Thursday, June 4, 2015

Batik Dragons: A Custom Finish


I know I have mentioned this before, but my mom teaches the granddaughters to quilt when they turn 13 years old.  She always used the original Turning 20 pattern.  We watch for fabric sales at our LQS, and go buy kits for quilts that they can choose from.  We always buy half yard cuts instead of fat quarters and then buy two different borders and two different backings.  Right now my mom has about 5 different kits the girls can choose, which is really good because two more just turned 13 this year.  We have found it to be much easier to give them a few choices than to take them shopping for fabric when they are old enough.

The oldest granddaughter made a batik quilt which matches the one above (with a light teal border and backing.)  Hers was quilted on her aunt's longarm (my sister-in-law's sister).  One of the reasons why my mom bought her long arm was to make it easier to finish the granddaughter quilts.  Two years ago two granddaughters made their quilt tops, but neither one wanted theirs to be the first quilt quilted on the Fusion.  So I pieced this quilt top for my mom.


This quilt top has waited for two years for my mom and I to learn how to use her long arm.  Luckily my nieces didn't have to wait that long.  I quilted both of their quilts on my Tiara a year ago.  You can see R's quilt here and C's quilt here.

After successfully quilting three quilts on the Fusion, we were ready to quilt this one.


It went really well, and we are now both really excited about the long arm machine.  We used a loop and star digital pantograph which came with the machine.


 I call it "Batik Dragons" because there are dragons in the border and on the back.


Due to the nature of batiks, I wasn't able to match the design exactly when piecing the backing.  However, I was able to keep the dragons in rows.


The back is almost as much fun as the front.


I bound the quilt by machine for my mom with a navy blue batik.  It adds a nice finishing touch to this custom quilt I worked on with my mom.


It is really nice to exceed our goal of one quilt a month quilted on my mom's long arm.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what other quilts are doing.

13 comments:

  1. Beautiful! Love the colors and the dragons are fun!

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  2. What a super fun tradition! Do you think any of the granddaughters will stick with quilting?

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  3. Beautiful quilts!! I love that pattern. I just finished using that pattern to make two quilts. One of them did not turn out so good. Wrong color chooses. I linked you in my post. Thank you for sharing the pattern. Go check them out. http://nunusquiltworld.blogspot.com/2015/06/awol-but-busy.html

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  4. Lovely! I like that you have set a goal to keep you on track.

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  5. What about the grandsons? Are there any who want to make a quilt! I bet they'd have a blast, like your Monkey and Cheetah, on the longarm! Love those batiks! I have yet to try a panto on my LA...

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  6. Another one done wonderfully!! Many quilters in your family :-)

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  7. Oh man, LOVE this quilt!! And the quilting is fabulous!

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  8. How nice that quilting has been circulating throughout your family... and that you and your mom are getting some practice on the long arm. This quilt turned out beautifully! Love the quilting and the dark binding. It really frames the quilt well.

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  9. What a family heritage! Absolutely awesome. Very nice and simple panto you chose. I am sure granddaughter will have great memories.

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  10. I am for sure teaching my grand daughter to quilt! I love the quilt and the other two grand daughters quilts are just lovely. I have been thinking about getting a longarm for some time. I will be watching to see how you do with it. Thanks.

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  11. Such a smart idea to have kits for the girls to choose - a quilt store can be overwhelming with all the pretties. I think it's great you and your Mom are taking your time with learning how to use the longarm. The results show in the great quilting on this quilt. Good job!

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  12. WOW, Beautiful job,well done, What are the block sizes for this quilt I have a 13 yr old granddaughter that is interested in sewing. We are both visual learners is there a quilt tutorial pattern anywhere?

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    1. The blocks in this quilt finish at sixteen inches, but I have also made similar quilts with twelve inch blocks. It is made from a pattern, not a tutorial. You can find it here (not an affiliate link). http://www.amazon.com/Turning-Twenty-Tricia-Cribbs/dp/B000GQQYFI One thing we have changed is using a stop border that finishes at one inch, and an outer border that finishes at eight inches. The pattern has a pieced border.

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