Newfie Dog Quiltie

 

 

Newfie Dog Quiltie for me.  ;-)

 

It's on a snowflake background, because she loves the snow.  This one looks more like a caricature than my real-life sweet girls, but I'll take it!

 

I purchased these Whole Country Caboodle dog kits on sale at Keepsake Quilting.  The fabrics come as a pre-cut fusible applique kit, so all you have to do is pick your own background, and lay out the pieces, fuse and stitch them down.  

 

  

Detail - Newfie Face with blue highlights. 

I used my own fabric for the tongue, since I've only ever seen pink Newfie tongues, not red.

 

 

Thread Choices - Newfie

 

 Thread painting / applique stitching from the back.

 

 

The lights in her eyes are done with a Bic Wite-Out pen.  It makes it easy to target one little point, without getting out paint brushes and paint.  Easier clean-up, too!

 

Background quilting for this one is just a simple loop-de-loop pattern.  I might have included snowflakes, but those were already present on the fabric.  ;-)

 

Here are all three dog quilties together.  

 

Here's a real live Newfie: Sweet Sophie.

 

See separate posts about all 3 Dog Quilties:          

Golden           

French Bull Dog        

Newfie

3 Dogs in Applique: Golden

I purchased these Whole Country Caboodle dog kits on sale at Keepsake Quilting.  The fabrics come as a pre-cut fusible applique kit, so all you have to do is pick your own background, and lay out the pieces, fuse and stitch them down.  It went remarkably fast! Reminded me of doing Journal Quilts back in the day ...

They had all the favorite dog breeds for my family ... Golden Retrievers, French Bull Dogs, and last but certainly not the least: Newfies. 

The batting was pulled from my stash, unlabeled.  I think it's Warm and Natural, with zero loft. It will stay stable, not never sag.

I'll show you the details of the Golden Retriver here, and leave the other 2 for their own posts, otherwise this will get too long.  Each dog deserves it's own post!

Golden Retriever for my Dad on a background of evergreen trees, because he has a Christmas Tree Farm.

Thread choices.

 

Stitching and thread painting from the back.  It's a lot like drawing with a needle.

  

I had to study dog noses, to figure out what to do with that piece.  

Here's a practice drawing before stitching it out. 

 

Detail of the Golden Retriever. 

 

Detail of the background stitching.  Each dog got a slightly different treatment.  Dad's Golden got a loop-de-loop with stars. 

Even though these are all Christmas presents, I don't mind posting them here, because the recipients don't look at my blog, so I'm not worried about anyone spilling the beans ahead of time. ;-) 

See separate posts about all 3 Dog Quilties:         Golden          French Bull Dog       Newfie

French Bull Dog Quilt

 

French Bull Dog Quiltie

 

French Bull Dog for my sister.  She lives in Japan, so the background is Asian-inspired, reminiscent of sakura, or cherry trees in spring.   If you look closely, you'll see little cherry blossoms stitched into the background quilting.

 

I purchased these Whole Country Caboodle dog kits on sale at Keepsake Quilting.  The fabrics come as a pre-cut fusible applique kit, so all you have to do is pick your own background, and lay out the pieces, fuse and stitch them down. 

 

 

Detail - French Bull Dog

 

  

Thread choices. 

 

French Bull Dog - Detail of the back after thread painting / applique work was done.

Note: This is not the back the the finished piece.  It does get another layer of fabric and quilting to be finished.

Here are all three dog quilties together.  

See separate posts about all 3 Dog Quilties:         Golden          French Bull Dog       Newfie

Planning for The Winter Star Quilt

 Winter Star Quilt - Demo by Jenny Doan from Missouri Quilt Company.  Supplies List.

 A new project.  More Blue. ;-)  Winter again! More Stars.   Ahhhhh!

I need something to work on at Quilt Camp in October.  ;-)

Looks like this video and pattern came out in December 2020, and the layer cake she used in the video is no longer available.  Not to worry!  I found a couple of options that should do nicely:

Glacier Bay Layer Cake from Island Batiks

I know: It's kind of pricey for the amount of fabric you get (42 10-inch squares), but I'm paying for the nice variety of fabrics that work well together, because they usually come from the same fabric line.  

 

 

For added variety, I also bought a second set of blue batiks as a shorter (30 10-inc squares) Layer Cake on ebay.  There is more variety in the set than you see here.  Gorgeous, isn't it?  Most of these are darker, than medium or lights.  That's ok.  Between the 2 layer cakes, I should have more than enough!

I'll buy a couple yards of a white-on-white for the background.  I may even find that in my mom's stash!  Along with the borders ...

Starlight 2; Another Quilt Finish Ready for Winter

This one might look familiar.  I gave away a similar one in January: Winter Blues.  But I was missing it, so I made another one.   ;-)

This one uses the same Brilliant Blues jelly roll strips, with a few additional strips to balance out the lights and darks.  The photo is yellower than the quilt actually is.

 

Hobbs Tuscany Wool Batting

This batting is doing more of what I envisioned. My first choice was a fat wool batt from the woolen mill in Appleton, but when I opened it to do the sandwiching last fall, it had more debris in it than I was comfortable with.  [Grumble Grumble -- Not good for his business. This is the first one I've had a problem with.]  By contrast, this mail-ordered batt from Hobbs is much better - blissfully clean by comparison, and I can sew through it, and it's washable.  I think I'll stick with Hobbs from now on.

Quilting Thread - Even the thread is a better match this time around.  Variegated Blue cotton in a 2-inch cross-hatch pattern, done entirely with the walking foot.

Snowflake Batik Backing Fabric

Blue Snowflake Batik -- I usually get batiks on sale at Hancock's of Paducah.  I buy 5 yards that I can cut in half and piece together for a nice wide backing -- big enough for the quilts I make (which are not usually Kings).   I was not able to get the same snowflake blue wide backing the other one had, so I went with this one.  The front of it had some additional metallic, but I opted to use the not silvered side for the backing.  It works!

Here you can also see the nice puff the Hobbs Tuscany Wool Batting gives when quilted

Bring on the snow!

BIG Finish: The Morningstar Quilt is Complete!

At long last, The Morningstar Quilt is complete! 

I spent 4 hours on Saturday doing the background filler quilting on the black corner squares -- little loop-de-loops.  You can't really see it as I used black thread.  The main purpose was to push down the background so that the applique flowers and vines would POP!

 

Michele and Christian

I started this massive project in 2018 with the intention of finishing it in time for our 2oth wedding anniversary in 2019.  The appliques took much longer than anticipated, so it took twice as long to finish, but that's ok.  We're still together.  You can't rush a masterpiece!

 

Sweetie holding up the quilt.

 

On the bed.  It's a little big for our bed, but we'll make it work!

Detail of one of the appliqued flowers and vines.  

Quilting the background makes those flowers POP.

 

Quilt Label. Always important to document these quilts.

Perhaps now that I have my mom's embroidery machines, I'll start making fancier quilt lables?

 

The pattern and kit is by Jinny Beyer: The Lotus Quilt.

 

Hobbs Silk Batting

The batting is pretty light; The better quality quilting fabric is heavy.  The silk batt is supposed to be light, but warm.  We'll see how it does this winter.

 

It seems like I've been working on this for more than just 4 years!

Here are all the previous posts about The Morningstar Quilt:

• Progress on The Morningstar Quilt - Borders - July 12, 2021

• Diamonds and Pearls on The Morningstar Quilt - June 27, 2021

• Sneak Peak at the Morningstar Applique Blocks - April 28, 2019
  

• Progress on the Morningstar Quilt  - March 10, 2019

• Morningstar Quilt is Sandwiched and on to the next Stage of Quilting - Feb 25, 2019

• Finally Feels Like Progress ... Morningstar Quilt Top - Feb 10, 2019

• The first one is the hardest ... - Dec 15, 2018

• Slow Work : Turned Under Applique Flowers for the Morningstar Quilt - Sept 30, 2018
  

• The Morningstar Quilt Comes Together - Sept 26, 2018
  

• The Stars Are Out Tonight ... Or The Morning Star Quilt Comes Together - Aug 26, 2018

The leftovers:  After any quilt is complete, there will be leftovers and scraps.  I can finally put this box away, or turn the leftovers into something else.

I had to keep track of each fabric while making the giant star in the center, so each fabric was numbered.  Don't need that anymore!   

 Maybe I can get some place matts out of the leftovers?