Quilting Services Special Pricing!

Now that we are settled in to having a fifth family member I am ready to take on more quilting. I am offering a special, first-come-first served offer right now for half off custom quilting to three customers. Normal pricing for light custom quilting starts at $0.02 per square inch, and more detailed custom quilting, including stitch in the ditch, dense ruler work, and dense fillers are $0.03 per square inch. For three quilts, I will do the same work for half the cost--either $0.01 or $0.015 depending on the detail you want. Custom quilting includes anything with specific attention to the piecing, rather than just quilting a complete overall design on the whole quilt.

See some examples below.

Light custom quilting--two borders done with rulers, and an allover design in the center. Normally $0.02 per square inch. (The blue lines were removed.)

 More light custom quilting can be seen here .

Medium Custom Quilting--this example has dense quilting but no ruler work or stitch in the ditch. May also include less dense designs with some ruler work. Normal price $0.025 per square inch.

Heavy Custom Quilting: Appliques outlined using rulers, dense fillers. Normally $0.03 per square inch.

More heavy custom quilting can be seen here.

If interested please shoot me an email at thequiltingmill@yahoo.com.

Riley Blake Challenge--by the Mister!

So it seems my husband has been making more quilts than me lately--and for right now, that is true. We got the fabric for the Riley Blake Challenge in October, about two weeks before baby #3 was born, and I knew I didn't want to commit the time to do it. I showed Kyle the bundle, and he basically said, "Challenge accepted!" He designed and pieced the top. His original block design was a bit different, but he changed his mind at the last minute and flipped some pieces around and got this look instead.


 The fabrics we were given were, um, interesting. He decided to add purple and red-orange to match up colors into complementary pairs, and then the grays. I think his theory worked and he actually came up with a great idea. He used every inch of the fat eights we received--there were just thin trimmings left.



He told me that he wanted it quilted with giant pebbles, which led to calling them rocks. We had a good laugh about that one. =) It was fun to use my circle templates and make all of the circles. He wanted a lot of contrast in the sizes, which made it more fun to do. The print on the back worked really well with the circle quilting too--when we were going through my stash to choose a back, we both knew right away that it was the perfect choice.



It was fun to work on yet another project together, but it looks like he'll be taking a break from quilting for a little while. Maybe I can convince him to pull out the queen size quilt he hasn't worked on since our oldest was born.... =)

3 Quilts for Danielle

I had the opportunity to quilt 3 more quilts for my friend Danielle before Christmas. I know we're 2/3 through January, but it's better to blog late than never, right?

The first two were commissions for a friend of hers.

(Sorry for the bad lighting on this first one.) This adorable owl quilt was first. I had so much fun customizing the quilting design a little. I put leaves in the "tree", swirls in the background, and woodgrain on the branch.

 The owl needed feathers, didn't she? Apparently I don't have details of the leaves or woodgrain quilting.


 The second quilt was super cute too. This one is for a little boy, so we decided to put this square spiral pantograph on it. I don't use a lot of pantos, but this one worked really well for this design.


The third one Danielle made was for her adorable little boy. I LOVE how she laid it out--I wish I could have gotten a better picture of the whole thing. She asked for straight lines echoing 1" on both sides of each seam. She brought me a puffy poly batting for this one, and I'm sure her son is loving to snuggle with this amazing quilt his mom made just for him.
I'll admit I was a little worried about how to do the straight lines continuously, but my engineer husband/consultant helped me figure out a quilting path that worked excellently.


These were the first quilts I worked on after the new baby was born. He has been a fantastic napper, and especially was the first few weeks. That has really helped a lot!

Thanks Danielle for letting me be a part of these beautiful quilts!

A Christmas Finish by the Mr!

I count myself very lucky to not only have a husband who supports my quilting habit, but he also likes to participate in it as well. Lately he has spent more time planning, designing, and building his stash (I know, right?!?) than actually sewing, but he got the motivation he needed when his sister asked for a quilt for Christmas. With all of the projects I had on my plate as well as a new baby on the way, we switched roles on this one and I became his consultant. He designed, cut, and pieced the blocks. He asked me to sew them all together because he knew I could do it faster, but he could have done it. I also did the quilting and binding. Those scare him. For now. ;)

His sister wanted a throw quilt in neutral colors. 

This measures 50" by 60" and we think it will be right up her alley. We'll find out in the morning because that is when we'll be giving it to her.

I quilted it in a large overall paisley-ish design. I love the motion that this pattern provides. Kyle wanted something to contrast with the straight lines in the piecing, and we definitely achieved that.

 It has since been washed and is now wonderfully snuggly. It was fun to see Kyle getting into sewing again. He hasn't actually sewn since our daughter was born, and she's 5 now, so it has been a really long time. This was the second quilt he has made--the first one, finished in 2008, was king size and all equilateral triangles in a fractal pattern. I'll have to tell about that one sometime.

I'm linking up today to Finish it Up Friday and Link a Finish Friday.

WiP Wednesday: Finally Sewing Again!

He's here! He's actually 6 1/2 weeks old now, I've just been busy. Our new little man arrived November 3rd, 9 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches long. (Yep, he was huge! OUCH.) Here he is with big brother and sister getting ready to go to church for the first time at 3 weeks old. I'm so blessed with these three, and their handsome dad. =)



So on to the quilty stuff. My siblings and I rotate who gives to who for Christmas each year. I asked my sister what she would like, and suggested a quilt for any room in her new house. After some thought she decided she wanted a quilt for her almost 9-year-old daughter's bed, in pinks, purples, and dragon-y greens. She wanted a design that seemed like a castle or related to dragons somehow. We decided on this Weathervane Block (tutorial by Don't Call me Betsy here). I'll be putting plain squares in between and quilting dragons into those. My sister is designing a dragon pantograph to fit into the squares for me, and I'm going to free-hand some other design in the blocks. I think it will be really fun! My sister is and amazing artist and is looking forward to painting murals on her "invitingly blank walls," and plans to do something dragon themed in similar colors to the quilt in her daughter's room.


 


This may or may not get done in time for Christmas, but it feels good to be making so much progress. I'm very happy with how the blocks turned out. I chain-pieced everything, so I finished all of the blocks at the same time.


Now I'd just like to know why I only bought half a yard of that Tula Pink "Eye Drops" print?!?

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Diamonds Baby Quilt in Technicolor

It's that time again and I'm pleased to share my latest finish with you for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I made this for our new little man who is making an appearance any day now. In fact, we thought he was going to come yesterday but it was a false alarm and we got sent home from the hospital. As much as I'd like to meet him, I'm trying to be patient until he's ready to get here. 

The main fabric I used is Technicolor by Emily Herrick. I love the bright colors in this collection, they are so fresh and fun. I used Cotton Couture in Midnight for the background and backing, and added a few other prints in various oranges and navy and white.

For the quilting I stitched in the ditch around all of the diamonds first, then did pebbling in the background. I love the zig-zag that offsetting the diamonds creates. I quilted a variety of designs in all of the blocks, using a combination of free-hand work and rulers. I had SO MUCH FUN quilting this, I was almost sad when I finished it.

I didn't want the thread to distract from the fabrics, so I used white thread in the blocks. I LOVE how the back turned out where all of the designs are easily visible.

This is my favorite block. It's inspired by Angela Walters' dot-to-dot quilting designs. 

It was fun coming up with different designs that I could do in continuous lines from one end of the block to another.

I did the binding scrappy in all of the oranges that I used in the quilt. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. I'm planning to make another one in a different pattern for our little man's big-boy bed at some point in the future--I've got plenty of fabric left for it.

Quilt Stats:

Baby Quilt, about 37" by 50"

Quilted by me on my Innova Longarm machine.

I'm entering the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side in the Baby Quilts category. There are some beautiful entries so far! I always love to see what everyone comes up with, there is so much inspiration.

Also linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Innova Training

Last week I finally had the opportunity to drive down to Let's Quilt in St. George, UT for the official training on my Innova longarm machine. I've had it for 6 months now, so it's high time I did that!

The first morning we spent about 3 hours talking about batting, thread, and tension. Then we loaded our first quilts of the week. I made this top about 5 years ago in a workshop, and it has been sitting in a drawer ever since. It measures 52" square.

We put pantographs on these quilts the first day. I have only done freehand work before and hadn't actually tried following a pantograph before. It definitely does take some practice to follow the lines with the laser light. I don't *love* doing pantos, but they certainly do have a place. I bought two while I was there that are patterns that would be hard to freehand accurately. One that I purchased was the same one I put on this quilt, called "Trumpet Vine."  I used red thread on this one to repeat the red in the border. I think it looks very pretty! I probably would have used black thread, but when I finished the top at the workshop 5 years ago, a woman there looked at it and said, "Please tell me you're going to quilt that with red thread." I thought it was a great idea, and I love how it turned out.

The second morning started with maintenance. We learned how to re-time the machines and do other basic maintenance to keep them in top working condition. I really appreciate how the Innova machine is so easy to care for, although timing can be a bit of a pain.

In the afternoon we did custom quilting on wholecloth quilts. We started with a 36" square top, and added a square to create "borders." We learned how to use pantographs and space them properly to fit into the borders. Then we put in corner triangles and learned how to place a motif into a specific location. From there we had a few more motifs to choose from, and we got to design the rest however we wanted to.

I added one more motif in the center, outlined it with a square on point, and added in some little extra borders. I filled in the rest with a freehand leaf filler that kind of echoed the motif shape, although it was simpler.
My fabric was white and I chose to use a silver Glide thread. It doesn't really show in the photos, but it was so pretty!

I had SO MUCH FUN getting to decide how to fill all the space. I especially loved putting in multiple rows of quilting with a tiny filler in between. It was tricky to do that particular design at a 45 degree angle--I need to practice that one some more =)

The third day was spent entirely on learning fillers. We were instructed to bring a top made of six 6.5" wide strips. On each row we chose a different kind of thread to see how we liked it. I used all variegated threads, with Fantastico on top, YLI Variations in the center, and King Tut on the bottom. All three threads worked nicely for me, although I usually prefer solid thread. It was fun to try thread that I don't own. On the first row we did stippling/meandering in four different sizes and two different shapes. The second row was various fillers, and the third row we practiced feathers.

We learned some good tips for maintaining the spacing on the meandering.

I loved the two fillers we did on this row. I've done paisley before, but it's just pretty. The geometric was a lot of fun to do--it was a fun challenge to fill the space.

Microstippling was a lot of fun, although a little stressful. It looks kind of splotchy with this variegated thread. We tried a few different kinds of microhandles, and I chose the ones I want. I'm hoping Santa brings them to me for Christmas. =)

It was fun to do all of the different designs. I certainly liked some better than others. The last one on the center row wasn't my favorite.

I had to unpin my sampler and go home before getting to add any more rows, but I did stick around for some more demonstrations. It was a 5 hour drive home and I left at 5:30. I have no idea how late people actually stayed that night, but I bet it could have been 7:00. My husband needed to go back to work the next day, so it was important for me to get home. I'm so glad he could take a few days off to stay with the kiddos while I got to go do this. It was kind of my last big break before the baby comes as well, which was really nice. I'll admit my ankles were pretty swollen after a five hour drive home though!

I had a great time at the training, but it was so good to come home. I'm excited to try some new skills on real quilts!