Crown Royal Quilt

Hi everyone.  Wow, has the time gotten away from me and my blogging habit.  You should know that I’ve been really busy quilting and creating in my studio.  I thought that a good place to begin to catch up would be with my Crown Royal Quilt.

brian-clements-crown-royal-quilt

I finished this quilt last year in October, but kept it under wraps for the most part.  It has been shown at the Yuma County Colorado Fair (of course) where it was awarded “Best Use of Color” and at the neighboring Phillips County Fair in Colorado as well.

On a larger stage… it was exhibited at the Machine Quilters Showcase in Cedar Rapids, Iowa earlier this spring, and I won a faculty ribbon.

Today, my quilt returned from display in Chicago at MQX.  I didn’t win a ribbon, but it’s a great honor to be a finalist, and have your work included in their show.

The quilt features an original design of 84 Crown Royal bag embroideries, carefully cut and sewn into the blocks and borders.

brian-clements-crown-royal-quilt-detail

This was truly a solo work, as I designed, pieced, quilted, and bound this beautiful quilt.  I hope you enjoy seeing it too!

I’ll keep it short and sweet today, as I’m busy with a customer quilt on the longarm, and I should be working.  Thanks for stopping by and checking me out.

Happy Quilting!

Fellow Quilter,

Brian

Beautiful Embroidery Quilt

image2Hello everyone.  Yesterday, I had the honor of quilting the next quilt by Moda fabric designers, Sweetwater.  I cannot show you any photos, but I can say that they have once again created a beautiful work of art.  You can see a few photos of their new fabric line at their blog.  Sweetwater Blog

What I can show you… is the beautiful embroidered quilt above.  I’m working on it today.

I’ve been working up to this one.  Intricate designs are a natural for custom quilting.  The stitches and the stabilizer add quite a bit of bulk in those areas, so I knew I would have to do a lot of stitch-in-the-ditch (SID) quilting.  I know what you’re thinking… That’s pretty easy, right?  Well, not exactly.  Straight lines are some of the most difficult quilting, since you can tell if it’s not quite straight.  Also, I am pretty particular which quilts will be a candidate for this type of stitching.  If the piecing is not really precise, SID will just accentuate the flaws in the piecing.

This quilt, however, is pieced very well.  I am writing this post, as I’m taking a break.  I just completed the SID, and started the free-motion work on the top border.  The great part about stabilizing the quilt with SID, is that now, I can jump around to any area, and work on it, without the fear of running into a problem with pushing extra bulk into the wrong area.

I think I’ll mostly free-hand this quilt, except for the yellow background areas around the central star.  I think the robot can do a little work too!

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I hope you have a great day!

Fellow Quilter,

Brian

Sunshine

Hello everyone.    After a great trip to Chicago, and meeting some great new people, I must admit, it was nice to take an afternoon nap in my own bed.   

Today’s photo of the day challenge was “sunshine”.   Boy did I enjoy it today.   I didn’t retouch this photo in anyway, and it was just shot with my iPhone.   

I hope you enjoy it!

  
Enjoy the warmth,

Fellow Quilter,

Brian