Unknown Artist Via M’Liss Rae Hawley on Flickr

Some of the quilts in the Traditional category really played with the idea of a Traditional quilt. I think in the UK many of these would be classed as Contemporary, at least for the purposes of Festival of Quilts. The fabric assortments were quite amazing, with the quilts having a very retro, scrap bag feeling, but seemingly made from modern fabrics. There were lots of incredible fabrics printed with text too - I love these and wish I'd bought more of this kind of print when I was at the show. The crazy kitties on this quilt were so amusing. Many of the quilts show very humorous and playful motifs and use of fabrics. 'Asobi' (Japanese for 'play') is the word that springs to mind. A traditionally inspired Lone Star exploding into more patterns, with very contemporary fabric choices - colourful but sophisticated. The title is 'Thank you'. Yes, that border is another text print... Polka dots have been popular with Japanese quilters for a long time. I like this combination of dots, stripes and checks. Playful! Bold touches of red and the wide red border contrast beautifully with the pastel prints. More text on fabric too. This is so far away from what I would class as 'traditional'. A very unusual layout. The royal blue colour scheme, the variety in the prints and the applique flowers and leaves take the traditional Cake Stand block and give it the wow factor for me. Love it. This is one I'd have liked to have brought home with me. A double Double Wedding ring? Fantastic. The ombre shading effect is something that appears again and again in Japanese quilts, reminding me of bokashi shading on kimono fabrics and linings. The yellow text print creating an inner border made me think of the Yellow Pages telephone directory... Going beyond strippies, with a folk art feeling to those heart curlicues. The first impression is that the overlapping circles in the centre are irregular, but the overlaps follow a rotational pattern, made up of little fan blocks. Amazing. This was probably the ultimate text fabric quilt - certainly the one with the biggest words. I wonder if non Japanese quilters make such a good job of using kanji in their quilts? The fabrics make this one of the freshest hexagon quilts I have seen in a long time. The use of single and double rosettes mixed in together makes the pattern more interesting. A proper flower garden. Sunflowers, zigzags and small applique circles - there were many quilts using little circle appliques as part of the design. Very nice use of stripes in the sunflower circle backgrounds. This was another quilt with text prints featured on the binding. Cosmic inspirations, with hexagons as patchwork and applique. At least one more post to come...

So, it's time for the big reveal of Lynette's Dragonfly Party 2. This is a special quilt to Lynette, it's one of two twin quilts, I'm sure in due course that Lynette will explain the sentimental value of this pair of quilts to you herself. I felt honoured that Lynette would think to send this quilt top from Colorado to Scotland for me to quilt it for her. I hope I have done the quilt justice and that the quilting comes up to Lynette's expectations. The twin of this quilt has been quilted in the USA by Judi Madsen AKA 'The Green Fairy' ..... so I have a lot to live up to in that respect! This top has been patiently waiting in line since January, it arrived like this.... All freemotion hand guided and ruler work quilted on my APQS Millennium longarm quilting machine. First off I have to say it was a pleasure to quilt such a beautifully pieced quilt....just look at those 1/4 inch sashings, they were perfect and I felt duty bound to keep them that way so stitched in the ditch either side with Superior Monolon Thread..sorry not shown in the photo but definitely used....I chose trilobal polyester threads from Filtec Glide, Metro and Isacord to match the fabrics on the top of the quilt with a golden yellow for the background and a creamy So Fine in the bobbin on all of the backing fabric. I used a variety of rulers, I've no affiliation to any one company I use what I like and what is suitable for the job in hand, it's important to find rulers that fit in your hand comfortably when there is as much ruler work as in this quilt. I used Deloa's Castle ruler for the straight lines, Renae's 12" arc for the curves in the large blocks, A curved ruler from Accents in Design for the continuous curves in the pieced blocks and 2 circle rulers to draw guides for the feathered wreaths....I used a purple marker to place dots where necessary as guides for the quilting designs. But come on in and see it for yourself.... Lynette requested a double batting of wool over cotton which always gives great definition to the quilting.... so lets just carry on with a few photos of the quilt shown on a twin bed... My Favourite block Looks wonderful in this room....there's just one problem, Lynette wants me to send it back?????

Cleaning was inevitable. It had to happen.... I rarely custom quilt for customers anymore but I have a few ladies who have been with me from my beginning who I will always quilt for. This particular lady loves the asian panels and I have really enjoyed quilting these tops. There are a wealth of quilting designs to be found in the fabric and I have always felt comfortable playing with the lush traditional Japanese motifs. I auditioned threads to get the process started. I will probably choose the lightest thread you see. And despite my dislike of changing threads I will likely switch on the ivory, to... ivory. My default thread color choice is almost always the lightest color present in the quilt top. My machine and I love Superior Threads. So Fine 50 wt. thread is what I use for the majority of my long-arm quilting. Studio clean, quilt loaded, now what? You guessed it....Plexiglas. The Plexiglas had a boxy maze drawn on it already, instead of erasing it I laid it down and used it as a starting point. I liked the way it looked over the circle, so I left it and started adding straight line work mixed with a tracing of the Japanese water and flower motifs. Moving the Plexiglas from the quilt top to a white table, gives a different perspective, enabling you to see the quilting design independent of the quilt top. It's a great opportunity to start evaluating how the quilting works or doesn't work compositionally on its own. I like where it's going but the circles need more definition, at this point I decide to get rid of the boxy maze outside of the circle and define the circles with a quarter inch (ish) echo. hmm... it's ok but something isn't quite right. I feel like the density of the quilting in the circles is too heavy. Densely quilted areas are going to recede while the areas that are less densely quilted are going to pop. In this case I would prefer that the background recede not the circles... back to the drawing board so to speak. I leave the boxy maze but change the scale, I do like a quilting design that maintains a similar density throughout. All the straight line work is still too much of the same for me, there is not a strong delineation between background and foreground. I am going to lose the boxy maze and add swirls to the background area to define and simplify the space. I like the feel of where this is going, I think it is starting to work more fluidly with the quilt top. I love working through my designs this way, I am able to see a lot of different ideas come to life without committing to anything. I will continue working out the kinks in this quilting design but I feel more confident in my direction and don't feel like I am just staring at a blank canvas any longer. I hope this gives you some ideas on how to make friends with your Plexiglas. I will leave you with a couple finished Asian panel quilt details, the first quilt is the back of an owl panel, the second and third are Kimono quilts, all pieced by Carlene Embry. Have a wonderful week.

Its been awhile since I've shared client quilts, and I have quite a few for you to enjoy. Here are some of my favorites. - Bridget - It was so fun to take this basic pinwheel baby quilt and add lots of detail and textures. The fabrics are so soft and sweet. Love this! Inside the pinwheels I wanted to quilt some petal like designs, which are topped of by adding the line with the three dots. Inspired by another machine quilter. On the back those lines and dots form a chain on point. One of the great parts of quilting is seeing how the design comes together, especially on the back. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the back anymore. I used a cream thread and an 8020 batting on this quilt.  I love how the light catches the textures. I finished it off with a free hand back and forth rope design in the inner border and a loose swirl on the outer border. - Jane - After I pinned on Jane's quilt on the machine canvas...before even starting to quilt, I posted a picture on instagram...it was instaloved instantly. Her fabric choices and colors were spot on. Jane's request was lots of detail. As I look at each quilt, I try to figure out something that will enhance the fabrics and blocks...the background was begging to have these oval uneven stone like pebbling everywhere. Yes, on a quilt this size it takes awhile, but it was so work it. The "Spin Cycle" blocks just pop! I also wanted to detail the points and add something to keep it cohesive throughout the quilt. And, it was sure fun to do. The finished result is...perfect...or at least I think so, this is why its one of my favorites.  Love how the light enhances the fabrics and quilting.  I used a tan perma core thread and an 8020 batting. - Jean - Isn't this quilt amazing?!?!?! I has specific instructions to add a ton of detail to this quilt. The wool batting that Jean provided allows the quilting to pop and prevents the quilt from being stiff. Love the wool!! The hours that this took to even decide what to do were long, and I'd show you my drawing but its not too great...so I'll stick with these pictures. Enjoy! Its quilted with a cream perma core 30 tex thread.  Here is a close up of one of the blocks. Do you see the block inside the block?? Yeah, amazing! When figuring out a detailed pattern, I try to use some of the same quilting designs in different parts of the blocks to tie whole design together. You can see that here, with the two blocks together. Love this! The borders. Here are a couple pictures of the back...love to see all that detail together. - Jeanette - This was a fun little wall hanging to quilt. This was Jeanette's first quilt, and she did an awesome job! I wanted to crackle the background to give it some texture, because there is so much wide open space. Then, I added a swirl and feather design to the tree to give it a fancy look. One of my most favorite parts though is this wood grain trunk. I used coordinating thread colors and 8020 batting. -Jeanne- This was another instahit on instagram. By pebbling the background it made the circles and how they are quilted pop. A side view. I used 8020 batting and a white perma core thread throughout. - Jen - Jen made this quilt for her lucky son! To keep it masculine I wanted to add all the lines. The lines in the grey add extra dimension to the chevron. And, who doesn't love this color combo! I used an 8020 batting, grey and cream perma core thread. - Karen - This quilt is made up of a simple quilt block, and was begging for some detail. Thankfully the block allowed this orange peel design to dress it up. I used a 8020 batting, and a cream perma core thread. - LaReen - LaReen made this gorgeous table topper out of one of my favorites fabric lines. She gave it to her mom for Christmas lucky, huh! I wanted to do something simple in the background that would enhance the star. Also, something fancy in the red border to dress up all that space. It turned out lovely. When a client gets their quilt or topper back and says now they need to make one for themselves, its quite a compliment. Thanks, LaReen! I used a 8020 batting and coordinating threads. - Lisa - This was another instahit! Can you believe all of these 1" squares...its king size and there is no border, which means there are 10,368 squares. This is an amazing one! Lisa asked for simple cross hatching, and I love it! 8020 batting and a cream perma core thread was used. This gorgeous spool quilt is one that I think Lisa made with a guild. I saw a few other of my clients names signed next to their spool. I wanted to add some detail to the spool to make them stand out, so I just did a simple echo line outside of each spool in the background. Look at all of that amazing hand embroidered wool work. Lisa, you are amazing! I wanted to add something that would make the wool pop and would dress up the background and open space, this all over swirl feather design does that. 8020 batting was used, with a cream perma core thread. Lisa made this for one of her lucky friends, for her birthday. The colors and fabric choices, make this one of my favorites. Because this quilt has minky on the back I needed to do a loose all over design in the center. This one is super fun to do, and I can add just about anything to it. I thought crackle quilting would enhance the appliques that Lisa did. Love those stems and flowers. 8020 batting was used and coordinating threads. - Maho - Maho always makes amazing quilts and does a fabulous job each time. This is a perfect example, normally I cringe inside when someone brings a quilt with really large borders (because they grow and ripple out of control) , especially when the inside is pieced on the bias...but not Maho! She is excellent at cutting and sewing exactly! Thanks, Maho! This is a quilt that she made for her daughter. She wanted some detail...So, I did an all over pattern in the background...which was the easiest way to get around the ric rac. I thought the lines and feathers would add great texture to the chickens. This quilt is amazing!!! The light catching all the details. Maho's husband came with her to pick this quilt up and was in awe...I've heard he raves about it to some people that we both know. 8020 batting used and a cream perma core thread. - Sandy - These are called the "Shinning Star", and my mom made these three in a long weekend sewing getaway we had last year. Even though the fabrics are the same for two of them, I'm showing them to you because the quilting is a little different in the backgrounds. This is quilting example number 1. This is one she made for my grandma. A close up of the feathers. This has feathers all over it! This is quilting example number 2. She made this one for my aunt Kris. I quilted a very tiny cross hatch in the inside of the feathered circles. Feathered swirls in the star and feathers in the border. Close up view. This is quilting example number 3. This one my mom made for my sister in-law, Brooke. She is the classiest person that I know, so I wanted to keep it as simple and classy as possible. The background has lines, the star is a feather swirl and the border is also feathered, with a back and forth rope design in the inner border. These soft golds went well with Brooke's Christmas décor. Love the light catching the details. Another view. All three stars I used 8020 batting and coordinating threads. - Wendy - I'm sad I didn't keep more pictures of this quilt! This is the first quilt that Wendy has made, and she gave it to her mom. It turned out gorgeous! Love love love, this fabric line. I do want to show you the quilting though. We talked about adding some details to this border to show off all the piecing that she did while sewing...I love how this one turned out! It even awesome on the back, look below. The quilting on the center of the quilt. This quilting on the backside of the border. Fun to see how the pattern comes together. I used an 8020 batting a cream perma core thread from A&E. Lots of beautiful quilts, huh?!?! Which one is your favorite??? Hopefully I can do this more often, its inspiring for everyone to see all these different unique patterns. Hope you enjoyed this, and happy sewing! ~ leisha

The free motion zigzag stitch is very versatile and creates wonderful designs with large, small, close knit or far apart stitches.

Quilting Patterns Chirp Applique Quilt Pattern by LTS December 11, 2019 Angel Tablerunner Quilt Pattern by LTS December 2, 2019 Beehive Quilt Pattern by LTS

My mother in law Nola was visiting this week, and brought with her this lovely crochet and fabric creation, which she has just finished… Isn’t it beautiful? And isn’t she clever! …

Finished the campfire piece today. Actually, I thought I had it finished yesterday. It looked like this: I don't know if you can see what I changed. The bottom foreground wasn't quite working for me. Those rocks around the fire looked too tight and somehow unnatural. And the ground itself wasn't "grounding." I added a couple more rocks and some deep shadow, which seem like an improvement to me. And then I added more sparks. Seemed like it needed those. This piece will be submitted for our next High Fiber Diet show, "The Elements." If I can get them done in time, I hope to complete all four elements to submit. I started with "fire" because it seemed the most challenging, but now I am having a hard time coming up with any ideas for earth, air and water! The size of this is 15" x 35". I kind of wish I had made it larger.

Sweet Surrender by Sue Cody, pieced by Beth and quilted by Judi Madsen

During my lectures and workshops, I've had several people ask me how I accomplished curved crosshatching. You can't imagine how very simple it really is. Get ya an arched template and curve away. Right? Right! So, to show you how easy peasy it is, I'm posting pictures of Linda's gorgeous Borders quilt where I did a curved crosshatch in the cream border, and showing you step-by-step how I did this. Linda LaBrot's beautiful Borders Quilt. Pattern is from Winnie Fleming's Borders Class I first wanted to create arches throughout the cream border. Using my favorite purple disappearing ink marker, I used an arch template to mark the double lines to create even arches through the border. I sewed these lines creating the arches. You could easily make this step straight lines as well. I like using double lines because it defines the arches. Now it was time to mark the curved crosshatched lines. Using that fabulous disappearing marker again and the same arch template, I marked the lines following the curve across the arch. Then turned the arch template over and marked the other way. Since the arched template I was using does not have any marked lines, I used a piece of painters tape on the template to mark the width of the crosshatches. Time to sew...Using the same arch template, I quilted the lines. I retraced the original arches and the stitch in the ditch at the bottom so I would not have so many starts and stops within such a small space. And so I put the curve into crosshatching. It really is Easy Peasy! And for your enjoyment, the rest of Linda's stunning Border Quilt. I had a hard time letting this one go back to her. I wanted to keep it.

Hello Everyone, Yeah, this gorgeous quilt is now off the machine and let the miles of binding begin! This is the quilt that had me s...

There were over 400 quilts at this years Sydney Quilt Show. So many amazing, beautiful, outstanding quilts. This is just a small selecti...

Welcome to Week 2 of Playful Color Month. Last week we talked about common symptoms of color trouble and the two root causes behind all color trouble. This week I want to give you a few solid tips to add to your Playful Color Toolbox Today we’re learning how to use those busy and bold, ... Read More about How to use Busy, Loud, but GORGEOUS Prints

I don't know if I've told you before, but I learned how to quilt while I lived in Japan in 2002. Japanese housewife culture, including their approach to quilting, has always fascenated me. I should have been an anthropologist and studied that more intensely, I know, but I got caught up in trying to communicate and became an ESL teacher instead. Anyway.. I discovered flickr in 2006 and the quilts I saw there lead me to start blogging about quilting. Tonight I want to share a handful of my favorite quilt photos from the Tokyo International Quilt festivals held each year in January. One year I'll make it there myself, but until then, I will live vicariously through Jennifer and Jan. Be*mused Tokyo Quilt Fest 2011 Set Be*mused Tokyo Quilt Fest 2010 Set Be*mused Tokyo Quilt Fest 2009 Set Movinghands Tokyo Quilt Fest 2008 Set Movinghands Tokyo Quilt Fest 2007 Set Movinghands Tokyo Quilt Fest 2006 Set (one of my all-time favorites is the 9th quilt in the set-- the blue one) All photos in this post were taken by Jan of Be*mused, used with permission. (*I hate to post quilt photos without information about the makers, but sadly most of these pics don't include any. Apparently the quilter info is only printed in Japanese at the show. If you have any information for any of these quilts, please comment and I will give them proper credit.)

A view to the many quilts I've created over the years. I have also added recent smocking projects to the blog.

Check out how I custom quilted Kim Diehl's Hope and Harmony quilt, which is in her new Simple Double-Dipped Quilts book. I share which rulers I used, the batting, thread color, and my quilting process for the background design.

42”x42”, gorgeous quilted wall hanging. Can be done in other color, please contact me for details

Create a romantic masterpiece with the Cathedral Window Quilt and coordinating pillow! This stunning quilt is sure to wow your friends and family with its intricate and complex look, but it is so much easier than it looks! This style of qulit is quilt-as-you-go, no batting or backing required! Quilt finishes to approximately 36" x 54". Pillow finishes to approximately 13-1/2" x 13-1/2".

Update: With one exception, NONE of these quilts are mine and I can’t tell you about the patterns used or the quiltmakers, except as attributed (however, most quilt makers would be from Weste…

Hello Everyone, I'm on a roll getting this quilt ready to send off to the machine quilter. I decided to have a professional tackle this one for a couple of reasons. Time is of the essence for one thing, and I'm a slow machine quilter. The other main reason is that my machine quilter is so creative! I've been getting up between 4 and 5 every morning. I quilt or applique, answer emails, and do whatever needs to be done before I leave the house at 7:45 and go to the pool for lap swimming for 45 minutes then water aerobics. The early bird gets to pick any lane of their choice! Most mornings I have my own private pool. In the distance, you can see all of the smoke from the controlled burn that settles in every night. The air quality has not been the best. Yesterday, I took a quilting break, and we headed three miles up the road to have lunch at Calaveras Big Trees State Park. We'd heard they have an excellent food truck there.....and they do! I had a delicious Mediterranean Chicken Saled and Mr. Joe had a Chicken Pita sandwich. It was so peaceful sitting by the big meadow while enjoying our lunch. The birds were talking to us the entire meal. The sky was so blue, and the smoke was gone. Today we have our annual homeowner's association meeting at Snowflake Lodge which includes a free lunch. I have a hot dog about once a year and today is the day! Sometimes they just hit the spot. Soon, Lynn

The description card reads, "Crazy Quilt 1883-1893 Silk, cotton, wool, and linen, pieced and embroidered with silk and cotton threads Crazy quilts, which emerged after 1850, were usually composed of small, irregular-shaped fragments of silk, wool, and other fragments pieced together. The seams were then embroidered using a variety of stitches. They acquired the name “crazy quilts” because of the strong colors and busy, confusing nature of their designs, typical of Victorian taste."

Hello there, It’s been too long, and I have lots to catch up on…life has been crazy for me. Hopefully I can get back into a blogging groove, because I’ve quilted some pretty amazing quilts over the last several months.

This quilt made its way to me from Arizona. A gal is teaching this pattern (a Jacqueline de Jonge pattern) in a class at a community college and asked me to quilt it after seeing an article I wrote…

This quilt has become so popular on all the popular online sites and so many people want to know the name of the pattern. (I posted it further down in the blog post but I thought I would add it up here in the first paragraph.). The pattern is called Rising Stars by Cozy Quilt Designs.. Well, I finished this quilt just in the nick of time. I am taking a break from doing the hand binding, and hand stitching the casings on four quilts so they can be hung in my guild's quilt show tomorrow. This is a UFO that sat on my shelves for years, at least the jelly rolls did, and then I started this quilt back in January. I wasn't quite sure just how I was going to quilt it until I just happened upon an IMQA calendar that had this same pattern in it! Wow! I loved the way Debbie Treusch had broken down the elements in this by framing each 16 patch. I contacted Debbie and let her know that her quilt inspired me and she wished me luck with my quilt! She is one talented lady, and has won many awards in the quilting world. The pattern is called Rising Stars by Cozy Quilts. Be sure to tell them I referred you :) Of course I had to put my own creativity on it, so I changed up the fills, the sashing, the feather style, as well as the cc's in the 16 patches. I am a bit disappointed that I did not use a contrasting thread in the white. The stitch definition shows up beautiful in natural light, but in artificial light it gets lost. In the future I will use a slight contrast. After all, why do all that custom quilting to have it get lost? This will most likely be my last personal quilt I work on for quite awhile, as I have a few customer quilts that I am really excited to start on!

Pieced quilts are absolutely more my style than art quilts. Walking around the IQFOI exhibits, I found saturated color to be a rarity but b...

Explore glinsterling's 482 photos on Flickr!

Hello there, It’s been too long, and I have lots to catch up on…life has been crazy for me. Hopefully I can get back into a blogging groove, because I’ve quilted some pretty amazing quilts over the last several months.