Category Archives: Quilts

Teahouse Garden

March 24, 2023 10:40 pm ⋅ Pam

Last week I started cleaning up my the flat surfaces in the Quilt Studio, starting with the cut off backing and batting from the past 6 months of quilts. Among the finds was a length of Teahouse Garden which was long enough and wide enough to make 18 5″ finished 4-patch kaleidoscope blocks.

In addition to the cut off scraps, I dug around for the rest of the fabric and discovered I had just enough fabric to make a total of 48 blocks — half cut as 4-patches and half cut as hour-glass units. I had more more yard left so, it became the backing of this unplanned quilt.

Thursday afternoon I loaded it on the longarm and started quilting. With just 2 half motifs left to quilt, my phone rang and I paused the machine so I could hear.

It was a now retired co-worker with devastating news. She has Stage 4 Lung Cancer and the prognosis is grim.

After getting off the phone I did what quilters do – looked for a quilt to send her. Nothing seemed right in my stack of recently finished quilts, so I went back to finish up Teahouse Gardens and realized I had been working on Anne’s quilt for the past week. Anne loves Bonsai. In my mind I had just found Anne’s quilt.

It’s packed up to ship out in the morning and I totally forgot to get the final measurements. But here are the rest of the stats.

Started 3/16/2023
Finished 3/24/2023
Size before washing: 47 x 59
Thread: Glide 40wt in Biscotti – 2 bobbins 12 SPI
Quilting Motif: Flowers Spirals. Lengthened to 18″ with a -3 Row Gap
Batting: Legacy 80/20

Posted in: Teahouse Gardens

The Fabric Did All the Work

February 28, 2023 10:45 am ⋅ Pam

I’m calling this Bohemia Twilight Feathers in a nod to both the pattern name — Bohemia, and the fabrics Kaffe Feathers in Cool, and Stonehenge Twilight Ombre. The binding is Grunge Basics in Tori, and the backing is Groovy Garden Colors in Purple. Truly the fabrics did all the work.

This was a quick start/finish for me. I bought the fabric for the top and backing Friday afternoon and had a quilt top by Saturday night. Once I had part of the top done Saturday morning, I ran out and picked up the binding fabric.

Clearly the purples in the quilt are on the blue side and the wall color is on the red side. The first picture is closer to the real colors.

Quilt Stats:

Pattern: Bohemia from Villa Rosa Designs
Fabrics: Kaffe Feathers – Cool, Stonehenge – Twilight Ombre, Grunge Basics – Tori, Groovy Garden Colors – Purple
Legacy 80/20 batting
Thread: Glide 40 wt Eggplant (2 1/2 bobbins)
Edge-to-Edge Design – Feather Wave with -1.75 gap
Stitch Length: 12
Stitch Count: 95,404
Machine Running Time: 2 hours 12 minutes
Total time to piece, quilt, trim & bind quilt 13 1/2 hours
Washed size 54 1/4 x 70 1/2

Posted in: Bohemia

A 6 Hour Quilt Top

February 26, 2023 1:02 am ⋅ Pam

Friday afternoon I drove down to McComb to deliver the Log Cabin quilt to my cousin. On my way home I stopped in at Gardensong Fabrics in Brookhaven. Did I need any fabric? No. But since it is the largest shop around and a little over an hour away from my house, I stopped anyway. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, then I remembered Bohemia, a Villa Rosa Design that I picked up in San Antonio last month.

I stepped outside to get reception on my phone and looked up the pattern to see the requirements. I then asked about ombre fabric. They had several colors of Stonehenge.

I liked these two, so began looking for a print to go with them.

For the teal I found this Kaffe Chrysanthemum. I think this would be very striking.

For the purple/blue I found this Kaffe feather print. I ended up choosing the feather.

I picked up 4 yards of this fabric to use for the backing. Although not a perfect match, it was on sale. I decided to hold off on binding fabric until I saw the quilt top.

Now to get it quilted.

Posted in: Bohemia

Ready for Christmas?

February 16, 2023 10:42 pm ⋅ Pam

It’s taken 4 years, but the matching pillowcases for my Christmas En Provence are done. And the fabric is put away.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, En Provence, pillowcase

More Finishes

February 13, 2023 9:52 am ⋅ Pam

First up is my Black & White 4-patch Stacked Posies quilt. The quilt top was finished in 2008. I even started quilting it after my sister got her long arm. Then I ripped out a bunch of the quilting. I finally pulled it out late last month.

Each block is quilted individually with the same motif, the sashing is quilted with another motif and the borders were quilted separately. Given my thread color – Mercury – the quilting is not very visible, and an edge-2-edge design might have worked just as fine. On the other hand, I learned a lot.

Quilt Top started: Spring 2008 and finished 9/8/2008
Quilting Finished 2/5/2023
Before Washing 60 2/4″ x 85 1/4″
After Washing 56 1/4 x 79″
Thread Glide 40wt in Mercury

This is quilt is on my 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO Challenge list.

This is Spider Webs. A few years ago at a quit retreat, a quilter made Night & Day, a Quilt in a Day quilt. That particular pattern has odd cuts, which can be used to make SpiderWebs. She didn’t want the extra pieces and gave them to a friend, who in turn passed them to my sister. My sister put the center together. While we were in San Antonio, we picked out the border fabrics and backing. I added the border, quilted and bound the quilt before sending it back to my friend.

Start: unknown
Finished: 2/5
Thread: Glide 40wt in Biscotti – 2+ bobbins
Quilting Motif: PR105298 – Alpine – Grande with -7 row gap
Before Washing : 49 3/4 x 57 1/4

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Stacked 4-Patch

Another Quilt?

January 23, 2023 10:30 am ⋅ Pam

Well, it’s not bound yet.

Over the weekend I updated the software on my longarm. So between that and wanting to remember how to setup a separate border, I pulled out this Stacked Posies quilt from 2008.

In addition to having a separate border, each block and sashing is quilted individually. If you click on the picture the quilting becomes visible. In retrospect, given the thread color I used (Glide 40wt Mercury) and edge-2-edge design would have worked just as well.

This quilt is on my 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO Challenge list. As soon as I get it bound it will be the 4th quilt I’ve knocked off my list. That leaves me just 12 quilts tops waiting to be quilted. We won’t talk about the # of quilts I’m still piecing. Those can be seen HERE.

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Longarm, Stacked 4-Patch

Quilt # 4 of 2023

January 22, 2023 1:02 am ⋅ Pam

I’m on a roll. This is Cityscape. Barb Q, a member of Candelight Quilters Guild pieced the top a few years ago, the put it in the guild’s auction. My notes indicate I bought it in January 2020. Last week I tossed it on my longarm and did some simple quilting. Straight lines randomly spaced using my electronic channel locks in the sections with the buildings. “Calm waters” turned vertically and chopped up for the ‘sky’ and ‘river’. The “Tree” section I sliced, diced and concatenated bubbles on a string. For the binding I used a Grunge in Moutarde.

Quilt Stats:

Obtained top: 1/20/2020
Finished: 1/21/2023
Glide 40wt in Strawberry Blond – 1 bobbin
Legacy 80/20 batting
35 3/4 x 47

Posted in: Cityscape, UFOs

Quilt # 3 of 2023

January 20, 2023 6:00 am ⋅ Pam

This is Princess and the Pea.

I won the panel at a guild auction back in 2019. That year the retreat mystery quilt started with a panel. If I remember correctly, I brought the panel and a bunch of fabric that I thought would go with the top. After I got the borders on it, I folded it up and it’s sat in the To Be Quilted pile.

This quilt was put on the 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO Challenge list because I knew that the January program at Quilters By Hearts’ Desire was Panels and Cheaters. This even worked into our new monthly lesson on borders, as the first lesson was Coping Borders.

When it came time to bind it, I opted to use the same fabric as I used for the backing. It’s black and has multi-colored swirls on it.

Quilt Stats

Started 4/13/2019
Finished 1/16/2023
Glide 40wt in Amethyst
E2E – Radiate with Pearls
Legacy 80/20 batting
Size before Quilting & Washing 48 1/2 x 64 1/2
Size after Quilting & Washing 46 x 59

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Princess and the Pea

What I’m Working On

January 16, 2023 11:16 pm ⋅ Pam

I “quilted” all weekend. Quilting in this case included actually quilting 2 tops, then getting 3 quilts bound, labeled and washed. I’ll do a separate post for each of the quilts this week. I also pulled this little top out of my tops box and quickly quilted it. I won it in my guilds auction in 2020. Now to find something to use for binding.

Posted in: Cityscape

Design Wall Monday

January 2, 2023 1:50 am ⋅ Pam

On this first Design Wall Monday of 2023, I have a quilt top finish. This is the log cabin quilt I started piecing at the quilt retreat in September. When I packed up after the retreat half the blocks needed 3 logs and the rest just needed two logs. I got those added last week and started piecing the top New Year’s Eve. I had the first half finished about 4 minutes before the clock struck midnight, ringing in the new year. The 2nd half of the top was finished by 11:30 PM on the 1st. Up next is the quilting.

This is the backing I’m planning on using. Now to figure out the quilting design.

As I was assembling the quilt my Rivanna HST were getting created. At last count I had 11 bags of HST. I still have a few more of this combination, then it will be on to another fabric. I have 2 more fabrics prepped.

I’ve stitched a bit more on my Faux Applique. This is a direct result of the Final Countdown Challenge over at Prairie Moon Quilts.

Chilhowie Clue 6 will be worked on this week. It’s simple enough, but I ran out of bobbin thread the night I was working on it, then got caught up with the log cabin.