Traditional and Contemporary

 

This past week or so I have been trying to catch up with some of my client’s quilts.

Life is busy in so many ways right now, so I do not take in as many quilts from clients as I used to. I like to try to stay caught up with them.

Both quilts I am featuring today were made by Cathy. Even though they are quite different, both quilts were custom freehand quilted.

This first quilt is more of a traditional quilt and so I quilted it more traditionally. The feather wreath is very traditional. This traditional quilt is given a contemporary feel from the pop it gets from the brighter green.

This other quilt is more contemporary, and Cathy requested a more modern style of quilting.

I hope you enjoyed viewing these quilts. I want to get better at taking pictures and posting the quilts I quilt for my clients.

 

Blessings,

Candy

 

I did finish the top of my 2023 Temperature Quilt. I decided not to share it until I have it quilted.

Now, on to my 2024 Temperature Quilt. I have decided on fabric and design. Once again, I will be using Art Gallery Solids for the temperature highs and lows. Lately my fabric choices are becoming increasingly mellow. Not that many years ago my fabric choices could not have been brighter and now I can’t seem to get soft enough.

I started by digging into my box of fabric swatches from Woven and Woolly. Once I finally had what I thought I wanted to go with, I pulled my Art Gallery Solids I had left from other projets to see what I could use. If some of what I had was close enough to swap out, then I did.

This picture is pretty much the fabric I decided on and the temperature range they would be used for. The places where there are two fabrics, I had not quite made up my mind.

I order most of my Art Gallery fabric from Pear Tree Market on Etsy. They had every fabric I needed except Spruce. Yeah, I could order Spruce from another shop but then I would have to pay shipping for just one fabric.

This shows my search for another green with a hint of blue. I wanted Pacific. That happens to be a fabric I also used last year. But again, my favorite shop did not have Pacific. So, I continued my search and came up with Morning Frost and placed my order.

I am now rethinking that decision and I believe I want to use Pacific. Think I will bite the bullet and just order one yard from another shop and pay the shipping.

These are the fabrics that I already have that I will be using.

You can see in this photo that Morning Frost stands out from the other fabric. 

Here are all the temperature fabrics laid out on my background. I am using Robert Kaufman Essex Yarn Dyed in Flax. This fabric has been a favorite of mine for quite some time now. I happen to have an entire bolt of it.

By now you are probably wondering what pattern I will be using this year. This one will be a little different than the previous years. I am going to be doing a vine for each month. On that vine will be leaves with points on both ends. Most of you quilters out there may know this shape as an orange peel. My initial thought was to have the vine meandering. While I was drawing it out, I thought I would also give a straight vine a try. I believe my initial thought was right and I am going with meandering.

It appears I have a fondness for Orange Peel Quilts. I have made a few. The additional photos are of all the Orange Peel Quilts I have made so far.

I will continue to share when I begin the process of making my 2024 Temperature Quilt.

Have you ever made a Temperature Quilt, and what design did you use? I would love to see a picture of it.

 

             Blessings,

              Candy

February and Heart Quilts

 

Today is Groundhog Day, and February is the month of love and hearts.

Over the years I have been quilting I have made many little heart quilts.

When I had my Quilt Shop, I started designing patterns. I designed a bunch of little ones that I call Monthly Minis. I have one Monthly Mini for each month and I also have one Mini for each major holiday. I think the mini for February featuring the groundhog and a heart is one of my favorites. This pattern is named “February Phil” after Punxsutawney Phil. This little wall hanging finishes to 11” x 13”. If you are interested, this pattern can be purchased HERE on my Etsy Shop.

This little “Love” quilt is the Mini for Valentines Day and is also available on my Etsy Shop.

A couple of years ago I made these cute little heart pillows for three of my closest friends. They are only about 6” square.

This next one is also a pattern of mine. I just realized I don’t even have this one on Etsy. Guess I need to remedy that. This one measures 36” square and uses a charm pack, or 5-inch squares to complete.

The rest of these heart quilts were made a long, long time ago. Have you made a heart quilt?

Heart Quilts for the table.

This little one is about the size of a piece of paper. 

This one I made from a fabric exchange with my mom and sisters, about 25 years ago. 

I think we exchanged 6-inch squares. 

Both of these are also about 25 years old.

This cute little quilt is the one that got me hooked on quiltilng. 

I made this in February of 1998.

This one is even hand quilted. 

Hope you enjoyed looking back at my Heart Quilts. 

Blessings,

Candy

Working On My 2023 Temperature Quilt

 

This past week I have been diligently working on my 2023 Temperature Quilt. I absolutely love the way it is coming together. I love the fabric and I love the triangle. This is my favorite Temperature Quilt I have done so far.

It all began with the design. Of course, each year I look at a ton of Temperature Quilts online. Then the tuff decision of what to do with mine. I loved the circle and did that two years in a row.

 I have a triangle quilt that I absolutely love and thought maybe my Temperature Quilt should be triangles. I made this triangle quilt when following along with the improv triangle sewalong with Nicholas Ball on Instagram.

So, I sketched out the triangles, did some figuring and decided what size the blocks would be. The triangles are an equilateral triangle; 60-degree angles. My drawing is not an accurate 60 degrees. I used this Creative Grids Kites Plus Ruler, because my other 60-degree triangle ruler is a large 12” triangle. The blocks are a finished 4” x 2.5” There will be 14 blocks (2 weeks) across, and 27 blocks down. This finished quilt will be 56” x 67.5”. That is a nice throw size.

Then, probably even more difficult than design was choosing the fabric. Don’t get me wrong, I love choosing fabric, but it does take a lot of thought, and I also had the help of my daughter. I decided that the entire quilt would be Art Gallery Solids. I have the entire line of color swatches that I purchased from Woven and Woolly. Having these swatches makes choosing fabric so much fun.

Each fabric represents a five-degree range. The triangle is the high temperature for the day and the background is the low for the day.

The triangles were cut using the 60-degree ruler. The backgrounds were cut in half using the same ruler. The fact that I used a solid fabric that is the same on the front and the back made this a lot easier. I could just flip the other side of the rectangle instead of having to cut a mirror image.

After the triangle blocks were pieced, I trimmed them to 3” x 4.5”.

To indicate the beginning of each month I put a little white triangle in the upper left corner.

Once all the blocks are labeled on the back and in order in bags labeled by month the piecing is quite easy.

I have 48 weeks pieced together so far. I am hoping it will not take me long to finish this quilt, but I do have other things I should be working on right now.

 

Blessings,

Candy

 

Brynn's Name Quilt

 

Brynn will be a year old on February 6^th and I finally finished her Name Quilt. This is a throw size quilt. I have made one for each of my grandchildren so far. So, this is number 4 and I still need to make one for Berkley. He will be one on March 16^th. I really want to get it done before his birthday.

My daughter chose the pattern and fabric for this quilt. One of the reasons it took so long to get it done is this was the third pattern she chose, and we ordered fabric 3 different times. But not only did it put me behind with Brynn’s quilt, but I am now behind with Berkley’s quilt. Honestly, I can’t blame my daughter for me being behind, I just didn’t do much sewing at all last year.

I believe all  of the fabrics used in this quilt are Art Gallery except for the background, which is Peppered Cotton in Oyster. Peppered Cotton Oyster is my favorite background fabric right now.

Recently I have been getting most of my Art Gallery Fabric from Pear Tree Market on Etsy. They carry a lot of Art Gallery and are very quick at shipping it out. 

This was the first block. I just started with the one to make sure this was what my daughter wanted.  

I was keeping Brynn three days a week while my daughter worked. 

You can see I was working on her quilt while she napped.

I don't know what I would do without a design wall to get that just right layout. 

I prefer a double blaket stitch to outline my machine applique. 

Using a darker thread helps to make the applique letter pop.

Sewing on that last border.

The top finished.

Quilting it on the long arm.

I love taking pictures of the completed project outside on the washline. 

These are the fabrics I will be using in Berkley's Name Quilt. I will also be using Peppered Cotton in Oyster for the background fabric. Once again I believe these are all Art Gallery fabrics. 

Blessings,

Candy