Karen’s Brown Bear Quilt

Last time I shared an item made by Karen I hinted that another one would soon be ready for quilting. Today’s focus is that quilt. The theme for Karen’s third project is the animals found in the book called Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Her skillful piecing and talent for combining colors shined through on this project.

Karen’s lively composition demanded a stitch pallet that would nicely compliment her design. The bold colors in her fabrics demanded stitches that added motion and pizazz so we filled every inch with flowing lines using a matching variegated thread.

This is how Karen’s quilt appeared when it was finished.

Karen M Brown Bear Quilt.jpg

In all three of the borders, earthy green, people print and golden yellow, we chose to stitch interconnecting square spirals. The colored frames surrounding each of the animal squares were stitched with curvy lines. Within the animal squares I stitched a single straight-line just inside the perimeter along all four edges. Another row of stitching was added just above the lettering. To finish off the blocks I encircled each animal with a row of stitches, giving them a dimensional appearance. The rainbow colored strips of fabric were treated with angular lines.

Shown below is a photo of the back of the quilt. This view provides a much easier vantage point to observe the stitch patterns.

Karen M Brown Bear Quilt Back.jpg

I’m so glad we had the opportunity to look closely at Karen’s quilt together. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Karen and her magnificent project.

Thank you for visiting! See you soon!

Karen’s Puppy Quilt

I am so excited to share today’s quilt. It was made by Karen M. You may remember her? She is the lady that made the beautiful, surprise quilt for her granddaughter.

Karen M-Bow Quilt

Not long after taking her quilt home Karen surprised me with an email. In her note she asked if I had time before Christmas to work with two more quilts. Now, mind you, this was right before the start of December. I was blown away by her request. She already had a binding to add to the surprise quilt so how could she possibly have time to make two more.

I thought about her inquiry for a while. My schedule was already crammed full of commitments yet it is really hard for me to turn someone down. How could I possibly say anything but YES! Besides Karen was such a nice lady and so easy to work with. Without much hesitation I fired back my response. Of course I would love to work on two more quilts!

The first quilt was an adorable Puppy Quilt lovingly made for one of her grandsons. As is always the case, I sit down with my customers to discuss their expectations and to brainstorm about the possibilities. Together we make decisions on how to proceed.

Karen really likes to have input in how her projects will be quilted. She carefully and thoughtfully considers all of my suggestions. After drawing numerous examples of possible directions to approach this project we finally settled on this design.

Karen M Puppy Quilt Front.jpg

In the outer green border I stitched a single row of connecting circles. We chose circles to breakup the prevalent linear appearance.

Karen M Puppy Block.jpg

Inside the large white squares I first outlined it with a single row of stitching then echoed around the puppies to make them pop.

Karen M Paw Print.jpg

To continue the quilt’s puppy theme I stitched paw prints in a variety of sizes and shapes in the green and gold blocks. The bottom right corner of the quilt was saved for adding the little boy’s name and a small paw print.

All of the stitching was done using two different thread colors. Using more than one color as well as not connecting the blocks together with continuous stitching meant the quilting took longer than normal to complete. All of these features combine together to make what I feel is an adorable quilt.

Now that I have shared the details of this project isn’t it just the cutest thing! I bet this little boy was absolutely thrilled to receive his brand new blanket made by his Grandma. I can just see him snuggling underneath all warm and cozy grinning from ear to ear.

Well, that’s the story behind Karen’s second quilt. We have one more to go so stay tuned!

Thank you for sharing your time with me today! I look forward to our next visit!

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Karen M’s Bow Quilt

A while ago I had the pleasure of quilting Elisabeth B’s beautiful Christmas quilt. The quilt, with its unusual design, was a joy to work on. I had a blast creating an explosion of surprises from top to bottom and side to side.

Now fast-forward to November 2017 when I received a surprise email from Elizabeth’s Mom. I’m always thrilled when my customers share my information with friends. This gesture is the nicest compliment I could ever receive.

Karen had made a quilt top for her granddaughter. Her initial plan was to do the quilting on her own. She had even decided on and purchased the thread for stitching but then Karen had a change of heart and decided to entrust the quilting to me.

Karen and I spent a great deal of time exploring her project discussing the possible stitch designs as well as colors of thread. By the time Karen left we had created a carefully orchestrated, detailed outline. The number of stitch patterns as well as the volume of thread colors meant the quilting process would be slow. From start to finish I invested 28 hours in Karen’s project.

It wasn’t until the final stitch was applied and I was able to remove the quilt from my machine that I could finally absorb the quilt’s gorgeous appearance. Karen’s quilt top would have been magnificent even without my stitching but the plan we mapped out together complimented her project in a way that I never could have imagined. I was so in awe!

I’ve been patiently waiting to reveal Karen’s beautiful quilt until after Christmas since the quilt was meant to be a surprise. Now that the coast is clear I am so excited to share my photo’s.

Please enjoy!

Karen M-Bow Quilt.jpg

Karen M-Back of Bow Quilt.jpg

I can’t wait to hear how Karen’s granddaughter reacted!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed seeing Karen’s quilt. Let’s do this again real soon!

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