NEW Quilting Book Review: Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs by Kelly Young

In today's post, we're taking a brand-new quilt book for a test drive: Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs by Kelly Young, available here on Amazon.  (Full disclosure: this post contains affiliate links, and I was provided with a free advance copy of this book so I could review it for you).  Overachiever that I am, I made not one but TWO of the pieced backing projects in this book, and I will be using this book for a lot more than just quilt backings...  I'll get to that later!

Initially I was interested in this book as a resource to keep in my office for the times when clients come to drop off a quilt for long arm quilting and their backing doesn't quite meet my minimum size requirements.  I run into this issue a lot, especially with the charity quilting I do for the Outreach program of the Charlotte Quilters' Guild.  When the volunteers on the Outreach team put fabric kits together for our members to take and sew, they often size the backing fabric just a few inches larger than the quit top should finish.  That works great for guild members who are quilting on a domestic machine, but it doesn't give me the allowances I need for loading the backing onto the canvas leaders of my long arm frame.  The first project I'm sharing from Kelly's book is the simplest one in there, and it was the perfect solution for enlarging a too-small backing for one of these guild outreach quilts.

First Pieced Backing: Walking Path

I Just Love How the Quilting Shows Up on the Plain Old Muslin Strip!

I didn't have any leftovers from this patriotic themed quilt top to work with, so I just cut a wide strip of plain old boring muslin and inserted it into the original backing fabric following Kelly's instructions for the Walking Path backing.  Once quilted, the muslin looks terrific.  I just love how the quilting design that is completely lost against that busy navy print fabric springs to life on the muslin strip!  That quilting design I used is Feathered Spirals E2E, designed by Jess Ziegler, stitched in So Fine 50 wt thread, color Snow, and I used the Pellon 80/20 With Scrim batting provided by my guild.

 

Here's the front of that quilt:

CQG Donation Quilt with Feathered Spiral E2E

Isn't it pretty?  I forgot to write down the dimensions of that quilt before I turned it in at our guild meeting for another member to bind.  With the Americana themed fabric prints, this quilt will likely be given to a child who is hospitalized over the Independence Day holiday.  Most of our donation kit quilts have very simple piecing, and the "walking path" pieced backing with a single contrast strip is a great choice for enlarging the backing without making it compete for attention with the quilt top.  But, flipping through the book there were so many other fun ideas...  

Julie's Positivity Quilt for the Mercyful Quilts QAL

Good Monday morning and Happy August, y'all!  I'll get to my goals for the fresh week and shiny new month later in this post.  First, I want to show you this beautiful Positivity quilt, pieced by Julie Kennedy of Julie's Quilts & Costumes, and quilted by Yours Truly:

60 x 80 Positivity Quilt for Mercyful Quilts QAL

"Positivity" is a FREE pattern from Preeti Harris of Sew Preeti Quilts, available here.  Preeti and Bernie Kringel of Needle & Foot are currently sponsoring a QAL (quilt-along) using this pattern to create donation quilts for Bernie's Mercyful Quilts charity benefitting dying patients and their families at Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, California.  Those participating in the QAL, which runs through September 5th, are encouraged to either ship their completed quilts to Bernie or else donate them to local charity.  Although I didn't have time to piece a top for this effort, I was glad to collaborate with Julie in support of this worthy cause.

Positivity Quilt Pieced by Julie, Quilted by Me

One of the things I love about Preeti's Positivity pattern is that, although there's nothing explicitly religious about the plus sign design to non-Christians, Christian patients and their loved ones will see the plus sign as a cross -- a reminder of the promise of resurrection, which makes this quilt both physically and spiritually comforting.  I love the color palette Julie chose, too.  The blue crosses/plusses against the warm neutral background fabrics is calm, soothing, and organic, like earth and sky and water.  

Spring Forth: One More Cuddle Quilt Ready for Outreach Drop-off This Weekend

Happy FRIDAY!!!  The Charlotte Quilters' Guild Outreach committee is doing a drop-off this weekend for charity quilts, and I managed to squeeze one more in for quilting so that I'll have three to turn in this month.  I took advantage of the opportunity to try out a new quilting design called Spring Forth.  It shows up really nicely on the pieced backing side of the quilt: 

Spring Forth E2E in Tabriz Orchid Glide Thread, Backing Side

I knew the quilting design wouldn't show well on the front of this heavily pieced quilt, and I didn't really want the quilting to stand out on the front of this one, so I tried to pick a design and thread color that would blend in and let the piecing shine.  Not every quilt is all about the quilting!

Spring Daffodils, Sunshine, and Abundant Feathers "for the Babies"

In addition to my personal quilting projects and the quilting I do for clients, I also quilt tops for our Charlotte Quilters' Guild's charity outreach program.  Our guild donates to the NICU and Pediatric wards at both the Atrium and Novant hospitals in Charlotte, in addition to the women's cancer units and veterans' hospice.  Many of our guild's members make donation quilts from start to finish, but others will bring in piles of pieced quilt tops for other members like me to quilt.  

The quilt I'm sharing today is one of nearly SIXTY quilt tops that were made and donated recently by a single person, a guild member's mother who is ninety years young.  Every morning she sits down at her vintage Singer sewing machine and sets to work on making "quilts for the babies and children in the hospital."  Just imagine how much love and compassion this one woman has sent out into the world over the decades of her lifetime, working one day and one stitch at a time!

39 x 39 Cuddle Quilt with Abundant Feathers E2E

The sunny color palette and daffodil print fabric are so cheerful, perfect for the Spring season.  

Sesame Street Quilting With a Playful Floral Swirl E2E Design

Hello, hello, and happy Thursday!  Is it a "sunny day, sweeping the clouds away" where you live today?  If not, don't despair -- "I can tell you how to get, how to get to Sesame Street..."  

Seriously; by the time I finished quilting this one, I could NOT get the Sesame Street songs out of my head.  "C is for cookie, it's good enough for me. Cookie cookie cookie starts with C!"

4 inch Tumbler Quilt with Floral Swirl E2E Quilting Design

This is the second of two donation quilt tops that my mom pieced for me to quilt and donate to a local hospital pediatric patient, using the leftover Hibiscus Kona Solid background fabric from Lars's Mission Impossible graduation quilt (finished in 2019 and juried into QuiltCon Together 2021).  There was a ton of that Hibiscus purple fabric left over, and my mom kept me company in the studio while I was custom quilting Mission Impossible and she was using my AccuQuilt GO! cutter with the 4" tumbler die to cut up all of the leftover purple fabric into tumblers.  The print fabrics were pulled from my scrap bin and my stash, except for those fabulous Sesame Street prints -- I spotted those at a local quilt shop and they were a complete impulse buy.  I knew it would be great for The Charlotte Quilters Guild's Pediatric Outreach efforts.  

Party At My House, Y'All! C'Mon and Link Up your TGIFF Finishes!

Hello and HAPPY FRIDAY, everyone!  If you've come looking for the Thank Goodness It's FINISHED Friday Linky Party, welcome -- you're in the right place.  I'm delighted to be hosting this week's finish party.  

I'm so excited to share my finish this week.  I know I say this a lot, but I found another new favorite edge-to-edge quilting design that I am crushing on this week: 

37 x 37 HST Baby Quilt with Echo Bubble Meander E2E

This 37" x 37" quilt top was pieced by a fellow member of the Charlotte Quilters' Guild for our Outreach Committee, and it will be donated to one of the NICUs at our local hospitals.  When I was first given this top for quilting, I considered custom quilting it with individual motifs in each of the white triangle units.  However, once I had the quilt top in my studio and was thinking about where this quilt was headed and it's job of comforting and encouraging a tiny, fragile baby and his worried parents, custom quilting just seemed too formal and too stiff -- literally too stiff, potentially, if it was heavily custom quilting, but too rigid psychologically as well.  I wanted this quilt to be soft and cuddly, playful and fun.   And then I found this Echo Bubble Meander E2E (Edge-to-Edge) quilting design by Joyce Lundrigan of Methodist Hill Quilt Studio, and knew it would be perfect to bring positive energy and love to the family who receives it.

Channeling Aristotle: Using Ancient Design Principles for Better E2E Quilting

Good morning, Lovelies, and Happy Tuesday!  

I often see quilters -- even seasoned professional longarm quilters with years of experience -- crowd-sourcing ideas for quilting designs on social media and in online forums.  You know, "how should I quilt this," "which thread would you choose," and "which panto design would look good on this quilt?"  If the quilter has a computerized machine, there are additional questions about what size to scale a particular design for quilting as well.  My interior design background kicks in whenever I'm faced with these kinds of choices, so I thought I'd take a moment today to explain how the principles of color, pattern, line, and scale influenced the way I quilted this Disappearing 9-Patch baby quilt.  

39 x 53 Disappearing 9-Patch Baby Quilt

Choosing a Quilting Design: Always Start with Function

When meeting with a new interior design client, the first questions I'd ask were always about their functional needs for the space.  How many people live here?  What are their ages?  Do you have young children or pets?  Do you entertain frequently, and how often do you think you'll redecorate?  The answers to these questions influence every recommendation I will be making to ensure that the finished project not only looks amazing, but is also going to work for their lifestyle and hide pet fur if they have pets, with stain resistance/washability if someone sits on a juicebox that the toddler left in the couch cushions, etc.  I look at a client's quilt top the exact same way, so my first consideration is always the quilt's intended function.  

More Square Drama for a NICU Cuddle Quilt

 Good Monday morning!  

More Square Drama E2E on a 39 x 42 Baby Quilt

I quilted a new E2E design yesterday on a 39" x 42" outreach top that was pieced by a fellow member of the Charlotte Quilters Guild.  Kind of fun, don't you think?  The digital design is called More Square Drama from Wasatch Quilting and it's dense but not thready because there's no backstitching.  I see marshmallows, or melting ice cubes, or roses, or Flintstone wheels, or fried eggs...  

Why Does Rebecca Need SO MUCH THREAD? And Will It Go Bad Before She Uses It Up?

So here's how the "Firemen Heroes" charity quilt turned out the other day:

"Firemen Heroes" Pediatric Hospital Outreach Quilt

I quilted this donated top using Jessica Schick's Fantasy Flames digital pantograph, scaled to a pattern density of .92, with Glide thread top and bottom in color Lemon Ice.

Top Prior to Quilting

I always like to compare photos of what a quilt top looks like before and after quilting, don't you? With this quilt in particular, simply pieced from large rectangles, I wanted to choose a quilting pattern with curved lines to soften the "brick" effect of the piecing lines and add some movement and interest, but it needed to complement and not overpower the "Firemen Heroes" themed fabric.  

Fantasy Flames E2E Design from Urban Elementz

Had I been using the printed paper pantograph version of this design, the row height would have been 10".  I enlarged that by about 10% for this quilt, both to complement the scale of the piecing and because the batting my guild provides for these charity quilts is kind of on the stiff side, and the intended use of the quilt is to be snuggly and cuddly and comforting for a hospitalized child.  Generally speaking, the more densely you quilt something, the stiffer it gets, whereas more open quilting patterns with more space between the stitching lines will result in a softer, more malleable finished quilt.

Thread Color is Glide Lemon Ice, a Pale Yellow Pastel 

I know some would have chosen a neutral gray thread for this quilt, which would have looked great on the majority of the fabrics, but when I auditioned gray thread on this quilt top it looked dirty to me against the yellow fabric patches.  

Any time I am quilting across a fabric with text, I don't want the quilting stitches to look like scribbles obscuring the words.  In this case, that pale barely-yellow thread just sinks in and disappears.  I can't really visualize what a particular thread color will look like on a quilt just by looking at it on the cone.  I have to unspool a length of each thread I'm considering and lay it across all of the different colors in the quilt top to see which color works best overall, and I can only do that if I have a variety of thread colors on hand to choose from.  Those color swatch cards from the thread manufacturers are helpful for matching similar colors from different thread lines, but I can't use them to pick the best color for a particular quilt.

Speaking of thread...

A Portion of My Long Arm Thread Stash: Glide, So Fine, YLI, Bottom Line, King Tut...

What's the Shelf Life of Today's Quilting Threads?

Several of you commented on my last post with concerns about thread "going bad" faster than we can use it up in our projects.  I found an informative article about that topic here that you might want to check out.  If you don't have time to go read the whole thing, here are the main takeaways:

• No, you probably don't want to sew or quilt with the vintage thread you found at a yard sale or that you inherited from Grandma's sewing basket, because it's likely to have deteriorated significantly and lost most of its strength
• The material the spool or cone is made from affects the thread's longevity, too -- those beautiful vintage wooden or styrofoam spools actually sped up the deterioration of the thread due to chemical reactions between the spool material and the thread fibers
• You can prolong the useful life of any thread by storing it away from sunlight, protected from dust, and at a moderate humidity level (neither too dry nor too humid).
• Not sure whether that older spool of thread is still good to use?  Give it Deborah's snap test

BUT --

• Cotton agriculture and thread manufacturing have seen major advances over the past few decades, such that thread manufactured today is expected to have a much longer useful lifespan than the thread manufactured just 20 years ago
• Synthetic fiber threads such as polyester have a much longer lifespan than natural fibers such as cotton, and they are much less susceptible to deterioration from storage conditions than natural fiber threads.  (This is why heavy duty synthetic threads are used for outdoor sewing applications such as cushions for the deck chairs, awnings, etc.)
• The estimated usable lifespan of high quality cotton threads manufactured today that are properly stored (away from light, dust, and extreme temperature/humidity) is about 50 YEARS!  Wow!  That is WAY longer than I would have guessed, but I found that same statistic from every source I consulted, including from Superior Threads here.  The polyester threads that I run in my long arm machine such as Glide, So Fine, and Bottom Line, are predicted to last even longer than cotton threads.  

So I think it's safe to say that my thread stash is going to outlive me!  This little 40" x 45" charity quilt, with a fairly open quilting design, still ate up over 140 yards of thread (my IntelliQuilter computer calculates that for me when I set up the pantograph pattern).  A densely quilted Queen or King size quilt can eat up 2,000 yards of thread or more, and an heirloom/show quilt with dense microfills can take vastly more thread than that.  Since my favorite long arm quilting threads are not available to me locally and are often backordered, I prefer to have a wide variety of thread types and colors on hand so I can always select the perfect thread weight, fiber, color and sheen for every quilt that comes my way.

Also, thread is yummy like candy but without the calories.  ;-)

PSST!!  I'd Love to Quilt for YOU!

By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you!  My turnaround for edge-to-edge quilting is currently running about 2 weeks, and you can click here to find out how to book your quilt with me.

I'm linking up today's post with the following linky parties:

WEDNESDAY

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

Free Motion Mavericks with Muv and Andree

Fresh Off the Frame: Patriotic Star Quilt with E2E Confetti Parade Quilting

I tried out one of my new pantographs yesterday on this veteran's outreach quilt, and I love how it came out!  This top was pieced by a fellow member of the Charlotte Quilters' Guild and I volunteered to do the quilting.

70 x 80 Veterans' Hospice Outreach Quilt, "Flirty Bubbles" Pantograph

Now, I know that some kind of star pattern would be the first choice for many quilters, but to me, that felt too matchy-matchy.  Instead, I chose the Flirty Bubbles pattern from Timeless Quilting, because this design reminds me of baloons, confetti and streamers filling the air during a parade to honor returning soldiers.  I used Glide thread in a creamy ivory color, top and bobbin, and I don't know what kind of batting they gave me except that it was SUPER linty and it had a scrim.

Operation Welcome Home Parade, June 1991

This was my first time using the Flirty Bubbles pantograph, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  You wouldn't expect anything "flirty" or "bubbly" to be appropriate for a soldier's quilt, but that just goes to show how the name of a pattern can sometimes limit our imagination as far as which quilting designs "belong" on which quilts.  Clever names make it easier to remember the name of a great panto design when we see something we like, and that's why pattern designers rack their brains trying to come up with catchy and unique names for each of their designs.

How I Use Channel Locks To Maintain a Straight, Square Quilt with the Fully Floated Loading Method 

I did a full-float load with this quilt, as I do with almost all of my quilts.  That means that although the backing fabric is pinned to the belly bar at the front of my frame and to the takeup roller at the back of the frame, the batting and the quilt top are not attached to any rollers at all.  Instead, they "float" on the surface of the loaded backing and are basted in place along the perimeter each time I advance the quilt.  Now, I know some quilters recommend and prefer doing a partial float, where the quilt top is attached to the quilt top roller, and this is supposed to give one "better control" so the quilt will come out straight and square.  However, in my own experience (YMMV!) I have tried pinning quilt tops to the quilt top roller several times, and I felt like I had LESS control over what was happening with the quilt tops that I pinned and rolled up for a partial float load.  Especially with a top that has "personality," I just could not get a not-quite-perfectly-flat, not-quite-perfectly-square top to roll up evenly on that bar in the first place.  By doing a full float with that quilt top bar totally removed from my frame and out of my way, I have maximum visibility of the entire quilt top throughout the quilting process, and I have full access between the three layers of the quilt to double check that everything is smoothed nicely and situated properly with every advance of the quilt.  If you're a new long arm owner, definitely try both methods to see what works best for you.

"Full Float" Loading Method, Quilt Top Roller Removed From Frame

(Note that the batting I was given for this quilt was NOT quite wide enough!  Definitely "cut too close for comfort," pun intended!!)

So as you can see in the photo above, I maintain a straight, square quilt by ensuring that my vertical and horizontal seam lines are all perfectly straight each time I advance the quilt, before basting the sides and proceeding to quilt.  I am visually checking any seam that falls near my belly bar, where the needle of my machine cannot reach.  Then I use my machine's horizontal and vertical channel locks to check that the sides of the quilt, the vertical seams, and the horizontal seams between blocks are all positioned as straight as can be, and scootch those seams as needed.  I just hover my needle above a seam line, engage the channel lock, and then drift the machine head along the seam line without stitching.

Basting a Generous Block to Maintain Straight Seam Lines

On this particular quilt, I discovered some manageable but definitely unwanted fullness in the "Home of the Brave" text print block shown in the photo above.  After adjusting the seams above and below this block to be perfectly straight, I used big flower head pins to distribute the fullness evenly along the raw edge before basting the side of the quilt.  That ensures that my hopping foot doesn't "snowplow" the fullness as I'm basting down the side.  There is no risk of hitting a pin with my needle because I'm taking these half-inch basting stitches manually, one at a time, rather than running the machine at a regulated stitch length that might result in hitting a pin.  After basting the side of this one wonky block, I just pull out those pins and then continue basting the rest of the way down the side of the quilt.

By taking the time to check and align each and every seam line with my channel locks throughout the quilt, I get a nice, straight edge when I get to the bottom of the quilt rather than the dreaded "smile effect."  

Note: I've got a couple of magnet bars from Harbor Freight securing the bottom edge of the quilt in the photo above, just because it was a convenient place to put them.  I use those magnet bars to temporarily attach a sample quilt sandwich off to the side of the quilt I'm working on, whenever I want to tweak or adjust tension for better stitch quality mid-quilting.  Normally I'd have an extra 4" of batting and backing on both sides of the quilt where I could lay down a scrap of fabric and test stitch quality.  That's the ideal way to do it, since the specific batting and backing fabric can affect tension and stitch quality in different ways, but I didn't have any extra batting to practice on with this quilt so I had to make do!

Fellow long arm quilters who DO use your quilt top roller to do partial float loading: Can you help me understand how you load a pieced top onto the quilt top roller, especially how you deal with areas of fullness in the quilt top?  I know about twisting along vertical seam lines to accommodate for their bulk, but what I could not figure out was how tightly the top is supposed to be wound on the quilt top roller in the first place and, specifically, how to roll up areas of a quilt that have excess fullness while keeping seam lines nice and straight.  My full float method is working well for me so far, but it would be nice to have more than one method in my "toolbox."

Next on the Frame: 42 x 42 Modern Baby Clam Shells

Next up for quilting is my Modern Baby Clam Shells quilt -- I can't wait!!  Originally, I was thinking of finishin up this long-overdue quilt quickly with simple E2E (Edge-to-Edge) pantograph design like what I quilted on the veteran's quilt.  But...  After putting so much time and energy into the design, the curved piecing, and the broderie perse appliqué, I just can't bring myself to do that.  Instead, this is going to be a custom quilt job incorporating my ProCircles rulers.  I know I want to accentuate my curved piecing and appliqué with SID (Stitch In the Ditch) quilting, but beyond that I'm just going wait and see where inspiration leads me.  Stay tuned!  Hopefully I'll have some progress to show with this quilt in time for my Long Arm Learning linky party on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I'm linking up today's post with my favorite blog party girlfriends:

FRIDAY

·       Whoop Whoop Fridays at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

·       Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More

·       Finished Or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

·       Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

·       TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: http://tgiffriday.blogspot.ca/p/hosting-tgiff.html

SATURDAY

·       UFO Busting at Tish in Wonderland

SUNDAY

·       Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

·       Tips and Tutorials on the 22^nd, open 22^nd through end of each month: Kathleen McMusing

Christmas In July at the Charlotte Quilters Guild Sit-and-Sew

I am pretty sure that Christmas cookies have ZERO calories if you eat them in July, when it's over a hundred degrees outside.  At least that's what I'm telling myself, because I ate at least four(teen) tree-shaped sugar cookies dusted with green sprinkling sugar at my guild's monthly Sit-and-Sew yesterday afternoon!

Although some of us were working on our own personal projects as usual, the Outreach committee had precut kits in holiday themed fabrics ready to go for those who wanted to put together charity quilts.  I brought Bette, my 1935 Singer Featherweight whom I've been neglecting for far too long, and gave her a good oiling before I started to sew just in case anything was binding up from sitting too long.  I need not have worried -- she purred like a kitten and sewed like a dream.

Bette the 1934 Featherweight Came Out of Hibernation for Christmas in July

I took a kit of 25 squares cut from two different novelty prints and got my 40" x 40" top sewn together by the end of the afternoon.  While Bette and I were working (and between shoveling cookies in my mouth), I got to visit with another guild member and get to know her better.  Meet Rona of Rona the Ribbiter Quilts:

I Love the Bag Rona Made With these Gorgeous Kaffe Fassett Fabrics!

Rona is a teacher, blogger, and pattern designer with a great sense of humor and a fondness for frogs.  She's currently serving on our guild's Board as one of two Programs Elect Chairs, which means she's shadowing the current team to learn the ropes and will be lining up our guild's lecturers and workshop teachers for next year.  

I am hoping Rona will teach a bag making workshop for our guild, because I was really smitten by this bag she made using Kaffe Fassett prints.  You can't really tell from the photo, but she incorporated some of her machine's decorative stitches on the bag and found really nice gunmetal hardware to complement her fabrics.  Pop over and say hello to Rona on her Hoppy Quilting blog at Rona the Ribbeter Quilts.

Alright, you guys -- I need to leave the house in one hour if I'm going to make it to warmup for the early service at church this morning, and I'm sitting here unshowered with a giant cup of coffee in front of me...  Have a wonderful Sunday!  Happy stitching!

I'm linking up with:

·      Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com 

·      Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/

·      Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/

·      Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/

Of Thanksgiving Travel, Needlework Memories, Embroidery, and Applique

Hand Embroidered Pillows Made By My MIL circa 1959

Hello, my lovelies, and happy belated Thanksgiving to all of you in the States who were celebrating this week!  We've just returned from spending the holiday in Florida with my husband's family.  L-O-N-G drive, but well worth it.

More Needle Turn Leaves...

I shoved my Frankenwhiggish Rose needleturn applique project into my suitcase before we left and managed to get some leaves cut, prepped, and stitched down while visiting with Bernie's family, and couldn't help but notice striking similarities between my mother-in-law's throw pillows on the sofa and the project in my lap:

My MIL's Needlework, circa 1959.  This One Is My Favorite.

How cool is that?  It's the same color palette, very similar style -- could be an alternate block in the same quilt.  My mother-in-law Marlies used to do the most amazing sewing and needlework years ago.  Not anymore, due to age-related memory decline, but I asked her about these pillows and she vividly remembered making them.  

She said that she and her sisters got needlework kits like this one from their father as Christmas gifts and these pillows were given to her on her last Christmas in Germany before she emigrated to the United States to marry my father-in-law.  (They were married in 1960, so I'm guessing this was the Christmas of 1959).  Marlies told me the kit came with the pattern, materials, and yarns, and they would start working on the stitching after Christmas.  She had these pillows partially or completely embroidered before she left Germany, and finished and stuffed them sometime after arriving in Philadelphia to begin her new life as a married woman.  So they're close to 60 years old, and I LOVE THEM!

Detail of Yarn Embroidery

Isn't that gorgeous?  I wish I knew more about the pattern designer and the materials.  I can tell you that I've seen these pillows on their family room sofa for the 20+ years that I've known them, and they've definitely seen regular use over the decades, yet there's no pilling of the embroidery threads.  I wonder if it's wool or something else?  I think most synthetic yarns would have gotten all fuzzy and worn-looking by now.

My MIL Marlies, My Sons Anders and Lars, and My FIL Fred

My sons, Lars and Anders, got to spend some quality time with their grandparents, their Tante Angela, and their cousins, too.  My MIL kept asking "Where are the little ones?" whenever the boys left the room, but at 5'10" and nearly 6' tall, they are not little anymore!  

I did manage to get some other sewing done before heading out of town for Thanksgiving.  I loaded and quilted the outreach cuddle quilt for the Charlotte Quilter's Guild:

Outreach Cuddle Quilt Is Quilted!

Someone else in the guild pieced this top and there were some minor fullness issues, so I floated the quilt top and just did a freehand meander from the front side of the machine rather than a pantograph from the backside, where I wouldn't have been able to keep an eye on the trouble spots.  I mounted the quilt sideways and was able to quilt the whole thing in just two advances, less than two bobbins.  Now it just needs to be trimmed and bound. 

Pretty Sure I Put the Horizontal Spool Holder In the Wrong Place

I used a spool of variegated California Poppy YLI 3-ply 40 weight cotton Machine Quilting thread in the needle, and used the horizontal spool holder accessory for the first time since the spool was stack wound.  I am pretty sure I put that thing in the wrong place on my machine, by the way, because in order to use the upper thread break sensor with my setup the thread needs to travel BACKWARDS to the thread break sensor wheel rather than straight down.  I think that spool holder attached with sticky adhesive foam or something; not sure I can get it off and reposition it??  Anyway, I had the 40 weight cotton thread in my size 4.0 needle and used white Super Bob 2-ply polyester prewounds in the bobbin, and was able to get decent tension without too much trouble.  Still seeing slight directional tension variation indicating needle flex, but since completing this quilt I've read that going up to a 4.5 needle with the cotton thread would have helped with that.

I Love How the White Bottom Line Thread Disappears On the Back Side

Look how well the Bottom Line thread disappears on the backing side of the quilt.  The 60 weight 2-ply thread is so fine and thin that it takes on whatever color it crosses, appearing yellow when it crosses yellow fabric and blue where it crosses over blue.

I'm planning to machine bind this quilt, but that will have to wait a few days because I dropped off my main squeeze machine, the 'Nina 750QE, at my Bernina dealer for her annual Well Baby visit.  While I wait for her to return to the studio, I can continue appliqueing leaves to my Frankenwhiggish Rose blocks, pin the last rows of pineapple log cabin blocks together, and get something else loaded on my longarm frame.  

Let's have a poll -- what should I quilt next?  

Should I whip up another charity quilt top for practice quilting and try to completely eliminate the needle flex tension issues, or should I put a REAL quilt on the frame (and risk "ruining it" if my quilting savvy is not yet up to snuff)?  The only "real" quilt top that is finished and ready to load is my Paint Me A Story bear paw quilt, by the way...  

"Paint Me A Story," 65 x 65.  Do I Dare to Quilt This Yet?

I started this quilt in 2014 and I will be HEARTBROKEN if I wreck it.  But I suspect that I need to quilt real quilts if I'm going to get better at the custom quilting I most want to do...  Charity quilts are best suited to simple allover designs, not fancy ruler work and freehand fills.  Hmmm...  Let me know your thoughts in the comments.  

Enjoy the remainder of your long holiday weekend!  I'm linking up with:

• I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color: www.lapaylor.blogspot.com       
• Slow Sunday Stitching at http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/ 
• ·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com