Three Quilts for Carrie: Roam, Stars Hollow + I Spy Shadow Boxes

Today for Finished On Friday I'm sharing three beautiful quilts that I long arm quilted for my client Carrie.  First up is Roam, a BOM (Block of the Month) medallion quilt kit designed by Tara Faughnan.  I wasn't able to locate any Roam kits that I could link to, but you can still purchase the Roam pattern (with or without the accompanying video tutorials) on the designer's web site here.  The back page of the pattern lists all the fabrics used in the BOM kit for this quilt in case you wanted to make one just like it, but I think this quilt would look wonderful in any number of different fabric combinations.  In print fabrics, it would look like a completely different quilt.

Carrie's 82 x 82 Roam Quilt with Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut E2E

I quilted Carrie's Roam with Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut E2E, a simple geometric pattern that emphasizes the strong diagonal elements in the patchwork.  I used King Tut 40 wt cotton thread in Lapis Lazuli and Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Poly Black batting (this post contains affiliate links).

Detail of Diagonal Plaid Bias E2E in King Tut Lapis Lazuli Variegated Thread

Why the black batting?  Long arm machines use larger needles than domestic sewing machines, and with the thicker 40 wt thread I was using here I needed a size 110/18 needle to get that gorgeous stitch quality in all stitching directions.  Bigger needles leave bigger holes, and with a dark thread and predominantly dark fabrics in the quilt top, those needle holes are less conspicuous when the batting isn't peeking out bright white around every stitch.  Of course needle holes close up when the quilt is washed, but not every quilt does get washed, at least not right away.

Second reason for black batting in a quilt like this is that it prevents dark stray threads from showing through the lighter fabrics in the quilt top.  The Windham Artisan Cottons fabrics in the Roam quilt are gorgeous but they are also prone to fraying.  As neat as Carrie was with her quilt top, there were still stray threads all over the place no matter how many I tried to neaten away.  In that photo above, if I'd used a regular white or off white batting, we would be seeing some stray navy threads showing through the Orchid and Yellow/Copper fabrics.  Navy thread against black batting disappears, but navy thread against white batting will show through a light colored quilt top fabric.

Here's what Carrie's Roam quilt top looked like before I quilted it:

Carrie's Roam Quilt Top Before Quilting

This next quilt for Carrie is a baby quilt pattern called Stars Hollow from designer SuzyQuiltsPatterns, available on Etsy here.  This was a great quilt top for showing off a fun quilting design like Ba Da Boom E2E.  I quilted it with YLI 40 Tex cotton thread in color 10V Pastels variegated.  The batting is Quilters Dream Bamboo/Silk/Cotton blend, my favorite for baby quilts because it's so soft and has wonderful drape -- the opposite of the "stiff quilt" we all dread!

Carrie's 50 x 50 Stars Hollow Quilt with Ba Da Boom E2E

Sorry I'm not getting the entire quilt in the finish photos like I used to.  Somehow in my move from North Carolina to Florida last year, my magnetic bars that I used to hold quilts by their upper edge for photos got misplaced.  Here's what Carrie's Stars Hollow quilt top looked like before I quilted it for her:

Carrie's Stars Hollow Quilt Top Before Quilting

I don't have a pattern source for this last quilt for Carrie, a delightful I Spy incorporating the most wonderful assortment of novelty print fabrics.  I quilted it with Malachite E2E but this time I used a much lighter weight polyester thread, So Fine in color Snow, because I wanted to create texture and movement with the quilting design without drawing attention to the quilting stitches or detracting from the fun print fabrics.  I used Quilters Dream Bamboo/Silk/Cotton batting for this quilt as well.

Carrie's 59 x 66 I Spy Shadow Box Quilt with Malachite E2E

I had to share a close up of a couple of my favorite fabrics.  The Dalmatian with yellow roses in his mouth and the fluffy sheep on the bright yellow background!  See how that So Fine thread just melts into whatever fabric it's stitched into, taking on the color of the fabric instead of showing up as a bright white line of stitching?

Detail of I-Spy Novelty Print Fabrics

Here's what Carrie's I-Spy quilt top looked like before I quilted it:

Carrie's I-Spy Quilt Top Before Quilting

I have zero progress on personal projects to report because I had to fly back to Charlotte, North Carolina unexpectedly on Good Friday.  My mom went to the ER for shortness of breath thinking that they would just do another thoracentesis procedure to drain the fluid that keeps collecting around her right lung (she has advanced lung cancer and they had already done this twice before), but they ended up admitting her and keeping her there for seven days.  I was not going to leave my mom alone in a hospital over Easter weekend, so that's where I've been for the past week and a half.

Two Thumbs Up!

They drained a liter and a half of the "malignant pleural fluid" out on Saturday, but there was still a lot more and it was squishing mom's lung so she couldn't ever get a full, deep breath.  This was only 5 weeks since the last time she'd had fluid drained, so the doctors convinced us to let them put in a PleurX catheter so Mom can drain the fluid every day or so at home instead of it building up to where she could hardly breathe and had to go to the emergency room again.  Mom also failed the walking oxygen test even after these procedures removed nearly 3 liters of that fluid (three LITERS!  Can you imagine?!) so not only did she go home with a catheter in her chest that needs to be drained and bandaged up again every day, but now she's on oxygen at home as well.  Lots of unexpected changes happening all at once, but she is a good patient with a great attitude.

Fortuitously, we had already made arrangements to move my mom from South Carolina to Austin, Texas, where she will have family support from my sister Susan, and all of her grandchildren already had plane tickets to fly in for a choral society concert my mom directed two days after she was released from the hospital.  Yes, you read that right!  TWO DAYS after being released from the hospital, with her portable oxygen concentrator machine right beside her as she directed the chorus and band.  Here's mom with all of her grandchildren, the night before the moving company arrived to pack up her home:

Mom With Grandchildren: Sarah, Alex, Anders, Lars, Timmy, James

All in all, the Lord's timing was pretty good with all of this.  If I hadn't been there with her in the hospital and she had told them she lived alone, I don't think the hospital would have let her go home with that catheter and the oxygen machine and no caregiver to help.  If she hadn't gone to the ER to get the fluid drained on Good Friday, she would not have been in any shape to direct the following weekend.  My mom got to direct her last shows, had a wonderful visit with all of her grandchildren gathered together for the first time in I don't know how many years, and she JUST NOW texted me that she, her dog and my sister have all arrived safely at my sister's home in Austin.  New adventures await!

I just realized that today is May 1st, a fresh new month needing a One Monthly Goal.  Just one?!  Well, I suppose my goal for May is to finish the Deco quilt backing that has been piled on my cutting table since the beginning of April.  I hope that's not the only thing I get sewn in May, but you never know.  Sometimes Life just happens and interferes with all of our best plans!

I'm linking up with the following linky parties:

ONE MONTHLY GOAL

Anne-Marie at Stories From the Sewing Room

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

FRIDAY

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework