Quilts & a Prickly Pillow!

Hello Quilty Friends,

Hope you’ve been well!  It’s about time that I share with you some of the things I’ve been quilting lately... 

Starting with this super fun cactus pillow.  I mean seriously!!!  Love this!!  If you’ve followed along for a little while, then you’ve probably seen some other pillows I’ve quilted recently.  This is another pillow from the pillow of the month club that My Girlfriends Quilt Shoppe, here is Logan Utah, has available.  This was last months pillow.  Go to their website to contact them about a pattern or kit: https://mygirlfriendsquiltshoppe.com/

This one was made by Sherry!! 

I knew I wanted to do this line design for the background, it just adds such a cool texture.  I used my favorite Edge rulers from Linda at https://thequiltedpineapple.bigcartel.com/

I also wanted to add some more movement to the quilting in the cactus’ themselves...between the grassy freehand design and ribbon candy (shown above), I think it looks awesome! 

Some overlapping circles on this, play on the round shape of this one. 

Sherry brought a scrap piece of batting, I’m assuming it was an 8020 cotton poly blend batting and I used the white 30 tex A&E Perma Core thread. 

A little wood grain in this one...which I love!  It fits the style of the pillow.  It’s fun that something so little can have such a punch.   

Next up...this gorgeous quilt made by Chris for her daughter and soon to be son in-law’s wedding.  Chris makes the most thoughtful, beautiful, and perfectly pieces quilts.   

This quilt has a backing that is perfect for their wedding guests to sign.  It will be such a treasure.   

I used my favorite 8020 Winline batting and Antique Cream A&E 30 tex Perma Core thread.  I also used one of Linda’s Edge rulers to quilt all the cross hatching lines.  In the center of the heart and on the border.

Kind of hard to see, because the thread blends so well, but I quilted a feather design on the blue heart.  Some of which you can see along the sides at the top.  Then I repeated the same design on the outer border.  Then I just freehand pebbles the rest of it, in a variety of different sizes of circles.  

I just love all these quilting designs together.  Quilting adds so much dimension to every quilt.  The quilt pattern is called Family Heart Quilt by Sweet On Stitches on Etsy.  It can be found here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/225771503/heart-quilt-pattern-wedding-family-new?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1  Chris altered it a little, too. 

Chris also made this for a girl who just graduated high school.  She loved these fabrics long ago, and so Chris thought she would love them in a graduation quilt.  If I remember right, the pattern is Turning 20.

Chris is a master at picking out quilt designs.  She usually comes with an idea of how she wants it quilted, by looking at my machine quilting options here:  https://www.quiltingit.com/machine-quilting-options-1  She picked this Moxie design, and it goes so well with these Verona fabrics from Riley Blake.  

I used Dyed Natural 30 tex A&E Perma Core thread, and 8020 cotton poly blend batting from Winline.  

There is definitely a place for edge to edge quilting.  I’ve heard people say that it’s cheating or there is no creativity involved when it comes to edge to edge designs.  I think there is plenty of creativity when matching designs to the quilt.  

Even more creativity for me, because this is one of Patricia Ritter and my designs, it’s called Moxie©️ design.  It’s available at Urban Elementz:  https://www.urbanelementz.com/moxie.html

A close up and angled shot of all that fun texture!! 

Next up!!!  Denise made this amazing farm house quilt.  I think she told me it’s one of Lori Holt’s quilt patterns, Farm Girl Vintage.  Amazing huh?!?!?!!

Denise, her husband, and kiddos live on a farm...so she personalized some of the blocks to match their farm.  Even some of the animals names are embroidered on the blocks.  

If you notice, there isn’t a ton of machine quilting.  I quilted the outside border, one of the inside borders, and the sashing.  Now Denise is going to hand quilt each of the blocks.  I can wait to see the hand quilting and machine quilting combo, I think it’s such a fun idea!

I used my favorite Edge rulers from Linda, to quilt the on point cross hatching.  I pebbled the inside border and then quilted leaves inside the sashing.  Love the combination of the 3.  Great choices, Denise!! 

I used Antique Cream 30 tex A&E Perma Core thread and 8020 cotton blend batting.

Here are a couple of my favorites!!

Next up, this beautiful quilt made by Sherry!  Sherry used to be one of my leaders at church when I was 16.  She and some other women would teach us lessons on Sunday and plan fun activities for us on Tuesday, all done out of service.  Now, that’s something I get to do.  Which makes me so grateful for what they did for me.  So, you can imagine how fun it was to see her again, and get to quilt for her.  She made a quilt for her daughter, that I’ve already shared, however this one is for her.  It was the first quilt she’s ever made!!  

I shared the progress of this on Instagram and there were some who asked what the pattern was...it’s called the bullseye block.  If you google it, you can find tutorials.  I recently found this video tutorial:  https://youtu.be/zDFdTe9d4Vc

I quilted a bullseye quilt in the past year or so, and this is how I quilted it.  Pebbles and swirls.  It is definitely time consuming, but I love it!!  

I love the mixture of corals and mint, with s touch of gold.  You can’t tell from the pictures, but she used a variety of different low volume or tone on tone whites for the backgrounds.

I used my 5” Circle2™ machine quilting circle ruler to quilt the petals in the bullseye.  If you follow me along on Instagram, you may have seen me sharing how I rotate the ruler while quilting.  If not, go to @leishakaye on Instagram and check out my highlight bubble on my profile page, and watch the Circle2™ Rulers highlight.  My rulers are available in a set of 6 on my website, click here: https://www.quiltingit.com/shop?category=Rulers

I do want to give you a heads up!!  This weekend I’m going to have a sale on my Circle2™ Rulers and digital designs, so be watching for that announcement.  

I just love angled shots, it shows off the quilting so beautifully.  

I quilted some ribbon candy in the border and some swirly feathers in the outside border, a perfect frame for this quilt.   

Lastly, I recently made this for a friend who’s daughter graduated from high school! 

The embroidered blocks were done by a local shop, called the Logo Shop.  

I gathered all the fabrics from https://www.sistersandquilters.com/ online store.  They also have an Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SistersandQuilters  They have such an incredible variety and selection of high quality fabrics and notions.  

My mom finished off the binding for me!!  She’s the best!

I used Soho by Sarah Ann Myers to quilt it, and it’s available at https://www.urbanelementz.com/?acc=12

This design is seriously one of my favorites!! 

I backed it with Shannon Fabrics navy embossed dot. 

Thanks for sticking around seeing what’s happening in my little quilting world.   

I also recently started putting together my hexie flower quilt.  Here are the first two of 17 rows.  I started this almost 4 years ago.  It’s fun to finally start seeing it come together.  It may take me another long while to see it together.  This is called English Paper Piecing, and I had a friend teach me how to glue and then baste.  I’m sure there are some great tutorials out there on how to do this.  Do a google search and find a method you like.  

Happy Wednesday!!  - Leisha