Helen's Pink Quilt

About the same time Hettie asked me to quilt her new grandson's baby quilt, Helen asked me to quilt a small quilt, too. I'd had such good success with quilting some of my own quilts, I had no qualms at all at quilting for these two friends.

Well, my machine gave me all manner of fits while doing Hettie's baby quilt. In the link above, I shared some of my frustrations and how I totally fixed the problems all by myself! It gave me hope that I would have complete success with Helen's quilt.

And I got along great. It quilted up like a breeze! Gives me a little confidence boost, for sure! 

I believe Helen had purchased a quilt kit for this pink beauty. It wasn't too large - maybe a nice lap size. I used two bobbins, if that can be any sort of reference.

The center element is a heart-shaped design. Looking at it from the other end helps to see it better.

To get a real good look at the entire quilt, I like to spread it out on the bed. I left all the trimming to Helen. There would be a good bit of backing fabric available for binding, if Helen intends to go that route.

I am still reluctant to take on quilting for others, but for close friends who understand I am still very much a rookie. I suppose I am willing to take that leap of faith that they will be gentle and kind with me. I need so much more practice, and believe me, I HAVE the quilt tops ready to go for plenty of practice!

I actually spent yesterday making the backings for THREE quilts, and they will be going 1-2-3 onto the longarm this week.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sharon's Turn

Getting our schedules to coincide has been challenging through all the hustle-bustle of the season, but Sharon and I did manage to carve out some time for a sewing day last week - and Sharon quilted on the long arm machine!

And not just one quilt -  she did two!

First, she quilted up this very cheery sunflower quilt which will be gifted to a family member for Christmas. Here are some additional pics of it.

When the sunflower quilt came off the machine, she was ready to load quilt number two. This is a flannel quilt featuring a familiar cartoon character. These are simply 6.5-inch squares sewn together in alternating order. I've never quilted a flannel quilt on my machine before, but this worked out fine...mostly. We did have some issues with tension, and it required a quick second visit the next day to finish it off. 

Sharon plans to give this quilt to her young grandson, who is a big Baby Yoda fan.

These pictures don't appear to be quilted, so apparently I took them prior to loading it on the machine. I suppose we were so preoccupied with figuring out our tension woes, and then getting it done that we didn't think to take a picture of the finished quilting. Sharon did an interesting vertical wavy line design on this, and with the geometric checkerboard look, the quilting is very effective.

So, I will be adding these two quilts to the long arm list - for record keeping purposes.

I've been reminding Sharon to get those bindings on! Sharon, are they done, yet? *smile*

Have you finished your Christmas sewing? The big day is almost here!

Happy Quilting, Friends!