Heathers' Quilt

Charlotte's Quilt

Last year I was invited to the Carletonville Quilters regional meeting for a 'show and tell' and during that visit I volunteered to free motion quilt 'Charlotte's Quilt' for the husband of a lady who had passed away.  

It was my very first volunteer project AND my first experience quilting for someone else.  It was a true honor and I loved to work on that quilt.  I had hoped that once others would see it, that they would call on me again to FMQ their quilts for them.  To see a lot of close up pictures of Charlotte's Quilt, click HERE.

Soon after they had shown that quilt during their next meeting, Heather contacted me saying she loved what I had quilted and that she had a little quilt she wanted me to free motion quilt for her.

I was so excited!  A few things came up that prevented me from starting right away but a couple of weeks ago, I finally got the quilt and I started right away.  Here is Heather's beautiful disappearing nine patch quilt.  I loved her fabric choices!  It screamed Look At Me!!!

She gave me some guidelines of what she wanted me to quilt, but in the end I made a few suggestions and from there I had free reign and quilted what I thought best.    

I kept to the leafy designs she initially suggested within the sashing and borders and extend that design within the block with a custom motif that I think ties in well with the rest of the quilt.

She chose not to see any progress pictures, so I was rather nervous after I was done if she would like it, but when she phoned me after getting her quilt she was over the moon and completely happy with what I have quilted.  Happy happy day!!

I offered to do everything from the basting right through to the binding, and I am so glad I did!  This way I had the chance of seeing the quilt completed.

Note to Heather, thank you so much for allowing me to work on your quilt, I had a lot of fun!  Your quilt is truly beautiful and loved every second I spent quilting it.  I look forward to quilting for you again!

* My posts delivered to you *

      


 

Labour of Love - A Finished Quilt

A couple of weeks ago I shared my experience with you when I visited the Carltonville Country Counters' Regional meeting, and how I volunteered to quilt this quilt for them, you can read all about it here.  

Well the time has finally arrived to share the finished quilt with all of you.  

After they sent it to me I had it 'sit' for a few weeks until I finally decided what I wanted to quilt.  I really wanted the quilting to pop and to emphasize the quilt design.  So I used my all time favourite quilting designs, alternating between swirls, pebbles and some dot to dot quilting with a wiggly filler.  

I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.... 

I enjoyed every second I spent finishing this quilt for them.  It was a totally new experience quilting a quilt not pieced by myself, the fabrics used in this quilt is truly beautiful, I love the rich colours.

I am really proud of what I have done and I hope they approve and will call on me again in the future for projects like these... it was honestly 'A Labour of Love'.

* My posts delivered to you *

      


 

Summer Solstice Quilt - Finished!

This is one of those TA-DA moments.  So be warned, I have LOTS of pictures to share :-) 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my latest finish.

I am really proud of this quilt, from designing, cutting, piecing, basting, quilting and binding, it was a fun quilt to make.  I mainly used the same free motion quilting designs throughout this quilt, which includes swirls, pebbles, some dot to dot diamond variations and in the border an arch/cathedral window type of design.  

The finial dimensions after quilting is 65 inches x 85 inches.

If you'd like to read up on the making of this quilt, it can be found HERE, HERE and HERE.  I designed this quilt myself and the pattern is available in my Craftsy Store, its also displayed on the left sidebar of my blog.

Source: Summer Solstice Quilt via Marelize Ries on Craftsy

* My posts delivered to you *

      


 

Looking Back at 2013 and SOME of my Favorite Projects

Looking back at 2013 and comparing it to 2012 when I started quilting, my quilting and sewing skills have improved immensely.  I learned so many free motion quilting designs, I got a lot more confident and I allowed myself to explore with what I could do.  I have created a few collages of some or rather MOST of the projects I have made this past year.  Most are completed and some are still a work in progress, but mostly I am surprised at the amount I got done.  I am not going to go into too much detail of each of them, but I have included links to the blog posts if you'd like to read more about them.  Some did not make its way here, but I hope you enjoy seeing a few of my favorites.  I've grouped them into quilts, bags, crochet projects, mini quilts and fabric postcards...oh and some of my handmade Christmas gifts too.

Karli's Quilt   *   Gone Golfing, Back Maybe   *   Disappearing Four Patch Baby Quilt     *     Re-purposed Flannel Baby Quilt   *   Asymmetrical Half Square Triangle Quilt

Quilted Tote Bag   *   African Flower Crochet Bag (Small)   *   African Flower Crochet Bag (Large)   *   Charlotte Bag   *   Re-purposed Denim Bag   *   Tote Bag

Crochet Head Band   *   Clamshell Crochet Blanket WIP   *   Pansy Doily   *   Sunburst Granny Square   *  Doilies   *   Chevron Crochet WIP

Quilted Cushions   *   Mini Valentines Quilt   *   Feather Mini Quilts   *   Bright Quilted Cushions   *   Dresden Mini Quilt

Fabric Postcards as part of a world wide swap on Facebook.

Handmade Christmas gifts, the book cover tutorial can be found here.

This past year I enrolled to quite a few BOM's, and quilt alongs, but for some reason I was just not as committed I thought would be, I quickly lost interest and strangely it was not as much fun as I thought it would be.  Sure I would still like to finish what I've started, but I decided to not take it too seriously.  

As for 2014, I will go with the flow.  I have only one goal set out, and that is to design and write my own quilt patterns.  If I only do ONE for the year, I will be happy.  The idea is to have fun with it , so we'll see...

Thanks to each and everyone of you for following along this past year, I hope you will visit regularly.  It is going to be a great one, I know it!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://marelize-ries.blogspot.com/" title="stitch by stitch"><img src="http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj592/MarelizeR/blogbutton_zps06f76f16.png" alt="stitch by stitch" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

A little reminder, my anything goes mondays linky party will resume on Monday 6 January 2014.  Hope to see you then.  Happy new year!!!

* My posts delivered to you *