For My Neighbor Cristina, thanks to Ebony

When I first met Cristina, she was a 7th grader who loved to touch fabrics.  She was a sponge who happily absorbed anything I showed her about quilting and sewing.  During her high school years she made several quilts in my studio.  One summer I asked her to do this Fence Rail and model this pattern and sew it as grand daughter Nikki made her own Fench Rail.  Cris found these fabrics in my stash and went to town.  And then life intervened, and this quilt was never finished. 

I thought I would finish it for Christmas 2010 and give it to Cris.  But then Ebony Love bought a long-arm quilt machine and wanted quilts to practice on.  Am I the lucky one or what?  Ebony just returned this quilt to me yesterday, and I am stunned at the density and fluidity of her quilting.  This quilt is beautiful, and her curvy quilting lines are a fabulous juxtaposition to the straight lines of this Fence Rail pattern. And Ebony's choice of thread color - perfect.

A word about Cristina's outer border.  I didn't like it when Cris chose it.  And I still remember Cristina tell me it was something unexpected and that you sometimes just have to take risks.  In hinsight?  She was right. 

I think I wanted a brighter gold color for the binding.  However, this yellow batik with the dots coordinates nicely with the border.  Click on this picture to see the details of Ebony's quilting.

Cristina is a sophomore at the University of Iowa and will be home for Spring Break in a few weeks.  I can't wait to return this quilt to her!

A More-Than-Satisfactory Barter

Delivering a finished quilt is always a thrill. Last night Greg and Dorothy took possession of the Jazz T-Shirt Quilt they commissioned during the summer of 2007. Choosing which t-shirts to include and what fabrics to provide the background ought to be simple tasks. Obviously they aren't. However, the time that went into these decisions paid off handsomely. The final component on this quilt were the services of Debbie the Long-Arm Quilter. She again has proven her artistry, this time with a straight-line meander. The red border, which is 20 inches all around, and the neutral between the t-shirts are beautifully quilted, as are the t-shirts themselves. This large quilt - 98" x 114" - was hard to photograph, but this photo gives a good general idea. The back of this quilt is almost as pretty as the front.

Debbie mentioned that she has a couple of weddings coming up that she needs gifts for, and she admits that she doesn't like to do piecing. So I offered her the 3rd Jinny Beyer quilt top. The first one - 83" x 83" - hangs in my studio. I pieced and quilted it. I made a second one for my bed - "100 x 114" - and Debbie quilted it with a fabulous varigated thread and wonderful curves and loops. The third one was unspoken for. So Debbie bought the kit from me for $90, and then we bartered our services - the quilting of the jazz t-shirt quilt for the piecing of the Jinny Beyer quilt top. This was a $250 barter, and I don't know who was more pleased - Debbie or me.

Cecilia's Quilt

Cecilia's fabulous fabric sections and design decisions, my piecing, and Debbie's long-arm quilting have produced this lovely bed quilt for Cecilia's master bedroom. Debbie chose to do all quilting with a complementary variegated thread. The batik backing and the outer borders really showcase the quilting, which so gently blends into the body of the quilt. A hi-loft polyester batt gives this quilt a puffy airiness and is a wonderful weight for sleeping. The quilting may have taken up a few inches of the original size of 100" x 118"; still, this quilt is huge.

I pretty much sew using a tip from Lady Macbeth's book: I'm bloody, bold, and resolute. I tend to make decisions quickly and then of course never look back. So, collaborating with someone like Cecilia who is thoughtful and deliberate with design and color decisions stretches my patience. Debbie the Long-Arm Quilter knew exactly what thread she wanted to use and suggested the hi-loft rather than thinner batt but she too was deliberate with the quilting, letting the quilt design guide her work. This creative process meant that this quilt was five months in the planning and making. But the result was definitely worth the wait.

The Long Arm of Quilting

This is the most beautiful quilt ever. Of course I say that about each quilt I make, but this one truly is spectacular. Because I was making it for the bed that I share with John, I wanted to make it wide and long. Most queen quilts at 90" wide, so I wanted this one to be 100" wide. John prefers a long quilt, so the length is 114". That is a lot of fabric. I worked very hard piecing the blocks for this quilt. Since this quilt is so large and so pretty, I deciced to splurge and have a long-arm quilter work on this quilt. Normally I do my own quilting, which is straight-line and utilitarian. My machine-quilting holds the 3 layers together and reinforces the geometric lines of the quilt. Just recently I've been experimenting with free-motion quilting, but that's a skill that has to be practiced quite a bit before tackling a full-size quilt

The quilt we currently have on our bed, a white and blue log cabin, is a quilt that I had machine-quilted with an all-over pattern. That technique would not have been good enough for this Jinny Beyer "Around the World" quilt. In February 2007 I met Downers Grove quilter Judy Teska when she and I shared a 90-minute timeslot at a quilting-themed women's retreat held by the Downders Grove Congregrational Church. What a charming woman and what a talented quilter! Judy gave me the name of a long-arm quilter, Debbie of Tinley Park. Based on Judy's recommendation, I took my fabulous quilt to Debbie in February. On March 30 I returned to pick it up.

Debbie is truly an artist. She initially asked whether I wanted my blocks/design or her quilting to be dominant. When I asked her if her if the two components could highlight one another, she smiled. She suggested a varigated thread, Nordic Fjord. She worked her magic (although I must point out that she has a heavy workload and the wait time was 4 weeks). I hate to use the word spectacular again, but really it is. The photograph doesn't even begin to hint at the textural richness created by the quilting. The quilting lines are so organic and complementary to the design and the colors. It's really a work of beauty.

I can't wait to create a new quilt top that is somehow Deb-worthy.

If you're thinking this quilt looks suspiciously like the one in the Made Possible by a Grant From... in a March post, you are sort of right. These fabrics are the same, and so is the overall design. However, the first quilt posted has a Mariner's Compass center and corners. This quilt has a simpler center and corners.