Pets On Quilts 2017 - "Lori & Aliya" (entry 1)

Pets on Quilts is one of my all-time favorite quilt shows!  
I'm entering this quilt into the "Pet-themed Quilted Project" category

And it gives me the perfect opportunity to put together an overdue Finish Report for one of my absolute favorite quilts:

"Lori & Aliya"

This quilt, after washing and blocking, measures 55 x 55 inches.

It has all-cotton top fabrics, a Minky back, and Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting. Everything was prewashed, including the batting, to minimize shrinkage. I re-engineered the construction of Jenny Pedigo's "Metro Hoop" pattern to produce an unpieced ring center for the cameos.

I finished this quilt about 5 weeks ago. It has been a long labor of love for a super good friend from our Florida days. The top was made in 2014, and for various reasons on both ends, it got put on standby a few times. This year when it entered the priority queue, it took many weeks of intense free-motion work to get it all quilted up on my domestic Viking Sapphire. 

I'm in Colorado now, and Lori's in Kentucky. But while we were still in Florida, Lori and I enjoyed tea and dinner and a DVD together at my place every Thursday night after she got off work.

Lori commissioned this quilt to feature cameos of her super-duper awesome canine bestie, Aliya. I like the way this filter choice showcases the portraits: 

I worked hard to develop quilting templates from favorite photos that would reflect her pretty German Shepherd-ness and hopefully capture her personality while working effectively with the way quilting makes fabric puff and flatten. (That process was blogged here.)

 

Lots of detail work happened in those cameos! I can't tell you how many hours were spent tying and tucking tails! It took many sessions of watching movies, that I distinctly remember.

When I asked Lori what kind of quilting she wanted other than the cameos, she said she wanted traditional feathers, bones, and dog paws. My quilter brain was reeling - "Waaa!!  How on EARTH can you put all that together on a modern ring design and have a semblance of cohesiveness?"

But you know how your brain works away at things in the background, and then you wake up at 2:30 am with an "Aha!" moment? Yeah, that happened with this quilt, and when I pulled out my plexiglass oversheet to be able to doodle on top of the quilt, some play time with dry-erase markers teased out the design that would work.

I can quilt a lot prettier than I can draw! Go figure.

And the execution of the idea was a huge success. 

I love so much how Minky backing showcases quilting work:

Wait, I said earlier that this was all free-motion work, but I did use my walking foot to stabilize the whole quilt with stitch-in-ditch and echo lines around the arcs before I started the real work.

I used Aurifil 50wt threads in matching colors everywhere, except the portraits got a subtly variegated King Tut 40wt to stand out, and the paws got a gray contrast Aurifil. (Note: cotton threads can be problematic with Minky backings, as it sometimes grasps the "fur" and pulls fibers through to the front a bit. This will show when the thread is a different color from the Minky. In future I'll stick with slicker fibers for this backing.)

Stitching the binding down on this quilt was a little interesting, as my stitching hand was in an immobilizer due to a bit of a boxer's break that I got when I did a knife hand power break incorrectly while practicing for a Taekwondo tournament.

Aliya loves cats, which is good, because my boy Navarre loved this quilt, and I didn't have to confine myself always to the only room that is cat free.

My kitty was very helpful during some of the prep stages, offering paw marking aid. . . 

(No, Navarre, we're using Aliya's paw!)

. . . and suggesting I include his adorable otter pose in the design. . .

. . . REALLY suggesting I use that pose. . . 

He's a constant photo bomber on indoor shots, my funny little friend (as you can see here with one of my Fiesta Mexico blocks).

Poor boy cries and cries at the screen door now that I have a longarm in its own room that's kept cat-free, but that's for another post of its own.  :D

"Lori & Aliya" was the last quilt to be finished on my domestic machine, which adds to its specialness for me. Thanks for letting me share it in a special venue.

The show link-up is active for a couple more days, so you have time to get a post together if you want to participate this year. 

Huge thanks to Snoodles at Lily Pad Quilting for coordinating this every year. I know it has to be an enormous amount of work.

~*~*~

Linking Up:

Pets On Quilts 2017 at Lily Pad Quilting

TGIFF at A Quarter Inch from the Edge

A Few of My Favorite Things - Trunk Show Linky

This is a fun Blogworld quilt show, hosted by Soma at Whims & Fancies. I am spotlighting my top three favorite quilts that I've finished entirely on my own, with bonus favorites tagged onto the bottom that I had quilted by professionals.

~*~*~

"25th, Baby!"  

This one took me just over a full calendar year of my top attention priority to construct and quilt. I made it to celebrate our 25th anniversary, which was in August 2014. I finished it in October of that year.

Cutting:  39:10

Piecing:  122:15
Pin-basting:  7:30

Quilting-
  Stitch in Ditch:  22:05
  Detail Work:  103:45
  Arcs:  10:00

Attaching Binding:  6:10 (includes hand cutting the edge and zig-zagging for stability)
Finish Work (cleaning papers off, tying & tucking ends):  62:05

Handstitching Binding down:  18:35

It is a huge king size quilt, finishing at 98 x 110 inches, and it was all quilted on my table-top domestic Sapphire 875Q.

It has monogram and commemorative quilting in the central rings

For more details, you can see its finish report post HERE.

~*~*~

"Semper Fi - Combass"  

This was made this year in honor of my son-in-law's acheivement in graduating from the Marine Corps basic training. NOT an easy thing AT ALL!  

Finished this past August, this was an original design and as with all my work, was quilted on the desktop Sapphire 875Q. 

I used trapunto on the central medallion and touches of metallic gold thread here and there. 

I'm sure the end result with the perfect Marine Corps feel is just as key to my absolute love of this quilt as is the pride and love I feel for our Marine.

If you're interested in more details, its finish report is HERE. 

~*~*~

"Run, Kitty, Run"  

This is the first quilt I made with "serious" free-motion quilting throughout. It is my first happy feather work, too. 

Finished in July of 2013, this was made as a special thank you for a friend whose personal journey to fitness profoundly affected me (she lost over 150 pounds through changing her diet and running). Her example got me off my tush and into a much healthier lifestyle. I don't doubt that it actually saved my life.

Those are 85% reductions of her favorite running shoe's footprint!

And she was famous for encouraging everyone to just do whatever they could to get healthier by saying: "Every Step Counts!" So I quilted that on each corner with a heart for the fourth. Who cares if you can't actually run or do long mileage? Seriously - every step you take is more than the old you sitting all day at a desk or sofa did!

If you're interested in more details, its finish report is HERE. 

~*~*~
Favorites that were quilted by professionals:


(These are listed in order of finish, and clicking on their name will link to their detailed finish reports.)

"Sailing with the Flying Needles", quilted for me by Patty Butcher, and finished August 2011. 

I adore the embellishments I put on this and the fun design I came up with for the block-of-the-month sailboats that I got from our guild's drawing the summer before. 









I even love its applique-sailboat label!














"Amaretto Cottage", a huge king size quilted by Margaret Solomon Gunn, was finished in March 2013. 



It frequently graces our bed, and I just LOVE the way she brought very nice organic order to the varied block-of-the-month pieces.




"Wild Rose Cottage", a queen size quilted by Kathy Schwartz, was finished in April 2013. 

I just adore how cheery and homey this block of the month turned out, and it looks fabulous hanging over our grand piano when it's having a turn.

"Dragonfly Party 1" -and- "Dragonfly Party 2", quilted by Kay Bell and Judi Madsen, these twins have a very special story, and are each works of art! I finished them in July 2013. 
The quilters were given carte blanch to do whatever they wanted, and it's beautiful to see the effects they achieved. These have cool appliqued labels, too, and their colors are far nicer than this photo shows. But it's an awesome shot at the Air Force Academy! 

You really want to follow the link to see the details of what Kay and Judi quilted.


Kay:



Judi:



Me:  :)





"Heather Bear!" was made to celebrate our daughter's graduation from college, and was quilted by someone local because I ran out of time. 



Finished in May 2014, it is made from their school colors. (It took a year of occassional shopping to find a great border fabric that was not ostensibly Christmas!) Its back incorporates favorite photos from those years and giant bear claws for their mascot.




I hope you enjoyed my little "trunk show." Check out the link-up for some really great eye candy from other quilters!

Trunk Full of Quilts 2015

Blogger's Quilt Festival #2 - Heather Bear's Graduation Quilt

Now that my thesis is wrapped up and in the hands of my defense committee, I can post my second entry for this fall's Blogger's Quilt Festival! [Amy, of Amy's Creative Side, has undoubtedly spent countless hours organizing and facilitating this show that has a spectacular list of sponsors, so I give her my heartfelt gratitude.]
This one is being entered in the "Large Quilts" Category.

(My 25th Anniversary double wedding ring quilt was blogged here.)

"Heather Bear's Graduation"

Allison (Heather's roommate) and Heather, graduation week,
Washington University in St. Louis, May 2014

[Wait a minute!!!?  I never blogged this one?? -  That's what happens when you have a Super Top Secret project for so long that you're used to keeping your mouth shut about, and the reveal time comes in such a crazy-busy flurry of a month! So I really apologize about the photo-heavy load for the journaling herein.]

Our oldest daughter, Heather - on the right in that photo above, graduated with a B.S. in Biology with a neuroscience emphasis,and minors in Music and Psychology, this past May. She had worked her tail off all through high school and landed herself a large enough scholarship to go to the school of her dreams - Washington University in St. Louis. Of course graduation required a bed-size quilt!

Her quilt is a queen, and I pondered what pattern to use for quite a long time. Their school colors are Red and Green, and I wanted a quilt that used the colors in a way that worked for a bed any time of the year, not just Christmas. And do you know how difficult it is to find great border fabric in Christmas red & green that's NOT Christmas fabric? I shopped for nine months before I found one I liked. I'm really happy with the end result of the quilt! 

There are several fun out-take shots from around the campus. . .

My only regret about this quilt is that I couldn't quilt it myself for her since I was madly finishing up my research and pre-writing for my thesis at the time. So I took it to Deb Yost for edge-to-edge longarming with a nice floral panto. Turned out really nice on it.

This was her boyfriend, Pat's, first experience with a quilt photo op. I think it perplexed him that more than one shot was taken.  ;D

Love my girl so much  :)

The Thinker rabbit is always a favorite spot of ours.

I had fun with the back - I found a plaid and a green marble in my stash that played very nicely with the quilt's colors. There was too little of either to do the whole back, and anyway I had ideas for special labeling and symbolic elements.

I wanted the center to feature a few of my favorite photos from her college years. 

(She always makes all of her own costumes. Loki was a favorite and a huge hit.

They did have a lot of fun over the years with their Halloweens!

Bofur was just too great. :)

Heather and Alison enjoying a fondue outing on The Loop

And of course, I had to include the "Brookings Castle."

So I got all the photos processed onto fabric, then embedded those and the labeling in a panel.

I was so impressed and super surprised by Scott the day I was piecing the surrounding portions. 

I'd made those large blocks and was laying them out with the photo/label panel to see how the heck they could all work together. My husband, seeing everything on the floor, blurted out: "Hey! They're bear claw blocks!"  Which were chosen because the school mascot is a bear. Which is why she's my Heather-Bear.  ;D   [And how did he know that's what they were??  Oh - he was just extrapolating from the bears I'd appliqued on a shape that looked like claws, he says.]

(Which were just fused on and then stitched down with a medium-sized blanket stitch. When I do any fusing, I "gut" the fusible-stuff shape before applying it to the fabric so it's just a 1/4-inch outline. That way I can trim out the center of the background and things aren't all stiff.)

The final backing layout incorporated one last element for Heather: a cross for her pre-med emphasis and post-grad intentions.  

. . . And there are even extra quilts!!  Two lap quilts, to be exact. Because the day I cut out all the sheets of reds and whites to make a gazillion HSTs, my brain's back-RAM was busy processing research materials and somehow figured that 8 rows of 8 columns meant I needed 88 blocks worth of HSTs. And I was practically finished sewing all those sheets when I realized what I'd done!  

By the way - here's how I do HSTs when I have a whole gob like this. Sooooo much faster than ANY other method in this situation and perfectly accurate! (Sandwich the fabrics right-sides-together, then pin the paper on top. Sew on the dotted lines, then cut on the solid lines. You can print the pages out for free at places like Quilting and Whatnot. I just use regular, cheap printer paper!

Anyway, the fortunate part is that I'd already approached the reds and greens for Heather's quilt with a scrappy plan. Looking at things, it became apparent that I was going to have plenty of background fabric to make two lap quilts the same way. I would only need to: A) buy 1/2 yard of another green, and B) add only 8 more blocks. (I had not yet found the border fabric, so that wasn't an issue.)

So I made a lap quilt for her roommate of 3 years, Alison.  :D   Who was blown away.  :)   And had a blast on our campus walking-tour photo op.  :D

She was so cute how she kept stopping and looking at new details she noticed.

Of course, she had to have a bear, too! And I printed the picture of them at The Melting Pot on her label, along with the university's seal.

The smile makes it all supercalifragilisticksexpialidocious that I messed up my math that first day.  :)

The second lap quilt was reserved for Scott and I to keep. It's just like Alison's except for the labeling.

And truth be told - its binding still has one side to be stitched down!!  (That anniversary double wedding ring quilt on my other Festival entry completely took over my hand work station for the last few months!)

What a special day that was in St. Louis.  :D 

~ May 16, 2014 ~

Graduating with best friends, Alison and Ruth

CONGRATULATIONS, HEATHER-BEAR!!  

Well done, indeed.  :D

(Also linking up to  Whoop! Whoop!, Link-a-Finish Friday, and TGIFF.)

Voting is HERE during Nov 1-7 at the Quilt Festival for this category

And my first entry, in the Home Machine Quilted category, is blogged HERE