Mrs. Mary Lee's quilts (finishes)

 I finished some customer quilts! These are quilt tops hand sewn by Mrs. Mary Lee, my mom's old neighbor. Her daughter asked me to long-arm them so they can all be finished and gifted to her children and grandchildren. And probably a few great-grandchildren. Here are pictures that one of the grandchildren took and texted to me so I'd have a record of some of my quilting motifs.

Mrs. Mary Lee's next finish

Before the flu came for a long visit, I worked on another of Mrs. Mary Lee's quilts. (My parents' neighbor. I wrote about one of her quilts here and about another finish quilt here.) I've had three quilt tops for, uhm, four months already. Anna brought them when she picked up the last ones, but we discussed my getting to them after the holidays. It's after the holidays, so...

For the most part, Anna gives me carte blanche on the quilting. That is the most fun! Stress-free play! And while I do enjoy piecing my own quilts, I really enjoy playing on the longarm. 

Here are a few pictures of the back where, hopefully you can see the quilting.

Thanks for visiting!

Another of Mrs. Mary Lee's quilts

The world of quilts is small. Here's a case in point. My mom and Mrs. Mary Lee were neighbors and quilters. In fact, they had several things in common: large families, church, and gardening. I have no idea how close they were as friends, but I'm sure that quilting came up any time they were together. 

Mrs. Mary Lee's daughter, Anna, texted me one day to ask if I would consider quilting some of her mom's hand-pieced tops. I couldn't resist, if for no other reason than to see some of the tops. Anna has given away several, every one hand-pieced. The ones I'm quilting for her are going to be gifts to her nieces and nephews as they marry. 

I'm enjoying quilting these. There is no deadline, no rush to finish. She has given me carte blanche to quilt it using medium-sized motifs. I plan to quilt at least one per month. That gives me time to quilt a couple of my own and still work on sewing projects. This is the second one that I've quilted. I didn't have the sense to get photos of the first. 

I'm going to try to rectify that with any future quilts I get from Anna. At the moment I have another quilt in the wings but it may be a few days before I'm able to get it on the long-arm. I do have some presidency chores to complete for the quilt show. 
Thanks for stopping by.

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Alycia Quilts - Quiltygirl blog for Finished Or Not Fridays 

Mrs. Bertha Q2 ~~ finish!

Mrs. Bertha is a guild friend who has asked me to quilt a top that she "inherited" from a friend. The short story is that the woman who made the quilt tops is someone I knew as a little girl. 

basic nine patch with a larger center square

Mrs. Mary Lee was mom and dad's neighbor from the time that we moved to Plaucheville until her death. They are all gone now, but some quilts and tops made by these neighbors are still around. 

a different quilting motif in each block

Mrs. Mary Lee's daughter and Mrs. Bertha are good friends. Mrs. Bertha found out that there were old quilt tops just sitting in a closet. She decided to act. That's Mrs. Bertha. 

Oh, the short version, so in the end, Mrs. Bertha asked me to quilt the tops. She repairs them as needed then passes them on to me. Once the tops are quilted, I get them back to her and she binds and labels them. Then she gets them back into Mrs. Mary Lee's family. 

I didn't remember that Mrs. Mary Lee was a quilter, but surely she and my mom talked about their mutual hobby. Certainly my mom would have told me, but I was a young mother and, while I did make quilts, I wasn't so interested in a couple of older ladies and their traditional quilts. 

Chances are pretty good that I dismissed my mom's conversation. I'm really sorry now that there were times when I missed out simply because I was too young to truly appreciate them. 

the pieced backing

Luckily I grew up to appreciate my mom's love of sewing and quilting, and we shared conversations and time doing what we both loved. Quilting some of Mrs. Mary Lee's quilts reminds me that I share much with women who came before me. Who do you share your quilting with?

Pin It Weekly #254 (Surprise!)

"These Pins got you 18,533 impressions in the last 7 days! Be sure to claim your website and create Pins daily to grow the reach of your content on Pinterest." So that little note got my attention. I'm not certain what 18,000 impressions might be exactly, but it can't be bad. I've looked at this email, which arrives once a week, every now and again. I wasn't impressed. For the most part my Pinterest and this blog work together and somehow generate about 5,000 impressions weekly.  Yeah, 18 is a big number. Well, to me anyway. And what were the things that drove so much curiosity? Two of my quilts! Which are in my TRUNK SHOW QUILTS board! How about that. Not just something I dragged over from Pinterest to the blog and not something I pinned to one of my boards from someone else's. Nope. My own little quilts--the Harley Davidson quilt I made in the spring for a customer and "Fetch a Pail of Water," this rail fence baby quilt in blue that I made from scrap 2½" strips. This just goes to show that the surprises just keep coming when there's a quilt (or two) involved.

Billy's Memory Quilt ~~ finished!

Memory quilts seem to be the most requested commissions I get. I'm a little tired of them, but this particular quilt is really special because I made a memory quilt for this mom in 2015. That one was for her oldest;  this one is for the middle child. She brought it to me in the fall, but allowed me to push it back to get other quilts done.  

This little family has seen a few changes: mom got remarried and had a baby. That older brother started college. This one is graduating in May. And somewhere between this graduate and the baby, there's another boy. So mom was not shy about asking me to keep costs down. Somehow, I managed to keep the price down enough that it almost matches the first memory quilt I made for her back in 2014-15. 

That's me playing quilt model in the whole quilt photos. Richard's back and neck hurt too much to hold his arms overhead, so I climbed on a patio chair and did the honors. Hmm, no wonder everyone tries to hide when I come around with a quilt and my phone--quilts are heavy! 

One of my favorite parts of this quilt are the tee-shirts Billy painted. The one above is especially cute. The bottom of the shirt and both sleeves had been cut into small strips and embellished with beads. (Could there have been a girl in the vicinity?) I didn't want to lose that personal touch, so I cut off the fringes and sewed them into the quilt along the top of the shirt. They are still free to move around and really give the quilt some character.

 Another shirt must have been painted at VBS or church camp. There are lots of Christian symbols on both sides of the shirt, so I cut the front and back and stitched them together to make one panel. Then I custom quilted around the fabric paint to help make the letters and symbols stand out. 

Because mom had asked that I keep costs down as much as possible, I decided to stipple most of the quilt but just couldn't help myself on some of the shirts. This sports shirt is one example: I stitched around each of the players so that the characters stand out against the white background and to avoid cutting bodies with stitching lines. This one was great fun--I guess the only thing I didn't stitch is the background!  

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	Billy's Tee-shirt Memory Quilt
	Size:	60 x 80
	Fabrics:	Tee-shirts from client
	Backing:	muslin (from stash)
	Binding:	black Kona
	Pattern:	puzzle design
	Quilting:	stippling
	Completed:	March 2018

Another way that I saved on costs for mom was to put a few of the shirts on the back. The quilt is not so wide, but it's still ample enough to cover a pretty good size guy.  What do you think about my cost-saving measures? Do you have a few tricks to lower the costs for clients? I'd love to see a few that I can share with my customers. (And still make a few dollars.) 

I am committed to one more of these, then I think I'll take a break and play with my own projects. We'll see how that goes! Have a great week of quilting everyone!

Link Ups to Love!

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)
Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!) 

Not getting very far

I started a new memory quilt with tee shirts from a former client. She came to me a couple of years ago and liked her oldest son's quilt so much that she contacted me again. Honestly, if it weren't that she's such a sweet little momma, I'd have declined. 

How can I possibly say no to someone who opens the conversation with, "We love the quilt so much that we want another for the second son"? Wait, you like it that much? 

Well anyway, these shirts are boys' athletic shirts, which are really difficult to work with. You know the kind, right? Thick athletic jerseys meant to last for several years of running, tackling, and jumping in water, mud and grass.

Some of the tee-shirts are almost as bad. Some have that thick screen printing paint that shreds thread and dulls needles. It's a mess. And don't think that you can hand quilt it. I've tried. It's like trying to stick a needle through a rubber tire. No way.

But for all the complaining, I did get every shirt cut out and organized (hence, a finish) and even have sewn a few. The quilt top should be ready for the long-arm in a few days. Well, that assumes that I'll get more sewing done. 

Have you noticed that I have a small piece of paper pinned to some of the shirts? You can't read them, but each one is important to put the shirts together when designing the top. The paper has the size of the block, where on the top it should go, and anything else I need to remember. Having these notes makes makes the whole process much easier. 

And finally, we had a beautiful sunset tonight. I happened to be walking from the studio at dusk and noticed the sky. The weather was perfectly gorgeous all day, but we expect a serious storm around 3 a.m. so the sky is getting ready. 

Love these Link Ups!

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Another tee-shirt quilt...finished!

That's right, the second quilt for a customer (high-five to Jamie) who needed them before Christmas is complete! I am quite happy to have now finished all of the paying work for 2017. 

Of course, I have a few items left on my to do list. But those are iffy, as in if I get them done, I'll be thrilled; if not, I'll be slightly disappointed. No one knows what my plans are, or which of the projects are intended gifts. 

But this quilt is done! Bound, labeled and photographed done. It's normally easy enough to trim out, sew and quilt. This little baby was true to form and took no time. Well, almost.

To save the customer some money, I stippled the entire quilt rather than custom quilt it. Wow! That is a faster way to go. 

Because both quilts go to the same customer, I asked Richard to hang both of the quilts on the line so I could take a picture. Doesn't this look fabulous?! 

Isn't that a cute hubby on the ladder?

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	Tee-shirt Memory Quilt
	Size:	72 x 76
	Fabrics:	Tee shirts from client
	Backing:	purple Kona (pieced from stash)
	Binding:	purple Kona
	Pattern:	Puzzle design
	Quilting:	stippling
	Completed:	November 29, 2017

In case you don't remember the first quilt, which I wrote about here, I've got a little animation for you. Unfortunately, it's fast moving and I haven't a clue how to fix it.

My Usual Link Ups

Thanks to the Hosts!

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

SLU tee-shirt quilt finish

We started with this...

And this

Then eventually made it to this...

And this...

And all the way down to this...

And ended up with this front...

And this yellow and green back...

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	Ainsworth Tee-shirt Memory Quilt
	Size:	84 x 92
	Fabrics:	Tee shirts from client
	Backing:	yellow and deep green Kona
	Binding:	deep green Kona
	Pattern:	Puzzle design
	Quilting:	Custom FMQ based on tee design
	Completed:	November 6, 2017

And the requisite close-up to show the custom quilting, which is the time-consuming part of the process, but also the most fun. :)

What do you think of that back? I used more of the yellow because the green is very dark, but it feels that there's still too much green. I think it has something to do with that strip of tees in the yellow. Maybe the strip breaks up the yellow too much? What are the best proportions when including a strip of tees? Or maybe the question is how can I add the strip, still use both colors, and avoid this feeling that the proportion is off? I really want your input/suggestions. I have two more quilts that will have tee shirts on the back, so I need to figure this out.

Link Ups!

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)