Hand Quilting – Juanita Collins

September 5, 2016May 22, 2021

A spring-time disappearing 9-patch

I wanted to make a quilt for my aunt, who has always been a very special person in my life. But time passes and things don’t get done and you know how it goes. (sigh)

So one day last spring I was sorting my sewing room and I came upon an unfinished quilt top. It’s one I started way back when. Before I had (mostly) mastered the art of matching corners, lol.

I’m not sure why I put it away and didn’t finish it. I think maybe I felt (at the time) that the colours were too bright, or maybe I didn’t like using grey for the background neutral. I really have no idea.

Anyway, it was spring when I pulled it out and all the spring flowers were in full bloom. I carried it out and took some pictures with the tulips. And oh my gosh…the quilt just sang!

Suddenly, every spring colour just jumped out at me, and I realized that every single colour was in the quilt. It screamed Spring!

That’s one of the things I love about Kate Spain’s fabrics. She really captures the colours in nature. 🙂

I looked at the grey background and thought of the soft spring rain that comes and melts all the snow, and makes the flowers bloom.

And I thought to myself, this quilt belongs to my aunt, whose favourite season just happens to be spring.

Mine, too!

This is a lap-sized quilt made from the Cuzco collection by Kate Spain. The backing is cream flannel and it was hand quilted in a clam shell pattern. I didn’t wash and dry it before I sent it, but when she does, it will shrink a wee bit and pull around the stitches, creating that wonderful crinkly look that makes a quilt so soft and snuggly.

July 29, 2015

Trifle Dish Quilt

You must have guessed that I did some quilting during my recent 2 months visit in the Yukon, right?

Well, of course I did…and I took some pictures, too. Enjoy!

I know what food will taste like when I get to heaven…it will taste like Dee’s trifle. So when the Moda Trifle Dish sew-along happened, I knew who I was going to make this for.

Each row was designed by a different Moda Bakeshop guest blogger. I found that to be a bit of a challenge…

…because I had trouble getting them to all go together smoothly. I ended up adding or subtracting spacers between blocks, jigging things to get them to fit. But in the end, they did fit and I was pleased with the result.

Trifle is a sweet, old-fashioned dessert, so I decided to use sweet, old-fashioned 1930’s reproduction print fabrics, along with a variety of whites and a little bit of grey for the background. Everything came from my stash.

And speaking of sweet, old-fashioned, this truck belonged to Dee’s grandfather-in-law. Yes, this truck – the one right here in the picture! I think she’ll be surprised when she sees this photo, don’t you?

I added a row of decorator trim to the top edge to simulate whipped cream. Because, you know…trifle.

The backing is adorable! Look, it’s all baking items in lime green and bright pink! Dee is going to looooove it!!!

Trifle Dish was hand quilted with a #10 John James needle and 40-weight ecru-coloured hand-quilting thread in a shell pattern. I did actually start to do it by machine, but then picked it all out and did it by hand instead. Crazy. I know.

I wanted the photos of this quilt to be meaningful to Dee, so some of the pictures were taken in Carcross, Yukon, where Dee’s in-laws hail from (Hi George! Hi Millie! Hi Donna & Heather!)

And guess what…so do mine! (Hi Cal & Norma!). Now you know it’s a small world when your good friend’s in-laws and your in-laws all come from the same place that has a population of under 300.

Carcross is the sweetest little teeny tiny town about an hour from Whitehorse, on the shore of the spectacular Bennett Lake. Keep going further down the South Klondike Highway and you’ll find yourself in Skagway, Alaska in about an hour.

I had some help, of course.

Other pictures were taken at the Robinson Roadhouse…a historic site on the South Klondike Highway, half-way between Whitehorse and Carcross. A convenient place to stop and use the outhouse (because I take pride in knowing where all the outhouses are… Hello! Yukoner!)

Pictures were also taken at our cabin on Fox Lake, because that is where Dee’s and my friendship takes place.

I mean, we’re friends wherever we are, of course. But here at Fox Lake is where the magic happens for us. Back in the day when we were full-time Yukoners, she and George used to come out on a Saturday afternoon. Dee would always bring her knitting or her sewing along, and would sit on the deck and have a good old-fashioned stitch & bitch while our guys fished off the dock or did whatever guys do together when they’re at the lake.

All those good times were stitched into this quilt along with every delicious yummy bite of Dee’s trifle I ever ate.

There ya go, Darling Dee. She’s all yours. 🙂

May 27, 2015

Tyler’s Quilt: Indomitable Spirit

Warning – this post has lots of pictures!

I have a quilt finish to show off today! This is the quilt I recently made for my second-youngest nephew, Tyler.

A quilt is never finished until it has had its official photo shoot, and this quilt had two photography sessions! First, we took it on a beautiful nature walk to Margaret Falls. This was the perfect place to photograph this quilt.

Look at how the shapes in the landscape compliment the shapes in the quilt. It makes my little quilt-photographers heart sing!

The second photo shoot was just up the road. I really wanted to have the quilt photographed with horses (don’t ask me why, I really have no idea. Well…maybe because my nephew lives in Montana. And you know, Montana…horses…)

Sadly, the horses weren’t as interested in the quilt as I thought they should be. Actually, they were afraid of it. Big piece of fabric – boo, scary!

Happily, two girls came riding by and consented to help.
So I did get a shot of the quilt with a horse after all.

And of course who could resist this shot? Love, love, love the long view down the valley.

Every quilt has a story. Including this quilt. Keep reading, here it comes.

Tyler turned 18 last week and is graduating from high school this year.

While I am happy that I finished the quilt in time for his birthday and graduation, I actually was inspired to make him this quilt because I wanted to honour his accomplishments in in Taekwondo.

This young man has two black belts and is working on his third. I am so proud because I know how much focus and dedication and practice that goes into mastering a craft at any age.

Each of the coloured blocks represents one of the belts he had to master. The quilt is backed with simple white cotton to represent the outfit the practitioner wears.

I chose the wonky cross-hatch block for this quilt because the shapes of the lines reminded me of the shapes drawn in the air and the shapes that the body makes when doing martial arts.

…and also because it’s just a fun and funky pattern that is uber-suitable for a young man of 18.

I named the quilt Indomitable Spirit, which is one of the tenets in the Taekwondo code. I don’t think I could have chosen a better name.

Indomitable Spirit measures 50 x 74 inches and is hand quilted. I quilted it free-hand, without a frame and without marking. The first time I’ve ever done either.

My stitches are what I prefer to call “organic,” (meaning they’re uneven, being the first time I tried quilting that way). I like to try something new whenever I can, and I wanted to try free hand quilting. So it was a bit of a learning curve for me. Appropriate, too, since this quilt honours accomplishment, which requires taking a first step and giving it your best.

Nothing you accomplish in life comes without practice, right? Like a black belt. Like learning to hand quilt free-style.

Congratulations, Tyler – your spirit is truly indomitable.

Live long and prosper!

February 1, 2015

Slow Stitching Sunday

Today is one of those honest, old-fashioned lazy days. The kind we always wish we could have. The kind we imagine we used to have, back in the good old days, whenever those were. Of course, we can’t actually remember any specific lazy Sundays. But they must have existed, right? Because we remember them.

Maybe they don’t happen very often. Maybe that’s why they’re so special. Like today.

Outside my window the snow is falling and everything is covered in drifting white. The wind is ringing the chimes outside the front door. I have a cup of tea at my elbow and Mr. C is ~~snoozing~~ reading on the couch while our fur babies enjoy a group snuggle in front of the fire.

Today I did not get up with any particular agenda in mind. I may spend some time with my latest hand quilting project. This little quilt is so sweet. I’m quilting white-on-white because I want the quilt to look embossed when finished.

If you’re interested in quilting by hand, I’m using 40 weight YLI quilting thread in “natural” and John James size 10 hand quilting needles. I’m also quilting it directly in my hands instead of using a hoop or a frame. I’m also using a product called Thimble Pads on my pushing finger: little sticky leather dots. I love them.

I’m really enjoying quilting directly in my hands this way. I don’t know if I’ll go back to using a hoop after this. My stitches are a bit coarser, but they’ll improve with practice.

Other news: my critiques are all in from my little critique group. I will probably spend some time looking at them. Or maybe not.Maybe I’ll save those for tomorrow, because I know that once I open them I’m going to want to get busy with edits. I won’t be able to help myself. And that sounds like work. Not worthy for such a deliciously lazy day.

Later on my friend Cynde is coming over and we’re going to eat some of the apple cake that I made yesterday (recipe here), drink tea and watch a Craftsy class together.

Oh dear. I’m sorry I disturbed you, Sam!

Today I’m linking in with Slow Stitching Sunday over at Kathy’s Quilts, and at Lily’s Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet. And that’s all the work I’m going to do.

I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday as much as I am enjoying mine. Are you being lazy, too?

January 19, 2015February 4, 2015

The Friendship Garden Quilt

Warning: this post is photo intensive!

Let me introduce you to The Friendship Garden Quilt!

It comes by its name honestly, because it started out life as a bee block!

I am part of a Flickr group quilting bee with 5 other ladies. We call ourselves We Bee Canadian. We each make 2 blocks for the month’s Queen Bee.

When it was my month to pick a block (a couple of years ago!), I asked everyone to please make me two bow tie blocks using garden-themed fabric.

Because we were all pretty much beginners, nobody’s 1/4″ seams were very good and the blocks didn’t square up very well. There were an awful lot of mismatched seams.

Then I had an idea!

I decided to cover some of the wonky seams with English paper pieced rosettes. Perfect! Before you knew it, I had hand-appliqued a flower in every single blank square, wonky or not!

Because a garden should be an absolute riot of colour, don’t you agree?

I used a bed sheet on the back. I think it would qualify as a vintage sheet. I remember having sheets like this on my bed in the 70s.

The quilt is hand quilted in circles.

I don’t think I’ll try to do hand quilting through a bed sheet again. I actually bent needles and had to use pliers to pull the needle through the layers. Ouch!

Mr. C. did a marvelous job behind the scenes, don’t you think?

I used black for the binding to set off the colours. Oh, how I love this quilt! It is so cheerful and bright and sunny! A bit of summer in the depths of winter.

I hope it will be as loved in its new home as it is in mine 🙂

These photos were taken at the sweet little Notch Hill Community Hall and Church on the only sunny day in January.

Linking up with the binding blitz at Julie Quilts and Lets Bee Social at SewFreshQuilts.

August 29, 2014August 29, 2014

In the Frame and a Finish

I finally finished the top (flimsy) of the garden quilt!

It’s the bow-tie pattern with hand-appliqued hexie rosettes.

It is now sandwiched, basted and in the frame – ready to be quilted.

And here is another Because You Matter quilt. This little double Irish chain will go to a child through the RCMP Victim’s Services Unit here in Salmon Arm (via the Shuswap Quilt Guild.) Fabric & batting donated by the Shuswap Quilt Guild. Labour donated by yours truly.

Officially Samson-approved!

linking in with: