Come Quilt (Sue Garman): May Flowers

I truly find it hard to believe that it's already MAY! I guess the saying is true that time flies when you're having fun! This month I want to share a series, or actually just a bunch, of simple but beautiful quilts that I finished recently. Some are community service, some for baby showers, and one pair was for my kiddo. Then, I have a special surprise at the end! Here we go...

My son, who will be a whopping 15 years old next month, has two twin beds in his room. For several years now, they've had some comforters I purchased for him that were really more appropriate when he was younger. I saw a space-related panel from Kaufman at Linda's Electric Quilters, showed it to my son, and SOLD... he requested two of them for his beds. He also picked out the backing, thread color, and quilting pattern. The quilting pattern is called Orbit e2e, from Wildflower Quilting. They turned out so perfect for him and his room.

Overall view of one of the quilts.

Here, you can see the backing fabric that he picked.

Shot of the twin quilts on his beds.

Next up, a series of baby quilts that I quilted for a couple of friends. The first two are cute, baby colors, and fairly standard quilt patterns... one a rail fence with sashings, and the other is four-patches on point, with sashings. I used Tidepool E2E from Wasatch Quilting on the rail fence, and abc dotted font pano 001 from Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio on the four-patches. Both turned out super cute! The third one pictured below consists of flying geese in multiple sizes. This is my learning moment to share this month. We had settled on using Anita Shackelford's Modern Curves pattern, but the quilter didn't want it to go straight up and down or side to side. I thought, "No problem! I'll just set it at an angle and quilt it that way. Easy peasy." HAHAHA! It wasn't quite as easy as I had pictured in my mind. Setting the pattern at an angle caused me all sorts of extra work, where the pattern lines didn't make it all the way across in the quilting space, so I had to do a lot of rolling and matching. It did come out beautifully in the end, and she loved it!

Rail fence overall view.

Rail fence closeup.

Back of rail fence.

Overall view of four-patches.

Closeup of four-patches.

Back of four-patches. Cute fabric!

Overall view of flying geese.

Closeup of flying geese.

Back of flying geese. Puppy paws!

Now I just want to share some community service quilts that I quilted for a friend. A rail fence and two with simple squares sewn together (one with a heart worked in). On one of the squares, I made sure to use 80/20 batting, because the fabrics were homespuns, which tend to be very fluid when being quilted. 80/20 batting tends to be a little more "grabby" with the quilting fabric, which helped a lot to keep everything straight and square. And I love the backing on that quilt... a really nice cheater print with lots of motion to it. The quilting patterns I used, respectively, are gdaisyfaste2e from Stitch Happy, Orbit e2e again (same as above), and swirling hearts pano 002 from Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio. A few lucky folks will be receiving some lovely quilts!

Rail fence overall view.

Rail fence closeup.

View of back of rail fence.

Overall view of homespun blocks.

Closeup of homespun blocks.

Back of homespun blocks. Cute cheater print!

Overall view of heart blocks.

Closeup of heart blocks.

Shot of the back of the heart blocks.

Last set of photos for this month, and they're worth the wait! A fabulous quilter sent us some photos of a miniaturized Halo Medallion Quilt that she made! It's approximately half size from the original quilt, at 41-inches square. The quilter's name is Betty Chouinard, from New Hampshire, and her quilter is Flo Verge from Vermont. All I can say is, "WOW!" The fabric selection is gorgeous, the work is beautiful, and the quilting is outstanding. Betty named the quilt Hallelujah, and it won three ribbons at the Amoskeag Quilters' Guild show recently: Overall Viewer's Choice, Viewer's Choice Special Category, and Vendor's Choice. She plans to enter it in more shows coming up. Good luck, Betty! It's a beautiful quilt!