Maxed Out

 I'm currently using this blog space as a reference for my completed custom quilts.  Please join me on Facebook and Instagram for regular updates, Etsy shop news and more!

After 10 years (!) of having a small but highly satisfying quilting business I decided it was time to stretch myself just a little and opened an official Google storefront, mostly to expand myself locally and just make it easier to be found. (Google The Quilting Violinist to have a look!)  And wouldn't you know just a couple of days after the site was published someone contacted me about making a crib/memory quilt out of a collection of dress shirts for baby Max, who was not yet born but due soon.

One of the nice things about a local business is the face-to-face (or should I say mask-to-mask?) encounters I get to have with my customers.  Max's mom and I had a fun discussion about what type of quilt she had in mind.  She had a huge bag of dress shirts from both her husband and father, giving me 2 generations of shirts to work with.

Luckily for me she had really definitive ideas of what she wanted.  What she couldn't decide was whether to get a quilt made out of squares (for a classic checkerboard pattern), or 1/2 square triangles.

In the end she decided on one of each!  A WISE DECISION.

For the triangle quilt the shirt fabrics were paired with a white-on-white polka dot. 

I hadn't made a 1/2 square triangle quilt in a long time so this was particularly fun.  Plus I learned a new trick that made the blocks come together really quickly:  The Magic Four.

Try it!  It really works!

Also included on this quilt:  one monogram each from dad and grandpa.  And a striped binding! 

The second quilt was a checkerboard pattern made from the shirts paired with a light silver gray solid, which was also the binding.

Both quilts have batik fabrics on the back:  

   

 

Max was born last week.  I hope he loves his quilts!

 

An Ironic Quilt for These Times

I'm currently using this blog space as a reference for my completed custom quilts.  Please join me on Facebook and Instagram for regular updates, Etsy shop news and more!

In The Before Times (last February) a fellow member of the Tampa Bay Etsy Crew (an active resource for local sellers on Facebook) contacted me about replacing an old and well-loved quilt of hers that was literally falling apart.  She sent me a photo of it and I could tell it was a Trip Around the World pattern, done in 2 colors: a neutral beige and black color scheme.

She also had an interesting idea for the colors for the new quilt: 



The colors of "Rent".  Nice!!
Somewhat open to interpretation is the color on the far left of the poster:  it's not quite orange but it's not really yellow either.  I made an Executive Decision and decided that a deep golden yellow would work best with the other colors of the quilt.

A couple of weeks after we settled on the details of this quilt the planet fell apart and my professional life with it due to the sudden onset of the Corona virus.  77 scheduled rehearsals and concerts with The Florida Orchestra (mid-March through the end of our season at the end of May) were cancelled.  Free-lance work with area organizations like Opera Tampa also evaporated.  There is a plan for the orchestra to be back in some fashion in the fall (maybe late October or early November); what exactly the job will look like remains to be seen.  I'm grateful that at least there is a plan to do SOMETHING in a few months, as many orchestras have decided to wait until the fall of 2021 begin performing again.

But back to the now incredibly ironically named Trip Around the World Quilt. (Maybe we should rename it something more fitting, like Trip Around the Living Room?).  The color scheme ended up working out great and it's really vibrant.

(Note that it's a twin size quilt arranged on my queen size bed)
Just for fun, I added a little poppy detail at the corners:

There's also a fun red and white striped binding and a pretty blue print on the back. 

The center block is also a poppy print, plus I included a little Gift For These Times for the customer. 
I think all new quilts should come with a matching face mask!

 

Make a Run for it

My latest custom quilt came to me in the best way-- as a referral from a friend of the Kimono Quilt customer.  Even in the digital age, word-of-mouth advertising still works!

This was a straightforward Tshirt quilt made from a shirt collection accumulated over many years of participation in road races.  What we ended up doing was selecting the favorite shirts for this lap size quilt, with many left over for a possible future project.

Just for fun, I did an off-set setting of the rows, which I haven't tried before but I really like it!

This pic shows the background fabric:  Contempo Abstract Garden from Benartex (more information about it here).  It's a cool, slightly retro look and appropriate for this man's quilt. A coordinating print from the same collection is in between the rows.

A teal polka dot is on the back, and a coordinating green fabric was used for the binding.

Some of these shirts are quite historic!

A few more details:  size is 55 x 65".  Batting is Thermore, which is really lightweight and doesn't shrink when washed.  Quilting is an overall stipple pattern, with a little straight line quilting towards the outer edge just for stablilization.

This blog space is being used for details of my custom orders. For more of my regular ramblings, show information and other fun, please join me on Instagram  and Facebook!

The Kimono Quilt

My first completed custom order for 2019 was a really unique project, both for the project itself and the unusual journey it had before I received it.

the finished product

My customer is retired military, and had been stationed in Okinawa. Japan, where she had bought a number of vintage kimonos.  Once she returned home (to my neighborhood!) she asked a woman who had done some upholstery work for her to make a quilt out of the kimonos. That project did not come out the way she wanted or expected, so she then contacted me to see if I could remake it into something else.  I'm sure the first quiltmaker had the best of intentions, but it was an odd piece of work:  a tied quilt pieced with dark colored upholstery fabric, with an actual acrylic blanket in between the layers.  Also included were a number of smaller projects-- a pillow, and some table runners-- that the customer hadn't asked for.

So the first step for me was a significant amount of demolition-- cutting all of the various projects apart, and then coming up with a way to get all of the various pieces onto one quilt.

note the seam matching

You'll notice from the top picture of the completed project that it's made of very large blocks, almost like panels.  That's because the previous quilter had done an extraordinary job of matching the pieces of the patterns to achieve the large blocks.

You'd never know that this block is actually 2 pieces of fabric!  This pattern matching is not something I'm able to do with any sort of competence, so I decided to take advantage of this and left the blocks as large as I could.

The peacock is also 2 matched pieces.

There's also A LOT of quilting.  I usually do an all-over pattern on clothing quilts (it works well with T-shirt quilts in particular) but this quilt really wanted to be quilted block by block, and every block is a little different.

echo quilting

outline quilting in the body, with a stipple background

I tried to let the pictures themselves tell me how to quilt each block.

Some technical details:

The fabric of the kimonos is, as far as I could tell, a very drapey polyester crepe.  It's not a fabric I've worked with before but once I stabilized it (I use Pellon 960F for all of my clothing quilts) it worked just fine for piecing and quilting.

Batting is Quilter's Dream Request, Queen size.  The finished quilt was about 85 x 100".  All of the quilting was done on my HQ Sweet 16.

On the back:  a super pretty leaf print (this one).  It's 108" wide so there's no pieceing necessary even for a big quilt like this one.  Having a one piece back saves a ton of time plus I think it bastes and quilts much easier.

I delivered the completed quilt a few days ago and the customer was absolutely ecstatic with how it turned out.  She was glad to finally get what she had originally wanted.  And this was a fun project for me, and certainly a unique one!

Please note that I am using this blog space for details about my custom orders only.  I'd be delighted if you'd join me on Facebook and Instagram for project updates, Etsy store additions, and other news.

Two for Tupelo

This summer will definitely go down in history as The Summer of T-Shirt Quilts.  It started in May with this one from a local customer.  It was an epic collection of famous artists collected at concerts over several decades.

Social media about that quilt soon generated my next 2 projects.  (Speaking of social media:  if you haven't yet joined me on Facebook  and Instagram please do!)  The chef at Tupelo Music Hall in Derry, N.H. contacted me about the venue's massive T shirt collection and asked if I would be able to produce 2 quilts for them:  a twin size one to be hung (or otherwise displayed at the venue) and a queen size quilt for the chef's home.
Well, sometimes the universe delivers exactly what you need at just the right moment.  As some of you already know, I always have a long, long summer off from orchestra work, so the timing to take on 2 major projects just as the orchestra season was ending could not have been better.

I made the twin size one first, using a horizontal layout.  Keeping in mind that the plan was to display it at the venue, it's bright but not too wild.  I also was careful to keep it gender neutral.

The center block is extra fancy since it's from the venue itself.

A swirly black and gray marble print and striped binding finished it off.  I did an all-over stipple design for the quilting, and added a hanging sleeve on the back.

Next was the queen size quilt for the chef's home.

For a quilt for someone's home I felt I could be a little more relaxed with the color choices, so this one is a little brighter and has some bolder prints.  And just for variation it's arranged in a vertical pattern.

Both of these quilts used a lot of fun music prints ( EQuilter.com has a great fat quarter collection here ).  The chef mentioned that her husband is a bass player so I thought that red and black print was particularly fitting.

It's one of the largest quilts I've ever made, measuring about 90 x 105, so there's generous drop on the sides and plenty of room for pillow tucks.

On the back is a bright print and black and white plaid binding.  Both of these quilts used extra-wide (108") backing fabrics (this one is from fabric.com) which I think is the only way to go for these large quilts-- the time savings is significant, plus the quilts baste easier and therefore quilt more smoothly. 

 

Rock and Roll All Night

As promised, I am using this space to share completed custom orders.
Most of my more regular musings can now be found on Facebook and Instagram-- please join me!

Anyway, I just completed a custom T-shirt quilt out of an amazing collection of shirts:

Many of these shirts date back 30 years or more.  The oldest one with a date on it is from 1984.

Most of them are from rock concerts by iconic artists, including:  Elton John (twice!), Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Fleetwood Mac, Counting Crows, Taj Mahal, Marshall Tucker Band, George Jones, James Taylor, the Eagles, Robert Plant (also twice), Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty.  There are also a few non-musical shirts from art shows, car shows and other personal events.

The biggest challenge for this project ended up being preserving the integrity of the designs (some of which are really iconic) while fitting them into the confines of a queen size quilt.  I mean, what are you going to do:  cut Tina off at the hips to achieve a standard 15" block?  I DON'T THINK SO. 

There's not a lot of additional fabric on the front of the quilt since I had a large number of t shirts to use but I did have a little room for a few fun guitar fabrics that I already had in my stash.

I love using extra wide 108" fabric for the back of a large quilt-- having a one-piece back just makes basting and quilting so much easier.  The cheerful magenta and white print is available here.  The binding is solid black fabric.

I did an all-over stipple quilting using a medium gray thread which blended nicely into both the white and black shirts (and everything in between!).  I used lightweight Quilter's Dream batting and, of course, my HQ Sweet 16 machine for the quilting.

I hope it looks as good in my customer's bedroom as it does in mine!

Oh Baby

My latest custom quilt was an exercise in how to make a random pile of fabric go together.

The customer had photographed her newborn baby for the first year of her life using 12 different fabrics, one fabric each month.

Something like this (photo courtesy of Pinterest):

 

Well, her daughter is now about 1 1/2 years old and she was wondering what to do with the 12 yards (!) of fabric left over from the photo sessions.  Luckily all of the fabrics were quilting cottons that she had bought at Joann's-- with one exception:  the lemon print with the blue background is flannel. (Still completely usable)

I love combining bright colors with charcoal gray so that was my suggestion to bring everything together.
The applique flowers weren't part of my original design idea but I think they add just the right touch.

This is a lap size quilt so there was LOTS of fabric left over, plenty to do a pieced back.

I love scrap quilts so this was a really fun project!

Now on to other business:

I've been noticing recently that Instagram Is The New Blog.  I've tried it and have to say I agree.  It's a much more practical medium for sharing tidbits of information, plus it's totally portable as it is a phone-only application.  So it goes anywhere and I can use it anytime.  So I think I will be migrating most of my online communication to Instagram and using this space to share custom orders and other special projects.  I  hope you'll join me!

https://www.instagram.com/thequiltingviolinist/

One last thing:  a little taste of my recent vacation.  I went BY MYSELF to Venice in June.  Because I wanted to.  It was great.

The Grand Canal

Rialto Bridge

Burano Island