Custom Quilts of Joy

Turning Quilt Tops into Treasures

Recent Posts

  • A Basket full of Posies

    A Basket full of Posies

    This quilt was pieced by Joan from Virginia. It was quite large and took me a bit longer to finish than I anticipated. I like the finished quilt though. When designing the quilting for this quilt, I felt that traditional quilting patterns would fit the quilt, so I went with a swag border and put half posies in the center of the swag. I also doubled up the arches of the swag to mimic the basket handles. I finished it off with beadboard on the outside of the swags. All of the baskets got the same half posies with feathers surrounding the basket handles and a kind of “corporal” stripe between the baskets. I like how that looks also.

    I used legacy batting and So Fine thread on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. I had the hardest time trying to stay in the ditch on those basket handles. I’m not sure why – I’ve not had much problems with applique in the past.  This took me nearly 3 weeks!! to finish (of course I was distracted by life’s curveballs, but still!).

    joan-baskets joan-baskets1 (2) joan-baskets1 joan-baskets3 joan-baskets4

  • A couple of Batiks – argghhh

    Ok.  I totally love batiks – I love how they look. I love how there is no top or bottom.  I love the designs.  And up till now, I even loved how they quilted.  Till now.  Seriously, I now hate batiks.  Ok, that’s wrong.  I don’t hate them.  It’s kind of like after your brother tells you to touch the electric wire – it’ll be fun he says – and you know how that turns out, right?  Kind of like that.  You still love your brother, but the next time he tells you something will be fun you’ll not take him at his word, right?  That’s how I feel about batiks now.  I still love them, but I don’t quite trust them to behave.

    This first batik quilt was done by Cheryl.  I love Cheryl.  Her quilts are always so perfect and I get to play with the quilting and she is so supportive and generous with compliments.  I mean, really. Who wouldn’t love her!?  Well, this is a gorgeous quilt – her own design, really, this time. And it had black batik to PLAY with.  I mean OMG, I was SO looking forward to doing this quilt.  I had read horror stories about batiks, but I had never had any problems quilting batiks in the past.  I had a great longarm; I was using Glide thread; what could go wrong?  Well, in short, everything.  This quilt spiraled into the quilt from hell.  Seriously.

    The quilt after this one was also batiks.  While it started out with similar problems, I was quickly able to get it under control and finished it with no problems.  So, What In The World?! was different? One had a mixture of washed batiks and unwashed batiks (the bad quilt) and the other had a mixture of unwashed batiks and cotton (good one).  One used Glide thread (bad) and the other used So Fine (good).  One had black batiks (bad) and the other had a variety of colored batiks (good).

    What was the problem, you ask already?  My thread kept Breaking and Shredding.  I tried every trick I knew.  Nothing helped.  To top it off, the pattern I chose on the “bad one” was one where every single break would be highly visible. OMG.

    So, what do I think caused the problem?  I wasn’t sure what to blame until another quilter told me that she had problems with black batiks.  That something in the black dye of those batiks were notoriously cursed for longarms.  I TOTALLY believe that. Like black = evil.  Totally makes sense to me.

    Here are the two quilts, the bad one first and the good one last:

    cheryl-coffeebean cheryl-coffeebean2 sandra-batik1 sandra-batik2

  • Blue Work

    Blue Work

    Oh, I absolutely love this blue work embroidery.  It made me want to take up embroidery again just so I could do one of these.  Of course, since the last time I did embroidery was when I was a young girl spending my dime allowance at the 5 and dime store, it may take a little doing to brush off those skills. 🙂  This is a new customer and she did a fantastic job on her embroidery.  I wanted her embroidery to be the star of the show, so I stitched a crosshatch over all of the embroidery blocks using Invisifil 100 wt white thread.  I also used the same white thread in the print bordering the embroidery blocks and in the outer border.  In the blue outer border, I used a blue glide on top with blue bottom line on bottom and stitched out a half flower (traveling in the ditch between each one to stitch down the seam).  Did I say I love this quilt?

    Bluework 1 Bluework2Bluework back

  • Traveling Turtles

    Traveling Turtles

    I LOVE this latest baby quilt off my frame. 42×60, applique. This has to be the Cutest thing ever! I used two battings – Legacy 80/20 on the bottom and QD Poly on top because I wanted lots of texture with this. I did a checkerboard with alternating blocks densely quilted in the outer border to mimic the checkered flag at the end of a race.  I thought it would add a nice texture and it really did. The rays from the sun are also alternated with quilting and I LOVE how it feels. I did various background fills and SID around all of that applique. I used 7 different color threads (So Fine, Bottom Line, Decobobs, Madeira monolon).  This was a really fun quilt and I really wanted to keep this one, but it goes to Lorna’s lucky grandson.

    Traveling Turtles   Traveling Turtles

    Traveling TurtlesTraveling TurtlesTraveling TurtlesTraveling TurtlesTraveling TurtlesTraveling Turtles

  • People’s Choice Ribbon at Arthur Quilt Show

    People’s Choice Ribbon at Arthur Quilt Show

    I live not far from Amish country (Arthur, IL). I actually lived there and went to school there through the 4th grade. (Later moving to nearby Sullivan, IL.) Our closest neighbors were Amish and we bought milk from them and played with their kids.

    Arthur has an annual Quilt Show which brings a lot visitors from all over. Included in their show is an auction with the proceeds going to their charities. Their show is filled with some awesome hand-quilted quilts; so, it was TOTALLY AWESOME that MY quilt, Spring Shadows, won People’s Choice!

    People's Choice Ribbon at Arthur Quilt Show

  • I’m back! Spring Shadows is done too

    I’m back! Spring Shadows is done too

    Ok. I’ve seriously been neglecting my blog. I know, I know. We’re all busy, busy, busy and why should I be any different than any other blogger/quilter/full-time worker?! The problem is once you rationalize that it is ok to skip posting about this quilt, then it’s ok to skip posting about the next one. Then before long, it’s been like 3 MONTHS! Good grief!

    So, what have I been doing with all this extra blog-free time?

    1. Remodeling and adding an addition to the house (see pic below) to accommodate my takeover of the space formerly used for a  living room for my longarm frame.
    2. Quilting my Spring Shadows quilt (see pic below)
    3. Sick with the flu
    4. My ex-husband died and I hosted the after-funeral dinner at my newly remodeled home (yes, my current #2 husband is a saint)
    5. I found out the day after my ex-husband died that my kids have a half-sister we didn’t know about (same age as my 2nd daughter, and yes I think I must be a saint too for still hosting the after-funeral dinner after learning about that 35-year-long secret).  This seriously caused a lot of stress in an already stressful week of funeral planning.
    6. Having my wisdom tooth pulled
    7. Having a dry socket packed (omg, seriously – that was extreme torture)
    8. Fighting an URI due to secondary infection from wisdom tooth being pulled.

    I had a lot of distractions, you might say.  However, I did finish a gorgeous quilt I call Spring Shadows.  I love the color and the texture of this quilt.  I learned a lot while creating this quilt – and a lot of things to not do on future quilts.  This started out on paper as a doodle.  I used the flower motif I doodled as the basis for the applique (machine) and the trapunto.  I also used green fleece in the border surrounding the applique (shadow trapunto).  I decided that the outer border needed to be white and used the same motif in a modified swag.  Then I added a flange to the curved binding.  I learned that I need a lot more practice on adding a flange to a curved binding or maybe my process needed to be corrected.  I also learned that I should mark the entire quilt BEFORE loading it on the frame.  The design I was going to quilt in the middle wound up being discarded and I wish I had marked that area first.  I would be a lot happier with this if I had done that.  Oh, well, each quilt is only practice for the next one, right?!  Spring Shadows won 1st place and Viewer’s Choice ribbons at the Decatur Quilt Fest last week, also!!  woohoo!!

    I promise, I’ll post pics soon of other quilts I’ve been working on lately.

    New Room Addition
    Looking into the new room. We also removed the fireplace from the old family room, which gave us extra seating room also.
    Spring Garden
    Spring Garden
    1st place and Viewers Choice at Decatur Quilt Fest 2013;
    1st place and Viewers Choice at Decatur Quilt Fest 2013;
    spring shadows 017-small
    Border swag with trapunto
    spring shadows 016-small
    Crosshatch on shadow trapunto.
    1st and Viewers Choice for Spring Shadows and 2nd for Winter Garden (wholecloth, judged in large pieced category)
    1st and Viewers Choice for Spring Shadows and 2nd for Winter Garden (wholecloth, judged in large pieced category)
    Maria Elkins and myself at Decatur Quilt Fest 2013

  • Gees Bend quilts – spirals and triangles

    Here are two more Gees Bend quilts finished.  This is the last of the three Gees Bends quilts that Cheryl brought to me.  One is a blue spiral design and the other is a multi-color blocks, rectangles and triangles quilt.  Some of the same designs were used on both and I experimented with a few more on the multi-color triangle one.  I used three threads on the spiral (dark blue, light blue, gray) and one thread on the multi-color one (dark orange).  I actually like how they turned out – the texture is pretty yummy.  As a side note, I was in the LQS on Saturday and looked down at a copy of Angela Water’s Modern Quilting book and said “that’s my quilt!”  It wasn’t of course, but it sure looked like it at first glance (color and quilting designs).  Anyway, here are just a few pics (I ran out of good light on the multi-color one.  The backing fabric on that is a red batik and all the fabrics were batik.)  I used QD black poly on the spiral and 80/20 blend on the “triangle” one.

  • Seasonal Primitive Applique Wallhanging

    This is SO cute.  This is a seasonal wall hanging that can be switched out (via velcro) each season.  The “frame” was done with beadboard border and just a meander inside as that won’t show when the panel is in place.  There are three wool applique panels (Easter was left out as she had already done a separate Easter wallhanging).  I LOVE these and they quilted up easily.  I used burnt orange So Fine on all except the Santa panel, where I used charcoal blue Sulky.  I decided to echo the applique on all three panels in keeping with the primitive look.

  • Playing catchup

    I have a few pictures to share.  Here are three quilts I’ve completed (I have two more to share als0) in the last couple of months.

    The first one belongs to Cheryl M.  It is the leftover fabric strips from her Avalon quilt (which by the way, Avalon got a 3rd place ribbon at the local quilt show).  I did an allover meander in the center and treated the borders separately.  I love the texture.  The allover pattern is from Judi Madsen’s blog, and I love how it turned out.  (I have another finished quilt of Cheryl’s to show you too.  Round and Round in Circles is what I called it – that song played over and over in my head when I quilted it.  Pics coming soon.)

    The second one is for my cousin Cheryl K.  She called it her pumpkin quilt and there are several pumpkins quilted throughout this sampler.  I love the texture that the feather vines in the sashing give to it, and I think the pumpkins are adorable!  This was one huge quilt!  And it was the first ever quilt where I stitched the binding on with my longarm.  That process was surprisingly easy!!  I’ll be doing more of that in the future.

    The third one is a gorgeous swoon quilt from Lorna B.  I am loving black fabric with these bright batiks.  This is the second time I’ve used black batting and I like how it turned out.  This batting is Quilters Dream black poly.  The other black batting I used previously was a blend from Warm&Natural.  However, they’ve discontinued making that batting so I chose Quilters Dream over Hobbs due to the loft.  This particular quilt (I should have taken a picture of all the threads I used) has Sulky Polylite 60wt charcoal thread in the black and a variety of different colors of Glide in the prints as well as corresponding Bottom Line in the bobbin.  I have another finished quilt for Lorna to show you too (next post).

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  • Update – Swoon quilt

    I’ve been mssing online quite a bit lately.  I work on a computer in my regular day job (graphic design, web design, and cad visualization) so I avoid the computer at home.  I have several quilts I’ve completed that I need to post, but I wanted to share what is on my quilt frame now.  This is a swoon quilt, by Lorna (wonderful piecer) and I am absolutely LOVING it!  The neat thing about quilting other piecer’s tops is that I get to work on some wonderful works of arts using fabrics that I may never have thought about using.  This is the second quilt I’ve done lately that uses black fabric as the background fabric.  I’m using a thin 60wt Sulky PolyLite in slate gray in the black and several different Glide threads in the prints.  Here is a sneak peek: