Quilts Made in 2020

I wanted to post these quilts I made in 2020. I took a break from making Wedding Dress Quilts to make some quilts for myself, and Christmas gifts.

Purple Flowers was made from an embroidered tablecloth, on a purple cotton backing, and

machine quilted.

Purple Flowers

I wanted to try a mandala whole cloth quilt, and designed and quilted this one in white thread on a blue cotton background.

Blue Mandala

This whole cloth quilt was made from a Dream Big panel by Hoffman, and quilted in a feather pattern.

Big Dreams

Ruth wanted a quilt with penguins for a Christmas present, this panel with two blue borders added was perfect.

Penguins for Ruth

Christmas barnyard animals for Matt and Ashley.

Matt and Ashley

I loved the design on this one, with the shadows making it three dimensional.  It used up a lot of scraps! This one was for me.

Floating Blocks

Wedding Dress Quilt for Terre

Terre had a pretty wedding dress with narrow lace on the skirt and lace motifs.  I made a wreath design in the center, with a diamond outline. The inner panel was edged with the narrow lace.  The quilting was a feather design.

Terre #1

Her grandmother made these Sunbonnet Sue blocks in 1959, and Terre wanted them made into a quilted wall hanging.  I added blue sashing and border, quilted in a feather design, and quilted a circle or diamond design in the white areas around each Sue.

Terre #2 

Terre #2 Detail

Quilt, Pillow and Ringbearer's Pillow for Ruby

Ruby had a beautiful wedding dress with a double train, one layer satin and one lace. She wanted her  dress made into a quilt, a pillow and a ringbearer's pillow for her daughter. 

Ruby Pillow Front

I used satin from the dress for the pillow, with the beaded front bodice and strands of  bead "pearls". The back of the pillow was made from the lace train.

Ruby Pillow Back

The ringbearer's pillow was satin with beaded embellishments from the dress.

Ruby Pillow and Ringbearer's Pillow

Ruby's quilt was made from the skirt of her dress.  The satin and lace panels were joined in the center, and machine quilted in a feather design.  This showed off the lace, embellishments, and the lace on the bottom edge of the quilt

Ruby

Crystal's 3 Generation Anniversary Quilt

Crystal sent me her wedding dress, the dress her mother wore in her wedding, and some clothes from her grandmother.  The goal was to incorporate all into a quilt for her parent's anniversary, and I think we did it!

The top of her quilt was made from satin, and the lace from her dress was put around the outer border, and incorporated into the quilting design.  Twenty pieces of lace from her mother's blue dress were combined to make the design in the center of her quilt.  Her parents names and wedding date were embroidered in the center.

Crystal's grandmother liked butterflies, so I embroidered the fabric from her clothes, and cut out butterfly appliques and attached them to the quilt by their bodies, so the wings are three dimensional.

This quilt was a challenge, but I really love the way it turned out.

Two Wedding Dress Quilts for Glenda

Glenda had a beautiful heavy satin wedding dress, with a woven border and lace embellishments.  She wanted a quilt for each of her children, and we worked together to create two very different quilts!

For her daughter, I placed the border of the dress and train at the top and bottom of the quilt, and added machine embroidered butterflies in the daughter's wedding colors, hunter green and coral.  I quilted in an allover feather design.  The finished quilt is 50" x 60".

For her son, I made a very different quilt.  As you can see in the picture, it's a banner, with embroidered lamb, lion and crown.  The animals and crown were machine embroidered, and the banner was then appliqued onto the quilt. The ribbon at the bottom with "Thy Will Be Done" was also appliqued. Then the quilt was machine quilted in a feather design.  The banner is "hanging" from the satin flower that was on the back of Glenda's wedding dress.

Linen Table Topper Quilt

My latest, an embroidered cut work table topper, quilted onto a larger "latte" colored fabric. This was a lot of quilting, but so much fun to do!

I have taken a couple of Cindy Needham's classes on  Craftsy, and was inspired to make this Quilt.

Tons of machine quilting!  I quilted a center motif, then quilted each flower and "stem" in the cut work design, then feather designs in the solid areas.  I also filled the background of the solid cream area with "scribbles" to make the design stand out more.

I really love this technique, thanks Cindy for the inspiration!

Mary

Carolyn's Butterfly Quilt for Her Friend

Carolyn wanted a quilt for her friend who has cancer.  She requested a flock of butteries, purple fabric, and dragonflies be incorporated into the quilt.

Her friend's favorite saying is "Carpe Diem" so that was written in several places on the quilt.  It is big enough to fit a twin bed, and the backing is light purple.

Lots of quilting -- feathers, McTavishing in the center panel, and machine quilted dragonflies in multicolored thread.

The quilt is similar to a one I made several years ago, which is on display in Arizona.  The post about it is here Grand Prize Winner.

Mary

Wedding Dress Quilt for Baby

This Wedding Dress / Baby Quilt was a little different from my usual, and very interesting to make.  The bride wanted a tessellating pattern of printed fabrics, with a flock of bright colored birds flying across the quilt, she plans to hang it in her new baby's room.

I used about 10 blue patterned fabrics, the appliqued bird colors contrasted nicely with the blues. The border was made from the wedding dress.  I quilted a large feather shape to fill each blue block, and a free form feather pattern for the border.

The end result was a really fun quilted wall hanging.

This detail picture shows the quilted design on the blue fabrics, and the birds. The more modern quilting style lets me be really creative, and break a few rules :) Normally I wouldn't use printed fabric in a wedding quilt, but it worked!

Mary

Biggest Wedding Dress Quilt Yet!

I promised my client I wouldn't show off her Wedding Dress Quilt until after she gave it to her daughter, who is getting married.  The quilt was given to her at her shower yesterday, so I can to show it off!

Karen sent me her wedding dress, and the dress she wore at her reception.  The wedding dress had a full skirt and long train, so there was a lot of material, and some beautiful lace trim.  The reception dress was satin,  and was a yellowish color.  I used the reception dress for two borders and the center motif.

She asked that I make the quilt as big as possible, and I was able to make it about 75" square, which fits on a queen size bed.  This is the largest wedding dress quilt I've made!  Another request was for sunflowers in the center of the quilt, her daughter loves sunflowers.

I'm really happy with the way the quilt turned out, and glad I can share it with everyone!

 Here are closer shots of the corners of the quilt, showing the feather quilting designs.  And below is another picture of the center of the quilt.

Wedding dress quilts are custom designed, no two quilts are alike, and usually the tops are made from the dress(es) with no material added.  

You can see more of my Wedding Dress Quilts on my web site MaryMansonQuilts or my blog

Mary

Cute Quilts for Kids - Ladybug Landing Quilt

I just finished the most complicated Wedding Dress Quilt I've done yet, and needed a fun project.  And I found one!

Cute Quilts for Kids by Kristin Roylance (published by Martingale) has 9 different children's quilts, that put a little spin on traditional quilts.  The book also teaches basic applique and embellishing techniques, even how to put on binding.  The instructions were clear, and the pictures great.

This picture is the Ladybug Landing quilt in the book (Photographer Brent Kane).  I thought it was just too cute to pass up, so gave it a try.  I'd had some ladybug fabric in my stash for a while, and this was the perfect pattern for it. 

The pattern was very straightforward, and I was able to finish the quilt in a couple of days, which was a refreshing change of pace for me.  Since I'm becoming more of a contemporary quilter, and like applique too, these quilts really appealed to me.

Mary

Christmas Table Toppers

Two similar table toppers, two different looks!  I finished the Snowman table topper last Christmas, but never blogged about it.

The snowmen were appliqued, and the quilt was machine quilted on my mid-arm.  The blue area was a feather design, and the snowmen were a x'd spiral pattern.

The second one was finished this week, I may still do some more detail on the trees, but it's on the table. When I compare the two, I can see how my quilting has progressed, from feathers to more detailed designs.

Trees were appliqued using fabric from my Christmas stash, the background was quilted in a feather circle design, with cross hatching, dots, and stippling in between the trees.

Lots of fun to make! Merry Christmas!

Mary

Grand Prize Winner of the 2013 Q&N Paint Chip Challenge -- Me!

My Purple Butterflies quilt won the Grand Prize in the 2013 Quilt & Needle Paint Chip Challenge!

Back in January, I joined the Q&N Paint Chip Challenge --- my paint chip color was a red-violet.  I decided to use the Tessellating Star pattern, and wrote up instructions in this post.  After I finished the patchwork, I appliqued LOTS of butterflies onto the quilt top, then machine quilted it using a combination of echoing, flowers, pebbles and other fill patterns in a diagonal direction.

When the quilt was completed, I posted it here and sent pictures in and I won the Grand Prize!  I won a $50 gift certificate from The Quilt & Needle.

This was officially my 100th quilt, so was special to me, even before I won!

Mary

Happy 4th of July!

Surprisingly, I have very few red, white and blue quilts, but thought I'd share this one.

This queen sized quilt is a combination of patchwork, paper piecing, embroidery and applique. It is machine quilted. I made a pillow to match.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

Mary

Posted with Blogsy

Spring Tulips - Blogger's Quilt Festival - Appliqued Quilt

If you are new to my blog through the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome!  I hope you enjoy my blog, and come back to visit again!

Spring Tulips is my submission in the Appliqued quilt category.  The quilt is 60" x 60".  

This quilt was adapted from a pattern called Windblown Tulip Garden. The fabrics were floral and tonal cottons in shades of blue, green, yellow and white, the green border was a basket-weave pattern, and the background was a white on white patterned fabric.

The applique was needle turned, and the tulips were outline quilted.  The rest of the quilt was quilted in a different overall pattern for each border. 

I liked the idea of narrow borders on this quilt, it added a lot of interest to the quilt.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this quilt, it's one of my favorites.   To see more of my quilts, check out other posts on my blog, my Quilt Gallery or my Mary Manson Quilts web site!

Mary

"Butterflies" Quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

If you are new to my blog through the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome!  I hope you enjoy my blog, come back to visit any time!

This "Butterflies" quilt was one of the first quilts I made, and it is still one of my all time favorites. The colors are so pretty and cheerful, and I love the appliqued dragonflies and butterflies!   When I made it, I wanted to make something bright and summery, and it was a wonderful way  for me to learn patchwork, applique, binding, and hand quilting techniques. It's 42" x 42"
.

The flower bud patchwork pattern was made with solid and tonal fabrics, in blue/purple, green, turquoise and yellow. with a white on white fabric for the background.  The border and backing were a print in greens and blues, with a dragonfly pattern.

I hand quilted it with a pattern of butterflies around the border, stitched around the colored areas, and did a geometric design in the larger white areas.

I appliqued the dragonflies and butterflies that I cut from the backing fabric, leaving the wings of the butterfly unattached for a three-dimensional effect.

I've made a lot of quilts since I made this one, but this is one of my favorites  and I wanted to share it for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  To see more of my quilts, check out other posts on my blog, my Quilt Gallery or my Mary Manson Quilts web site!

Mary