hand quilting – Juanita Collins

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.

May 18, 2014May 18, 2014

Bloggers Quilt Festival: Hand Quilted Category

"Little Sister". Machine pieced & hand quilted by Nita Collins.Photo taken at the S.S. Klondike National Park Site in Whitehorse, Yukon. November 24, 2013. — “Little Sister”. Machine pieced & hand quilted by Nita Collins.Photo taken at the S.S. Klondike National Park Site in Whitehorse, Yukon. November 24, 2013.

My second entry into the Blogger’s Quilt Festival is the quilt I call “Little Sister”, in the Hand Quilted category.

This category was originally eliminated from the festival because of lack of interest in past festivals. It seems that hand-quilters are a quiet bunch who don’t have a big presence on the internet. So quiet, in fact, that we barely exist in the on-line quilting world at all! Out of sight out of mind.

Having our category eliminated from the competition was a wake-up call to hand quilters all around the world. Hopefully there will be a good number of hand quilts entered this time! Stand up and be counted, hand quilters! This is your chance to show that hand quilting is alive and well!

To read the blog post of this quilt’s story, please click here!

I’m only entering for fun. A big shout-out and thank you to Amy at Amy’s Creative Side for organizing it! It’s a huge undertaking!

If you’d like to vote for reader’s choice in the festival, please click here.

March 2, 2014

Vintage Dresden Plate Quilt

This Dresden Plate quilt was given to us by Kelly’s grandmother, Louise Collins when we were newly married, many years ago.

Louise was born in 1895. If she were still living, she would be 119 years old!

It was given to Louise by her good friend Cathy Dunbar of Vancouver, BC.

I am relying on memory, but I think Louise told me that the quilt was actually made by Cathy Dunbar’s sister, whose name I do not know.

The quilt appears to be machine pieced. The applique is done by hand.

It is hand quilted.

She used green thread 🙂

I don’t know how old the quilt is, but I am guessing it was made in the 1940s. At least, the fabrics appear to be from the 1930s and 1940s.

I am most definitely not a fabric historian, so if anyone of you can date these fabrics, please let me know your opinion on its age.

It’s in rough shape. The backing has mostly rotted away.

Definitely well-used and well-loved.

We used if for several years on our bed at the cabin.

I washed the quilt on delicate cycle and put it in the sun to dry. It was very grubby, but came out nice and bright.

This old quilt just makes me smile. I hope Cathy Dunbar’s sister is smiling down on us as we continue to use and enjoy it.

May 23, 2013

Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Hand Quilted

Today I am going to enter a couple of quilts in the blogger’s quilt festival! Each entry has to be a separate blog post, so you might get more than one today 🙂

This post is for the Hand-Quilted category.

I am entering Stars in Her Eyes, which I made for my lovely Nora last year. The original post about making the quilt along with more photos can be found here.

Here she is: isn’t she beautiful (I mean Nora, of course! but the quilt is beautiful, too).

The quilting is a simple pumpkin seed pattern with variegated thread by King Tut. I wanted the quilting to to be fresh and summery, so I didn’t want it densely quilted. This pattern suited it perfectly and gives motion to the stars.