

The quilting is the panto Fork in the Road.

I love this backing. I got it from the sale room in Hayesville, NC

I made this little quilt with a fat quarter bundle of soft flannel for my niece, who is expecting a baby later this month. The baby is a girl, so I selected these cute, sleeping animals fabrics in melon and green.

Flower Power quilting

Biggest mistake I have made in a long time...I loaded and quilted the quilt with the backing up-side down. Well, crap!! I'm hoping they'll be okay with it. I am not taking all the quilting out...

These are the quilt-as-you-go blocks a customer brought to Hiawassee to see if the shop there could make them into a quilt. I just happened to be there at the same time, doing some fabric shopping. The shop owner called me over and asked if I had any ideas. Once again, I couldn't say no. I love helping people bring their unfinished projects from long gone relatives made into useful quilts. I took the project on, and have been working on it all week. Here it is with the sashings connecting it on the front and the back.

There were a couple of blocks too faded to use in the quilt, so I made this two sided pillow as a freebie.

I chose a solid lavender fabric and quilted it with piano keys before cutting it into four strips for the borders. Then, I applied them with the same technique I used for the sashing. The binding is also the solid fabric. I finished the quilt last night with the hand work.

All done!

Close up view. The sashings don't meet perfectly, but that was my fault...I should have made them bigger because they were a booger to sew!

This is the back, with the sashing.

The back looks better than the front! ha ha

I got Penny a flatter bed to lay on in the studio. She just couldn't stop dragging around the big, round, fluffy one. With a little coaxing, and some cookies, she took to the new bed and promptly had a nap. My hope is that she will use the bed and not lay right under my feet when I'm working. She has had her toes stepped on more than once! Ouch!!

Time to quilt lolly-gagging and get to the studio!