Custom Quilting

The Hexology Quilt

This month I had the pleasure of quilting a quilt made from Erin Underwood’s hexology pattern. The quilt was beautiful, and I loved it before I even quilted it.

The quilt featured eighteen colorful hexagons on a solid background. There were many different piecing designs within the hexagons. Therefore, the customer wanted custom quilting. 

Custom quilting is quilting that is designed specifically for the blocks and borders rather than doing one design over the entire quilt.

I chose a swirl design for the outer border , and then put a small six sided flower in the smaller hexagons.

Next came the fun part. I got to choose a quilting design for each type of hexagon. For several of the hexagons, I chose a design already on my long arm’s computer. For one, I even modified a computer design to make it fit the hexagon better. For otherS, I made up a design and hand-guided it onto the hexagon, such as in the below picture.

One of the Hexagons

In that particular hexagon, I stitched “pebbles” to make the three-dimensional sections really pop.

I really enjoyed the challenge and creativity of finding quilting designs that would showcase each hexagon’s individuality. 

Lastly, I hand-guided stippling, which is basically doodling with thread– very fun, in all of the cream colored background space.

My quilting made an already stunning quilt look even more unique and spectacular.

I am looking forward to my next custom quilt! 

-Always Quilting, Christina Morris

This quilt is made from the Hexology pattern by Erin Underwood

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Triple the Business

Some of my clients are quilters who love to piece, but not finish quilting and binding. I often have requests to do these parts for them. Both can be time consuming, but I find them fun.

One of my recent orders involving one of these quilters was in March. My mother-in-law had given my name and information to a previous co-worker, who had recently taken a quilting class, and was happy to call me and have me long arm her almost finished project.

I was glad for the business, as I hadn’t done any work for a client since January or so. But imagine my jubilation when I found out that she wasn’t the only one who had taken the class- her best friend and friend’s two daughters had also made a quilt- and wanted me to do theirs too!

The client, and her best friend, and one of the best friend’s daughters all mailed me their quilts. Triple the business!!

What really stuck out to me here was the fact that all of the clients had done the same class, and their quilts were all the same pattern. And yet, the colors and fabrics and also what kind of quilting they wanted varied immensely.

The first client’s quilt was made out of multicolored batiks. On that one I used teal thread and a paisley quilting pattern. The result was very pretty. My mother said it was “stunning”.

The second’s client’s quilt was yellow, green, and bright pink. I used white thread for this one, in a floral design.

The second client’s daughter made the quilt that was probably my favorite. I thought it was really cute. It was in all nautical fabrics, and so I decided to use a whale quilting pattern. I used a red, white, and blue variegated thread for the stitching.

I mailed the quilts back to the clients, and they all loved them. In fact, the first client is sending me another quilt! I’m glad I was able to help three more happy customers!

Always quilting,

Christina

A Creative Way to Display your Collection!

 

In the past months I have been very busy with life in general, but as soon as I got the chance to write this blog, I knew exactly which order I was going to write about!

It was the beginning of December when I got call from a new client, with a very interesting request. He had gotten my information from Blue Hen Quilt Shop, where my friends let me leave business cards. His parents had recently downsized, and his father had been forced to get rid of a collection of hats that he had owned.

The client had salvaged some of the hats, and asked me to make a pillow out of them. His father did not know about it, as it was to be a gift. I took the job, though I had never done anything like it before. It was very exciting!

He brought me thirteen hat insignias that I would use to make the pillow case from. (The pillow was plain) Making the pillow case out of hats, as I had never done before, was a challenge, but was also fun, because I learned from the experience.

The first step was to trim the hat insignias. I then fused them to a 20” square of fabric. On my machine, I stitched around them. Next, I layered the case on my beloved long arm machine. I hand guided around them, and I was very pleased with the results.

So was the customer! He, being a lawyer, suggested that I patent the design. (My daughter found this hilarious!) It is unclear whether I will do this, but I was very glad to know I had done such a good job on something very new to me.

New challenges are always welcome to me, though some things are harder than others. It is always fascinating to see how things turn out! Though there may be a day that I have to turn down a request, I hope that day doesn’t come soon!

It was definitely hard, but I am willing to do it again if it means business. What a creative way to display a collection!

Always Quilting,

Christina

One LONG term project!

Many years ago I offered to let my daughter choose blocks for a quilt for her bed.  She was getting older and outgrowing the adorable ducky quilt Mom and I had made for her when she was two.  I gave her an applique pattern book thinking she would pick one or two and then I would piece the rest of the blocks.

Boy, was I wrong!

Instead Maddie chose 25 blocks.  I managed to get her to choose her favorite 15 and told her it would be years before I was finished.  She agreed.  Several times over the next 4 years she regretted her decision as I carefully hand appliqued flowers, leaves, baskets, and a bird.

But over the summer I finally finished the quilt and entered it in the Ladybug Quilt Guild’s show.  It won 2nd place for hand applique bed-sized quilts!!

Maddie now loves sleeping under this labor of love.  Her favorite blocks are the bird and the dragonflies.  My favorite element is the shimmery fabric I found in our scrap bag for the dragonflies’ wings.