THE POLKA DOT DEBUTANTE » Longarm work

A Great Sampler

lee — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:34:41 +0000

This quilt belongs to Betty Daggett. She and Hilde Morin teach a class at Fibers In Motion called the Untraditional Sampler. They teach all sorts of “liberated” techniques and the quilt is put together in an improvisational way. Everyone’s quilt turns out different.

I quilted this one for Betty in August. There is a lot going on already so we decided that simple spirals for the quilting would be best. I love the color palette.

Karen’s Quilt

lee — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:07:22 +0000

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been MIA for the last week. I’ve been in Boston helping my daughter move into her new apartment. She is starting her senior (!) year in college and is now in a better apartment in a much nicer neighborhood. We worked hard the whole time moving, painting and unpacking so it’s good to be home. I plan to do absolutely nothing on Labor Day.

I did alot of quilting in the month of August and haven’t posted much of it so it’s time to catch up. This is Karen’s quilt and she calls it the Horse Head Nebula. I really had fun with the quilting.

Here are some close ups:

Yes I have been busy

lee — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:56:19 +0000

My posts lately have been about fun activities I’ve been doing with friends so you would think I’m just having a grand ole summer hanging out and playing. Well I wish that was the case but I’ve also been working up a storm. The work on the long arm continues, I’ve just neglected to get a picture of several quilts before they went back out the door. I was so good for a while making sure I photographed them before they left the house but I’ve gotten slack. Must be the heat.

This quilt belongs to Janet R. and it’s lovely. The pattern is called Bloom by Valorie Wells and most of the fabrics are by Kaffe Fassett.

Joan’s Flannel Quilt

lee — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:31:04 +0000

This quilt is very sweet. It’s a mostly flannel quilt mixed with some great embroidered blocks. Joan did such a nice job putting it all together. I don’t know if it’s from a pattern but I can pass that along when I find out.

When someone brings me a top to quilt, I believe that the most important part of my job is deciding what to quilt on their quilt. I have to take into consideration the feel of the piece, the areas where the quilting will actually show up, what parts of the top should be highlighted. I also have to consider the limitations of the long-arm and of myself. I am definitely better at some motifs than others. It’s a big responsibility.

I decided this quilt needed some traditional quilting to go with the traditional piecing. I stippled behind the center panel so it would stand out. I also stippled in the lighter sections of the log cabin blocks. I put feathered cables in the red/blue log cabin areas. The pieced blocks set on point in the border have a feathered wreathe around the little red center square while the embroidered blocks just have a simple line quilted a quarter inch in from the edge. There are straight lines quilted in the setting triangles and a graduated feather border in that final red/green outermost border. This quilt was a lot of work for me but I really felt like the quilt needed this treatment. I sure hope Joan likes it!

Cyd’s Quilt

lee — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:59:00 +0000

My friend Cyd made this quilt for her niece. It’s kind of crazy but Cyd sent her niece just the top for graduation so she could see it and then had her send it back so I could quilt it. I finished my part and now all Cyd has to do is bind it and send it back. Yes, we quilters are crazy that way.

I finished another quilt this week that is so different from this one. I’ll try to post it tomorrow. I’ve been very busy this week finishing client quilts and getting ready for Sisters. Next week is Quilter’s Affair and I’ll be teaching 4 days. This is my favorite gig of the year and I’ve been fortunate to be invited back for seven years now. Wow. I’ve still got one set of class handouts to finish and then I’m mostly done. Yeehaw!

Back to Work

lee — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:51:29 +0000

Sorry I’ve been so lax with the blog. Rick and I took an unexpected trip to Florida to see his family. It was a great trip and so good to see everyone. Now I’m home and it’s time to hit the long-arm. This quilt is from Dawn and it made me think of citrus fruit and island drinks. I quilted spirals in the center and put orange slices around the border.

Quilt

lee — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:44:18 +0000

This quilt was made by my friend Tamara. It’s for her brother in law and is heading over to Italy soon. The quilt is huge so we only got a picture of half of it but I wanted to post it because it’s great. Tamara always does such a nice job with color. I can’t remember what the pattern is or what book it came from, only that Tamara said it was difficult to piece. Definitely a labor of love.

With her fabric choices, it reminds me of a persian carpet.

Kristy’s Quilt

lee — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:17:29 +0000

Okay, another entry about long-arming. This quilt was made by my dear friend Kristy. We took a workshop from Louisa Smith several years ago and learned bargello. The piece I started in the workshop became the Route 66 quilt for my brother. Kristy finished that first one and now has done this new one. It’s a really fun technique and I love what Kristy has done with the colors.

She always lets me do whatever I want with the quilting and I really had fun with it. I used a lot of the same motifs I used on another quilt and they were perfect for this. Fun, Fun, Fun.

Judy’s Quilt

lee — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:10:54 +0000

Judy E. made this quilt in response to the book “Three Cups of Tea.” The book is set in Afghanistan and Judy looked at a lot of pictures of the country. She wanted to make something beautiful and positive since so much of what we hear about Afghanistan is negative. She especially enjoyed the pictures of the apricot trees and the terracing of the fields for crops.

I felt fortunate to be able to quilt it for her. I really loved the top and wanted the quilting to appropriately enhance it. The photographs she brought over provided just the inspiration I needed for the quilting.

It really is a lovely piece and Judy did such a great job of using the fabrics and the colors.

More, More, More

lee — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:53:23 +0000

Quilting, quilting and more quilting. I’ve been trying to catch up with regularly scheduled appointments and fit in some extras. It’s been raining the last few days so I’ve been perfectly content to stay in and work.

I quilted a Building Blocks quilt for Barbara that she started in my class. It turned out really cute.

This next Building Blocks was made by Pat, but I didn’t quilt it. It’s all made with Valori Wells fabrics. Pat’s going to let me borrow it to show at Sisters this summer since I’ll be teaching the Building Blocks class then.