Author Archives: kmabra@aol.com

2016 Show Quilt – Mission Accomplished!!

2016 Show Quilt - "Red Stars in a Midnight Sky"

2016 Show Quilt – “Red Stars in a Midnight Sky”

2016 quilt detail1Last week I finished my show quilt, this quilt took many hours to quilt as I challenged myself to have it nearly 100% quilted using my computerized system with digitized designs.

I have completed the Quilt Show Entry forms and have named the quilt “Red Stars in a Midnight Sky”.

Custom computerized quilting is a much slower process than free-motion quilting but opens up many more possibilities for designs (who wants to free-motion hundreds of segments for a custom design.. but using the computerized system required realigning every segment to ensure very accurate placement of the designs I chose and updated for use in the quilt.

2016 show design12016 show design22016 show design3

Now back to quilting for clients!

Quilting full-time is great – I have worked down my backlog and am currently able to get quilts back to customers within 2 weeks!

 

Way to start the new year! Quilting!

Happy New Year to all!  One of my resolutions is to post on my quilting blog more frequently in 2016.

I spent pretty much all day working on my 2016 show quilt which is now on my quilting frame.  (the one with 500 flying geese!)  I am challenging myself to do almost 100% computerized quilting and have spent much time preparing the design elements to use for this quilt.  My goal is to have the machine quilted by the end of the weekend and return to customer quilts next week.

Here is a peek at how I am progressing:

2016 show quilt on frame2016 show quilt detail

Happy Holidays and Merry Quilting!

Fold'n Stitch Wreath

Fold’n Stitch Wreath

2015 has been a crazy year of transitions for me and a great year of quilting!

My business continues to grow and I want to thank all of my clients for their support!

Now that I am quilting full time I have been able to wipe out the ongoing backlog and can now have much better turn-around times for jobs that are brought to me which I very much enjoy (and so do my clients!)

Looking forward to 2016, I already have many quilting related plans, more classes at MQX (Machine Quilter’s Expo) in April.  Spring retreats, etc.

With virtually no backlog I have had some time to play with my own projects!  The photo in this post is the popular Fold’n Stitch Wreath which I saw on many quilt group pages and I just had to try making one for the holidays –

so… as 2015 winds down – Happy Holidays to all and Merry Quilting to you!!

 

 

1500 and growing!

I reached a milestone in my quilting business this week…. I quilted my 1500th quilt on my machine!  I still do quite a bit of free-motion custom quilting but the addition of the Intelliquilter has let me move into the digitized age and lets me offer so many more options for my clients AND saves my shoulders and back!

I am offering a special for the remainder of November and December to celebrate…. please see the ad below!

Machine Quilting Services of Vermont LOGO4

Jay Peak Quilt Retreat – a very productive weekend!

First snow of the season and a great weekend to be working on quilting projects at Jay Peak – wonderful time with friends and so much fun working with the fabrics I purchased in Hawaii… hard to believe it has been a month since we were there.  I had a lot of quick projects packed and got a lot done over the long weekend.

First snow of the season on Jay Peak.

First snow of the season on Jay Peak.

 
Sea Turtle Fabric purchased in Hawaii.

Sea Turtle Fabric purchased in Hawaii.

Quilt top made of Hawaiian fabric scrap bundle purchased for $3.99 in Oahu. Couldn't resist! It was fun figuring out what to do with it..

Quilt top made of Hawaiian fabric scrap bundle purchased for $3.99 in Oahu. Couldn’t resist! It was fun figuring out what to do with it..

Quick project – quilt will be given to a child in need in Barre VT via Kim Portalupi – lot’s of fun fabrics in this quilt.

This will be quilted and part of the 'Lobby Lights" display at the 40th Anniversary of Vermont Quilt Festival in June 2016

This will be quilted and part of the ‘Lobby Lights” display at the 40th Anniversary of Vermont Quilt Festival in June 2016

Update on 2016 Show Quilt – 500 Flying Geese later……

I have previously posted about the quilt I will be making to put in shows this year.  I spent last weekend at Camp Abanaki at a retreat with my Quilt Guild and have now completed the top of the quilt.  I spent Thursday thru noon-time Sunday (talking about up by 6:30am and quilting until after 10pm) working on this.  The primary construction component is flying geese blocks and this quilt required 500 of them! Flying Geese Unit

I spent all day Thursday and part of Friday making these units using the Deb Tucker ‘Wing Clipper’ method and then spent the rest of Friday trimming them all to size.

Here is one of the flying geese units before it was trimmed:

Saturday thru Sunday morning was spent putting them all together into the quilt top.  I never worked on anything else the whole time… and Sunday after brunch finished adding on the last border.

Quilt top detail with Flying GeeseQuilt top with 500 Flying Geese

 

 

 

 

 

Next step – quilting!

 

 

 

Update on Quilt in Progress

I have been spending time figuring out how to make the blocks for a quilt that I will be using for a show quilt for 2016 – I could have gone with Lemoyne starts on the main block but the alternate block would not have easily worked that way so I tried making the same pattern with flying geese blocks and it looks like it will work very well..

Here are the 2 main block patterns for the quilt:2016 show quilt sample blocks these are sample blocks –

My quilt will be a 2-color quilt with red batiks on a dark blue background. (The quilt has 100 of the blocks on the left and 25 of the blocks on the right.)

 

 

 

Below are my fabrics all cut out and ready to go to fall quilt retreats with me it will be very time consuming as there are 500 flying geese blocks in this quilt!  So I will probably only have to bring this one project to work on the whole time!  (Thank-you Deb Tucker for creating the Wing Clipper ruler – I will be a pro by the time these are done!)2016 show quilt fabrics cut

My next post on this project won’t be until October at fall retreat…  stay tuned!

 

Christmas in July Quilt

I just quilted a quilt for a client who used Christmas fabrics with Lemoyne Stars cut in ‘stack and whack’ method to create repeating pattern in the ‘blades’ of the star.  It feels like Christmas in July!  I used Glide thread for the first time and really liked the way it quilted.

Christmas in July QuiltChristmas in July Quilt Detail

Background Fabric for my Fall Quilt Retreats Project – for 2016 40th Vermont Quilt Festival!

I previously mentioned I had collected beautiful red batiks to make a quilt to celebrate the 40th Anniversary Vermont Quilt Festival –  well I found the background fabric I will use for the quilt.

It is a beautiful modern deep blue fabric – my original plan was to use an off-white fabric but after ‘auditioning’ various fabrics at Yankee Pride Quilt Store last week all of the light colored backgrounds would have had the potential for the red to show through which would have ruined the look of the quilt.  No worries with show-through with this fabric!

Here is a picture of snips of the various reds against that deep blue –

Fabric for Fall Quilt Retreat Project for 2016 Show Quilt

Next step – figure out cutting and method for the quilt – I have a pattern in mind…. will post updates as this project comes together.

 

 

A Beautiful Signature Quilt

I just completed quilting on a Signature Quilt for one of my clients.  This is the prettiest Signature Quilt I have seen – her choice of colors and fabric variety is stunning!  The finished size of each block is 5 inches with the inner section for the signature at 2 1/4 inches – there are 117 of these signature blocks on the quilt.  I used custom continuous curves and loops on each block and a leaf pattern in the borders using teal thread.  It came out great – she left a few unsigned blocks so family members who did not get a chance to sign a block can do so at her family reunion next month.

Signature QuiltSignature Quilt Detail