Soooo, you may have noticed that I have been on a blogging break. It wasn’t something that I really planned to do….it just happened. This year has been amazing, challenging, exciting, worrisome, and (truth syrup) sometimes frustrating. When our state went on lockdown, all my quilting friends and customers hit their fabric stash and began making masks. Then, when they were tired of mask making they got to work making the most amazing quilts. And lucky for me, they are trusting me to quilt all those tops they have made. This means that life here at the Cooking Up Quilts studio has been really busy. I decided to give myself a break and allow myself to not blog for a few weeks. Those few weeks turned into almost two months(!), something I didn’t intend, but it is what it is. The good news is that I’ve got lots to share with you over the next month or so and am excited to read all about what you have been up to in your sewing space.

Today I’m going to share a couple of customer quilts I recently finished. Both are custom but one is all free motion and ruler work, and the other is mostly computerized quilting. I love how my ProStitcher allows me to be so versatile in my quilting. Early on in my longarming business I was a bit of a computerized quilting snob. I know!! It’s bad, but I take full responsibility and admit it. LOL But now, I’m a total convert. There definitely is a place for robotics when quilting, and I’m so happy I now have that option.

Now, on to the quilts!

First up is Kim’s Chasing Dreams quilt. I was SO excited when I got this one to quilt! I love the bright colors, the circle of flying geese, and the precisely paper pieced triangle border. This quilt needs to be on my “to make one day” list.

I used two layers of batting – 80/20 on the bottom, and wool on the top. The double batt made for some amazing texture.

For the quilting, I used Glide 60 in black in the border, and MonoPoly invisible thread to stitch in the ditch all those triangles, to stitch the wavy lines, and all the flying geese and center star quilting. I really like how the MonoPoly just disappears in the quilting, but boy, it’s a hassle to tie off and bury the thread tails! It’s like trying to tie and knot a thin blonde hair. I was really happy with the finished quilt and so happy I got to quilt it. Thanks KIm!

Another quilt I recently finished was Susan’s rainbow double wedding ring quilt. Just look at those colorful rings!

Susan asked for a rainbow variegated thread, so I used Omni-V. After some trouble with the first cone, which I ended up replacing, the thread looked fantastic when it was quilted. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure about using that bright thread. But after seeing it stitched out I could see that it was the perfect choice.

I also used Glide 60 in Black for the ditch work around all the rings. I left all the rings unquilted as I felt that any stitching on them would take away from the overall look. I like how the rings seem to float on top of that black background.

Here’s a nice shot of the quilting texture on the back of the quilt:

I have more quilts to share with you, but will do so in a later post. I mean, I can’t do it all at once, right? 🙂

In other news, I added a new toy to my sewing room and have been playing around a little with it. What is it, you ask? I bought myself a Cricut Maker. My sister and I each bought one on the same day. We had been talking about it and then one day she called me and said “I just ordered it.” I’m like, what? So of course I had to get online right then and there and order one myself. And it’s all her fault. One minute we’re talking about it, and then she just pulled the trigger and did it. Which meant I had to too. Right? Right!

Anyway, I’ve been having a bit of fun with it. The first thing I made was a sticker for my 2021 Quilter’s Planner. I love to get my planner each year, and now it’s been personalized!

How fun is that! It was so easy to upload my logo into Cricut’s design space and then print it on some removable vinyl. So for my next project I decided to go a little bigger and made this large sticker for the front of the cabinet in my longarm room.

This sticker was a bit more challenging because there are four colors of vinyl in the design. So I had to line up each color when I applied it to the cabinet door. It’s not perfect, but it makes me smile when I see it and that’s all that matters. I’m going to add some quilt block stickers to this door, so stay tuned and you can watch the decoration on my cabinet grow.

Sis will be using her Maker to cut applique pieces for her quilts. I’m sure that’s something I will try in the future, as the possibilities with this machine are endless. Do you have a Cricut? If so, what project do you use it for?

On a housekeeping note, I have decided to put Main Crush Monday on a hiatus for a while, at least until after Christmas. I really appreciate everyone who linked up and I love visiting all your blogs. I feel that taking a break from MCM will relieve a little stress during this very busy last quarter of the year. But it doesn’t mean I won’t still be reading your posts. I’m always so inspired to get in my sewing room when I see all the really cool quilts you make.

TTYL,
Beth