A Round Finish

When you quilt for others for a living, you never know what quilt jobs you are going to be challenged with.  It has been a while since I shared one of my customer's quilts and I thought this one you would like to see!

Not too long ago, one of my clients brought to me a gorgeous round paper pieced quilt.  It was about 72" wide and she planned on displaying it on a big wall..  When you load this up on a longarm frame, the backing is a large square and you "float" the top (which means it is not pinned to the frame).  The challenging part can be keeping it round!

The colors in this one are beautiful.  But that also meant a lot of thread color changes for me.

It is always fun to work on something different - especially when it is a lovely as this quilt!

Have a great weekend!

If you want to learn something new and take your quilting up a notch, Craftsy has all of their classes right now through 3/28 on sale for $19.99.

I am an affiliate of Craftsy so I may make a commission if you make a purchase.  But I do love their classes and have purchased many of them myself so I like to pass on a great deal when I see one!

Linking Up:

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)
Free Motion Mavericks (Free Motion Mavericks)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

TGIFF (Thank Goodness it is Friday Finish)

Fabric Frenzy Friday

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish it up Friday)
A Quilted Passion 

First and Last

Why first and last?  Well, this quilt was the last client quilt on my frame for 2014 and the first one for 2015.  This beauty was on my quilt frame for quite some time - not only is it a giant king size but I also quilted it quite densely!  I thought I would share...

Because the quilt is almost bigger than any room in my house, this is the best picture I could get of the whole quilt.  It is a Judy Niemeyer paper-pieced pattern and done in various gray, white and black batiks.

This quilt had a lot of negative space to fill in so I went with a stacked swirl design.  I tried to take photos from the front of the quilt as I quilted it but the quilting was hard to photograph...

But the back was a different story!

This one had everything - swirls, pebbles, linework and figure eights.  The backing was a dark gray and I used multiple colors of thread in white, grays and black.

I even created a fun pattern by planning some larger pebbles at the top of some spikes.  You can't really see it from the top but it is a hidden secret seen only on the back.

 It is so easy to miss areas when you quilt big quilts like this.  Before I unpin from my machine, I always spend a lot of time going over all the designs.  Thankfully on this one it was good to go!

The customer has already picked up her quilt and was over the moon!  Over the last 6 years I think I have done about 8 of these types of quilts for her.  I shared one I did for her in 2013.

Crazy, Huh!?!

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Linking up:

 Sew Fresh Quilts

 My Quilt Infatuation

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Crazy Mom Quilts

2014 in Review

I know I am a little late to the 2014 year in review party but starting the year out feeling under the weather has me running a few days behind schedule.  I promise I will fill this post up with lots of great eye candy to make up for it!

First, I can't believe I am entering into my 9th year longarm quilting for others. I am blessed to have so many talented and loyal clients and I count many of them as close friends.  Running a very successful home business is quite rewarding and I am very thankful for the life I have.

One of the great things about quilting for others is I get to be a part of so many beautiful quilts.

Every week I am inspired by all the colorful and diverse quilts that pass before my eyes.

Because I love all styles of quilts, over the years I have built a very diverse client base.  So one day you might find something very traditional on my quilt frame.... 

 ...immediately followed by something very modern.

There are even a few art quilters who send their pieces to me to be quilted.

Pretty cool huh!?!  A quilt on a quilt!

Occasionally, I get the pleasure (and challenge)  of working on quilts with intricate piecing that I would probably never piece myself.

 This one just came off my frame and the customer hasn't seen it yet so I can't share too much but this little glimpse from the back.

For each quilt, I try and adjust my quilting styles to fit the canvas before me. 

 

The downfall to being a LAQ is I am constantly inspired and I have to constrain myself to not start a new quilt everyday.

Even the simplest of piecing done in the right colors of flannels has me placing items in a shopping cart!  I really wanted to snuggle up with this one right after I finished it but I think clients frown upon that!









Besides quilting for others, of course I had a lot of my own projects I worked on over the year. 

I started 2014 with a list of 47 projects in the works (Yikes).  So my main focus this year was on finishing some of these up.

I did finish 64 quilts in 2014.  And 11 of them (like the one above) were projects I started many years ago so that was an accomplishment to be celebrated!.  Most of these victories were due to joining in on a couple of Finish-A-Longs, something I will be doing again in 2015.

 I might even join in on some Instagram events like #SewMyStash2015 and #WhipYourWIPs2015.

My goal was to finish 2014 with less than 35 WIPs. I am delighted to say I have whittled down my WIPs to just 26!  I know that still sounds like a lot but quite a few of the projects are long-term, bucket-list type projects that I only work a bit on each year. But I want to continue to work through this list so I want to set a goal to have the list down to 20 by the end of 2015! 

Of the 64 quilts for 2014, 29 were made from scraps and 21 were made from my existing stash.  Those numbers make me and my pocketbook very happy as I didn't spend a lot of money on fabric last year.  I hope to continue to sew quilts from my older stash but will be allowing myself to design quilts around some new collections.

Due to my Scrap-A-Palooza series that I started in 2014, scrap quilts have become a regular feature on my blog. I think the quilt below was my favorite of the year.  It has definitely been getting use lately as I fight my way through this nasty flu bug!

 I am also proud to say that in 2014, I had 2 more magazine publications with one of my quilts even featured on a cover.  I will be starting 2015 out with another magazine publication so stay tuned for the announcement in a few days.  Hopefully you will see a few more throughout the year.

And in 2014, I published my first independent pattern (Wiggle Time is available for purchase on Etsy and Craftsy). I have been working on writing up a few more so I hope to have additional patterns available in 2015!

I also became a Craftsy affiliate in 2014. This allows me to make a small commission on purchases made by wonderful people who click through my site and make a purchase on a class or product. These funds help cover the costs of running linky parties and supporting giveaways. I really do appreciate the support!

But the best part of 2014 was getting to know so many of you.  I am so inspired by what I see in so many of your blogs and encouraged by my readers support and comments. I truly do appreciate all of you and look forward to seeing what 2015 brings.  Cheers!

If you are interested in more ways to follow me, you can find me on Craftsy, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', Feedly, Instagram, Google +, or get my blog sent right to your email inbox by entering your email address on the right sidebar!

I usually only share my client quilt photos on my Facebook or Instagram feeds.  If you want to see more of these throughout the year, you are welcome to follow along there!

Okay, here are a few more client quilts I think deserve sharing!

Linking Up:
Fresh Sewing Day
Anything Goes Monday.

Sampler Quilt Finish

While looking through my quilt pictures to decide which quilts to enter in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, I came across some pictures of a client's quilt I meant to share.

This quilt is made from the book Vintage Quilt Revival by Katie Clark Blakesley, Lee Heinrich and Faith  Jones.  I love the vibrant colors against the soft gray background fabric.

I quilted each block differently but I tried to use the same shapes to keep the quilt cohesive.

Some blocks were very organically quilted while others had a lot of line work in them.

And of course, some were a mixture of both.

 

The wide outside borders were also fun to quilt with these big overlapping swirls.  You can also see a few more blocks with some matchstick and straight line quilting in them.




 

 

But I think my favorite quilting in the whole quilt was the way the quilting in the sashing echos out from the cornerstones.

The back was mostly negative space so the quilting really shows up!

Have I told you guys how I have the best job (and best clients) ever!

If you are interested in more ways to follow me, you can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', Feedly, Instagram, Google +, or get my blog sent right to your email inbox by entering your email address on the right sidebar!

  

Linking up:  

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF

Fabric Frenzy Friday

Richard and Tanya Quilts

Crazy Mom Quilts

Sew Can She

Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #3 Part Three

This is always my favorite part of any quilt - getting to see the quilt start to come to life!

 

Last week's assignment for the third quilt in the Scrap-A-Palooza series was to sew up your strips. square up your blocks and attach the sashing. 


Now it is time to get them onto the design wall and come up with a final layout.








I decided to use 4 colors and sew up 5 blocks of each color.


The first possible layout is to simply align each color in columns and you can see by alternating the direction of the blocks, the solid on the sides of your block create a fun sashing!

Another possible layout is to lay the colors out diagonally.














If you have created blocks made with lots of colors, you can just place them randomly.  I think this one is very playful and works well with my color choices.
















And a "happy surprise" I discovered is creating a woven ribbon look.  This layout would take some planning on how many blocks to make and some color choices with more contrast than mine. 


This is definitely something I will be revisiting in the future!  Maybe hot colors one way and cool colors another?










This woven look reminded me of my picnic quilt I made a couple years back.  It is still one of my favorites.

...but back to this project.

Once you have your layout finalized, this quilt is super simple to piece.  There are very little seams to match up and if they aren't perfect, they don't show at all.  Love these easy scrappy quilts!

When you have your top sewn and your backing chosen (hopefully you can find something that already exists in your stash), it is time to quilt it up.  Here are a couple of ideas to get you thinking!

Simple squiggly lines could be really fun on this one.  Use the strips on the blocks to help you to keep your quilting in line.

Another option is to quilt just big loops.  Rather than making tight circles, I vary my loops from about 3/4" in diameter up to about 2".  I also find they look better when I keep them round versus teardrop shaped.

(Sorry - I wish I had a better picture)

I hope you try something slightly outside your comfort zone when you quilt up your scrap quilts.  They are perfect to practice on!

Here's an overview of the important stuff to do before the next step!

• Decide on a layout
• Sew up the top
• Dig in that stash for a backing (it is in there - just keep looking!)

 

 

And remember, you can check out all of the previous quilts by checking out the gallery tab. Not only are the steps to each part linked up but I have also shared quilts made by others so you can find lots of inspiration to sew up those scraps.

 

 

See you next week with my finished quilt!

I will be sharing this with the following linky parties. Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, and WIP Wednesday with Freshly Pieced.  Lots of other quilts to see at each of these places.