This afternoon I finished long-arm machine quilting a baby quilt that my younger sister pieced. It is a fun mix of blues, golds, and peach fabrics in a variety of patterns. My sister left it… More
{Quilt for Joy} The Story Behind The Name
The name of the custom long-arm quilting portion of my business, Quilt for Joy, finds its inspiration in Proverbs 17:22 which reads, “A joyful heart is good medicine…” I have found great joy in custom long-arm machine quilting ever since I started as a high school sophomore in 2011.
I wanted the name of my business to reflect that joy I experience when long-arm machine quilting as I work with my own quilts, and quilts for customers.
There’s a deeper meaning to the name, though.
When I started long-arm machine quilting I was dealing with a two-year-old wrist injury that was un-diagnosed at the time. Using the machine didn’t worsen the pain, so I continued learning all that I could about long-arm quilting. Unfortunately, another injury to the same wrist in the summer of 2012 increased my pain.
I continued to quilt during this time, finding as Proverbs 17 says, that a joyful heart is indeed good medicine. Machine quilting was one little thing helping me have a joyful heart in the midst of intense pain.
I ended up having surgery on my wrist in April of 2013, and another surgery in November of the same year. I was unable to quilt during that time and during the surgery recovery process. At this time, I also discovered that I suffer from chronic Lyme disease which causes achy muscles and joint pain in various parts of my body. Initial treatment attempts for my Lyme proved ineffective and the wrist pain returned a few months after my second surgery leaving me with few options for treatment, and a whole lot of pain.
I returned to quilting following my post-surgery recovery mainly because of the creative outlet it provides me,. I still struggled with pain from my chronic Lyme disease, but I was able to quilt well, and kept expanding my skills and understanding of the long-arm machine.
I long-arm quilted several quilts throughout my time in college, but my health situation was worsening. I stopped long-arm quilting near the end of 2017; with a new Lyme treatment on the horizon, I needed to remove as many outside obligations as possible.
The health treatment is working as expected (a rarity when dealing with chronic Lyme disease), and as of August 2018 my Lyme disease is in remission. It will take several months to return to my full strength, and in the meantime I need to scout out an ideal place to resume long-arm quilting at since I recently moved.
~ Kathryn
A Classic Pattern – Sunbonnet Sue
This quilt top from a new client was a joy to work with! The Sunbonnet Sue block is a classic pattern and makes for a lovely quilt. Everything about this quilt from the fabrics to the design to the impeccable applique work was perfection!
My client wanted a softer look with the custom long-arm quilting and chose an over-all loops pattern like the one on this baby quilt. It compliments the block piecing pattern very well!
I am so grateful for the opportunity to add custom quilting to wonderful quilts like this one that my clients have put so much time and effort into. One of my favorite parts is seeing how the long-arm quilting makes a pieced quilt top look and feel like a quilt. The more I custom long-arm quilt for myself and others, the more I love quilts of all patterns and sizes!
Thanks for visiting the blog today – I hope to see you here again soon for photos and stories of more fun quilts that come across the quilting machine in the upcoming weeks!
~ Kathryn
Embroidered Frogs
I smiled so much while working with this fun quilt! I absolutely love these little embroidered frogs!
This unique quilt crossed my path several months ago when one of my neighbors from back home reached out to my mom and I to see if we could help make a quilt from the embroidered blocks that she had found when helping her mother sort belongings.
My neighbor asked me piece a simple lattice in a darker fabric color to allow the light yellow blocks to pop out. A green boarder finished the design.
When I mounted this quilt on the long-arm machine I decided to custom machine quilt a pattern of echoed swirls intended to mimic water. I am happy with the motion the quilting adds to this quilt, and the way it works with the frog emphasis.
I love quilts because they tell stories. This quilt has so many stories, some known and some unknown, sewn up in these adorable embroidered frog blocks. They are the stories of the women who gathered to share life together. I am privileged to have played a small part in preserving these embroidered blocks in a completed quilt.
~ By Kathryn
Squares and Swirls!
One of my favorite parts about doing custom long-arm machine quilting is the opportunity to see what so many different people do with their fabrics and piecing patterns for their quilts. This quilt that I worked with over my Thanksgiving break last November is one that really caught my eye. The design is so unique, and I love the color combination!
My client left it up to me to decide what design to stitch onto this quilt. Because of all the straight lines in the piecing thanks to the square pattern, I chose a swirl pattern to add some texture and motion with the curved stitching. The piecing was very straightforward, so I wanted to keep the custom machine quilting simple to avoid having too much going on.
I hope you enjoyed these squares and swirls as much as I did! Thanks for stopping by the blog today, and I hope you come again soon!
~ By Kathryn
T-Shirt Quilts 2.0
The T-shirt quilt pictured here, and the T-shirt quilt I posted about here were made by sisters with the help of their grandma. Even though they both used the same sashing fabric and layout design, I love how their individual personalities came through in the different T-shirts they used.
When I asked what type of long-arm quilting design the customer wanted, she told me to do an over-all design similar to what I have done for her in the past. She likes a little variety in the quilting.
To go along with the fun colors, I decided to do loops and add in some echoed loops to mix things up a bit. I made sure to do some of the echoed loops in areas of plain fabric so that they would show up more.
This quilt had this fun, flannel fabric for a backing which will make it a wonderful quilt to have on hand a winter approaches!
~ By Kathryn
Squares!
This quilt was pieced by my mom and custom long-arm quilted by me a few months ago as an apartment warming gift for my older brother. We chose browns and blacks for a color scheme to match the furniture that my brother has in his new place.
To stay with the rectangle theme, I used the long-arm machine to custom quilt squares all over the quilt. This was great practice for me in free-handing straight lines, and my brother was quite impressed when he saw the finished quilting!
This quilt looks great in the living area of my brother’s apartment, and it is super comfy to curl up with while watching a football game on the TV… (I know because I’ve done it)!
Thanks for reading!
~ By Kathryn
T-Shirts Quilts 1.0
T-shirt quilts are so special and unique! I love getting to spend time thinking about the stories behind each of the shirt squares as I add my custom, long-arm machine quilting.
The varity of T-shirts in the quilt had enough in common color wise to create a really neat color scheme of grays, reds, and blacks.
I added a combination of loops, swirls, and feathers with some echoing to this quilt with the long-arm machine.
The gray flannel backing fabric shows off the custom quilting very well, and makes the finished quilt so cozy! This was a fabulous quilt to work with, and having the privilege of adding my custom quilting to it made me so happy!
Thanks for visiting the blog today!
~By Kathryn
Kirstin’s Quilt
My younger sister made her first quilt this summer! I’m a little late in posting these photos to my blog, but here they finally are 🙂
Kirstin has helped me out in the past by assisting with cutting the fabric for some of the quilts I have made, and with that practice she was ready to make a quilt by herself this summer.
Kirstin loves the pink and zebra color scheme, so for this quilt she asked me to do long-arm quilting that looked like zebra stripes in the pink chevrons. Since the multi-colored fabrics had busy patterns that would hide most of the long-arm quilting, I chose to do fun bubbles as a filler.
The finished quilt looks great in Kirstin’s pink and zebra bedroom!
~ By Kathryn
Sampler Snapshot
I’m excited to share some photos today of a sampler quilt that I made a few years ago.
My mom had gifted me the fabric which sat unused in my project box for several months. I absolutely loved the colors and patterns, but I was waiting until I came across just the right project to use the fabric for. As I was scrolling through Pinterest one day I saw a chevron quilt pattern and I knew that this was the pattern that I’d been looking for to go with these fabrics. Once I settled on a project idea I jumped right in, and in this case I was especially excited to get to the machine quilting stage! That provided plenty of motivation to finish piecing the quilt top in a relatively short amount of time.
Most of the fabrics have patterns which hide the custom machine quilting to some extent. Because of this I saved some of my favorite quilting patterns for the solid chevrons. I had so much fun long-arm quilting on a smaller scale then I usually do, as well as quilting a different pattern in each chevron stripe.
The photos of the back of this quilt are a little crazy to look at because I chose a polka-dot fabric, but these two photos allow you to see some of the different designs that I did in each of the chevrons. (Note: if you want the custom long-arm quilting that you have done on your quilt to show up well on the back, choose a solid fabric for your backing).
I was so happy with how this quilt turned out, and it perfectly matches the chair that I have in my room (now in my college dorm room)! It’s the perfect spot to curl up with a textbook to do some studying, or with a good book to enjoy a few lazy afternoon hours!
~By Kathryn
Baby Blocks
There are few things cuter than baby quilts, and this one was no exception! My grandma hand embroidered the blocks for this quilt which was a shower gift for my cousin and her husband who are expecting their first baby very soon!
When choosing a quilting design I wanted to be sure that the embroidered blocks were highlighted by the long-arm quilting. I used the long-arm machine to echo each of the embroidered animals and blocks.
To fill in the rest of the quilt, I long-arm quilted larger loops to look like bubbles for a playful look. The bubbles also matched the backing fabric that this quilt had.
This was a fun quilt to add custom quilting to on the long-arm machine and I can’t wait to hold the new baby when he or she arrives!
~ By Kathryn
Quilt for Joy 