First project finish of the year! Secret Lives of Pets Panel Quilt!

Hi, 

Hope your year is going well! I have just finished quilting and binding the Secret Lives of Pets Panel quilt (cat themed) and I just need to finish stitching on the label before I send it off to it's recipient.

Here is the project and some close ups of the quilting. It is quilted with my Qnique 14+ (15 inch arm) Quilting machine on a frame. I used my own quilting designs, it is all free motion quilting.

 

Full view Gidget and Chloe Panel Quilt

Corner View of quilt

Sulky Cat Yarn Ball embroidery design

Chloe Detail

I used a Towa Gage to set the tension in my bobbin and that was a great help. It is quilted with 50 weight Superior Thread and 80 weight Wonderfil DecoBob thread in the bobbin (it is my go to bobbin thread!). I wanted to use up a bit of my thread stash when working on the quilt.

The yo-yo embellishments were left over yo-yos with inserts from the Spot-on Pillow project I made for Love of Quilting magazine. (You can read about it in one of my previous blog entries! You can make one too!) 

This quilt has been a joy to work on, and I loved playing with color and fabrics in my stash.

You can read more about the process in my previous blog entries!

What are you working on? Leave a comment if you like!

I hope this little quilt brings some inspiration to you!

Blessings,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk

Welcome to a New Year 2024!

Greetings!

I hope you are doing well and having a good start to the New Year. 

I have pretty much stopped making a list of New Year's Resolutions, but I do have an ongoing list of projects I am working towards finishing or hope to start.

Sometimes this list gets interrupted by opportunities that come along. I think it is good to remain open to new possibilities, especially when it comes to creativity.

That way, life always remains interesting! I do have a few things I want to continue doing: keep taking at least 4,000 steps a day, and perhaps a few more! I don't want to put myself under a lot of pressure, but I do want to continue to be healthy and improve my health a bit too.

I think life is an ongoing process, aside from the calendar!

Wishing you all a great New Year 2024. May every day be a start to a new beginning for you too!


Here are some photos of projects in process in my studio:

Fun panel gift quilt - I'm almost done quilting it!

Improvisational Tumbler quilt - I have a bit of hand quilting to finish on it,
and some applique to add!

Check out my previous blog entries for more information on these 2 projects. I'm looking forward to getting them completed this year (soon)!

Blessings to you, wishes for a healthy, creative New Year!

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk

Gidget and Chloe, Secret Life of Pets Panel Quilt - a bit about my process in making this quilt!

Hi!

Thought I would write a bit about the most recent gift quilt I have been working on. It is a Panel quilt, the center panel is "Gidget and Chloe" from "The Secret Life of Pets" Movie. I purchased the panel a while back, with the thought of practicing my free motion quilting on it, and it just makes sense to make it into a quilt too!

Finished Gidget and Chloe quilt top on my design wall.

I'm making this quilt for a young cat lover, so I added some cat embroidery on purple fabrics which coordinate with the center panel. I chose various shades of purple for variety. The embroidery was completed using my Brother SE2000 machine and my Bernette B79 machine. I added the Brother machine to my studio this past June, so I have been trying out its features. I used designs from Bernina and Brother for the embroideries. I also used a Sulky Yarn Ball Cat embroidery on the quilt - it is in the top left and lower right borders. I added text to some of the embroideries and combined flowers and butterfly designs with the cats. The pink border has a small butterfly print on it. 

Sulky Yarn Ball embroidery design on quilt

Quilt detail, rose embroidery

Quilt detail, Cat Face embroideries

Detail on Quilt, Kitty-Cat embroidered block

I purchased a light blue cat print to add to the quilt - I wanted to keep the quilt from becoming a pink and purple only quilt! The light blue print helped me extend the color story of the quilt. I then was able to add fabrics in complimentary colors that go with pink, blue and purple. 

I watched a fabric presentation recently where a quilt designer mentioned that you shouldn't pre-wash your fabric panels, because they can stretch out of shape. I discovered this is true, when I went to work with my panel. I had to trim the panel down, then I added purple strips around the edges to restore the borders.

Tip: I actually used a tip I heard about many years ago - for fabrics, there are always 2 sides. The dark purple fabric I used for the border had a print on one side - I liked the solid reverse side better, so I used it that way! I think this is the first time I have used this tip!

I picked out a lot of my fabrics intuitively - I thought why am I choosing polka-dots from my stash? Then I realized the center panel had a polka-dot pattern in the background - so it made sense! The polka-dot prints are Benartex fabrics I have had in my stash for a while, so I am glad they are finding a new home on this quilt.

This was a fun quilt top to piece together - I started with 6 x7 inch rectangles for the embroidery, and added 6x6 inch squares. When it didn't fit together, I just cut some of the squares to fit and let it go together. A fun, no stress process!

There was a bit of puckering around the embroideries, but when I began to quilt around them, it is disappearing. The quilt is on the frame, and gradually getting finished. It is a fun process!

I hope you enjoy hearing a bit about this quilt! I will share some photos when it is quilted and completed too.

Many Blessings to you!

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk