Jump to content

Inspiration


Recommended Posts

I did 2 t-shirt qilts for a customer. When I delivered the quilts, his wife went down stairs and came up with 4 antique quilt tops in excellent shape and asked me to quilt them. For these people money is no object (wish I could say the same for me) and they don't care what I do, they just want them done. I have completed the easiest one, a bow tie with 60's prints. I just did a pantograph, but it looks very good. Now I am getting to the tough one, a Grandmother's Flower Garden. I love history and the history of quilts. Most of me knows this quilt needs to be quited by hand...and I don't do that. A tiny part of me wants to just do a panto because it would be fast and all they want is it quilted. I know you all are going to say that I need to stitch in the ditch. It is between a full and a queen size. I have researched this hoping to find one quilt that was machine quilted and cannot find one. Let alone one that has a pantograph quilted on it. If I stay true to these quits I would call them up and say you need to have them hand quilted. But they don't care about that. I wish I didn't love the history of quilts....I wish I could just close my eyes and do it....:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also Mary take a look at the Quilt photos on APQS website. Darlene has a beautiful Grandmother Garden. It really like the way she did the centers of the flowers. Looks like it could be great fun for freehand. Just another idea or photo to look at. It might help get your creative juices flowing.

I love the way it is quilted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find that a lot of the traditional quilts look really good quilted with Baptist Fans and Clamshells using my Circle Lord. The quilt seems to still have the traditional feel even though it is not hand-quilted.

My customers have been very happy with these designs on their older quilts. Also, I have used whimsical-type pantos such as Angel Wings.

Sandra

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mary Beth,

I am working on my own English paper-pieced flower garden. It is a wonderful, portable project, and it will be a long project just making the flowers....so.........this baby, should she ever be finished, is getting quilted on my longarm.

I searched for Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts on webshots and got some examples of how people have handled this.

But, this being someone else's quilt....first, I would suggest getting a hand-quilter to do it. If that isn't important to them, then have fun with it.

Linda/9patch

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did one almost like that it was all hand pieced. I wanted to hand quilt it but she just wanted it machine quilted. Was her grandmothers top. If you want you can look at it on my webshots at: http://community.webshots.com/user/qfairy

Under the April 2006 Album should be #15 is the front of it, she had a very large border on it so I did side slashes on in it. #16 shows the back of it.

Hope this gives you inspiration to just do it.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mary Beth -

I am going to try and attach a photo of a huge Grandmothers Flower

Garden quilt that I did for a customer. I have since done another like this,

which was made in different vintage fabics.

I just did a tight over-all loop meander on the backgrounds, this one has

a 6 connecting Heart design in each flower. Yes, that makes for a bunch of

starts and stops - but looked really good! They were very happy! The big

one I did, had 121 flowers on it I beleive. I used a nice pale yellow in the

flowers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hay Judy; :cool:

That is one beautiful quilt, I realy like how the back looks.

You did an excellant job in taking a older looking traditional quilt & useing modren methods to make it look great & all so have a stronger more useable quilt that their family can really injoy, insted of putting it away in a closet so it wouldn't get recked. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Judi, Yes, inspiration is the word. I just received an antique quilt top. It is so gorgous. It came from a farm in Langley, British Columbia. Hand cut, pieced by a farm lady. I cannot wait to get to the quilt shop to share and find the border and backing materials. This is truly a grandma's attic quilt with all the vaious fabrics. Picture does not do it justice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all of the kind comments, it was really a wonderful quilt to do!

And as the saying goes...."every quilt has a story..."

Her mother took over 2 yrs making the flowers then passed away quickly.

Her Dad purchased a sewing machine for her, so that she could finish this

quilt. Well, she did do it all by hand, like her mother. This was her first

quilt. Many of the seams were 1/8" or less, so I knew it needed to be

quilted kind of tight.

This is my favorite quilt block pattern - so I wanted to do it right. Love all

of the old fabrics! The other one I just did, was a bigger flower, 3 rows of

petals. I used my Circle Lord for a design in each of those.

Right now I am working on a quilt that has been in my customers - Mothers

cedar chest for over 70 years! Her Great - Great Grandmother Hand pieced

it. This is the second quilt like this I have done for her. The fabric is thinner

than a silk scarf! I did go through the whole story of historically keeping the

quilt vintage and told her about using a machine now - dating it and such -

she did not care. Wants to have these quilts out and done so that she can

enjoy them before she is gone. Wish they were mine - So pretty!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Judi,

Thank you for the inspiration in more ways than one. When I walked into the LQS with this quilt to purchase backing, one of the employees said "You are not quilting that on a machine!" Well, that's what I do, and the customer asked me to do it...I was having a bit of a struggle with the idea and then she said that and made me think I should call the customer up and tell them to let the Amish quilt it. Anyway, I want them to have these 4 quilts, to view and enjoy, instead of being tucked neatly away in a closet somewhere. Thank you, thank you!! Now I will finish these last 3 without thinking about them being hand quilted.

Mary Beth

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 Patch, you'll have to tell me what month and number the Batik quilt of Rita's, there are so many quilts I have posted hard to keep track of all of them. Just like my panto's over 1000 and don't remember where I get them all, are a variaty of places.

Bekah, Yes, I was a beginner at one time, like everyone. Only been doing it 16 years now. But always up for a challenge and learn new things. Never start learning as my customers are always asking for more...;)

And thank you for liking my work. All takes lots of practice. Gets better with age...hehe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...