Longarm quilting - recent customer quilts

Times flies by so quickly and I just realised that I have not shown any customer quilts for quite a while.  So here are a few which I have quilted on my longarm ABM Innova with E2E designs or pantographs.

This quilt has quite a lot of negative space, so a large interesting pattern was chosen and a coloured thread to add more interest. Pattern is Fantasia Daisy.

Cute Applique Child's quilt.   Pattern is tumbling teddies

Border Quilt. Pattern is Trillium Leaf

Flickr

Hearts & Loops

Circle Meander

Caterpillars. Pattern is dragonflies

Braids.  Pattern is creeping fig

Braids. Pattern is funky feather

Lovely moderns quilt with 'ovals'.

Pattern is celebration

Pattern is celebration.

Large log cabin quilt. Pattern is Echo of Light.

Managed to sneak in a small one of mine for a present for my Aunt. Quilt Pattern is by Susan Briscoe - Super strips and quilting pattern is Oak Leaves & Acorns.

I also added a customised lable which I made using my Ricoma Diamond 15 needle Embroidery machine for the back of my quilt.   Labels start at just £10.

Sampler Quilt. Pattern is 'Patties Petals'

Japanese Quilt. Pattern is Calm Water.

Pattern is Sweet Pea Feathers.

Pattern is circle of Life

Baby Quilt. Pattern is Tumbling Teddies

Bubbles Everywhere

Bubbles Everywhere

Oakleaves & Acorns

Calm Water

 Sunflowers

Customer comments - The quilt arrived today. It's beautiful. Thanks.

 Beautiful Log cabin  with Ovals

Pebbles

Meander

 Arkensaw Crossroads -Pebbles

 Fireworks

Gaiety

Fast Daisy

 The first of the Craftsy Block of the month Quilts. This customer has chosen her own Autumn Shades Fabrics.  Quilt Pattern is Simple Leaf.

Sampler Quilt - bubbles everywhere

Customer comments -  I received my quilts on Wednesday. They look wonderful. Thank you very much for doing them. Also impressed with the courier service and how speedy it was.
I have already recommended your services to friends of mine.
Thanks again

Music in the Air

It is so lovely when a customer takes time to send thanks.

Just to let you know my quilt has just arrived and it's absolutely beautiful the music looks fantastic. You have done a wonderful job in transforming my quilt I'm so pleased with it. In fact more than pleased

I'm in the process of completing another top and I will be definitely be asking you to do this one. 

Thank you so much for your outstanding work and service a very happy customer who will be recommending you to friends. 

Trip Around the World - pattern is Trapped Swirl.

This is another Craftsy block of the month kit

and another Craftsy block of the month kit
I have quilted several of these in the last couple of weeks.

this one chose circle of life

and this one has chosen simple leaf

Wow...I have been busy!

Extra Wide Quilt Backing Fabrics & Extra Wide Batik Fabrics

We now have one of the largest selections of extra wide quilt backs in the UK.  It happened by accident really, it was never planned.  When we got our longarm and started offering a quilting service, customers often turned up with all kinds of things to use as backing - most of which were less than suitable.

We set about researching extra wide backing fabrics to find out why there appeared to be a problem with supply.

We learnt that not many manufacturers make extra wide and those that do only make a very limited range.  The extra wide backing fabrics are often made for the orders placed and are never repeated again.

So to get a  great range of extra wide backing fabrics you have to deal with & order with many different companies, sometime placing orders six or nine months in advance.

Extra Wide Batik backing fabrics are more complex still.  Batik is generally a tighter weave than normal patchwork fabric. If we standard batik fabric for backing our quilts there is a possibility that instead of our quilting needles passing next to the fibres, instead we may damage the fibres with the millions of stitches we put into our quilts when quilting. The result of this could be bearding. This is when the wadding pokes out of the holes we have made in the backing fabric. Generally standard width batik is made from what is called a 50's fabric and the extra wide batiks are made from 40's fabric which is slightly less dense a weave.

Making Batik fabric is a long and time consuming process and it is usually made in Asia especially Indonesia.

Here is a link to a really interesting video of the process.

Making Batik Fabric

We currently stock around 30 different extra wide Batik fabrics from Timeless Treasure Xtonga range  and also some of the Moda Extra wide Batik fabrics too.

Why do we want extra Wide fabrics when we could just join some patchwork fabrics.  Yes you can do that, but you need to use a wider seam and take off the selvedges.  This still causes a join down the back of the quilt and firstly does not look as good, secondly when on the longarm quilting frame, the seam is often tight yet the fabric to either side can be slack, so a less than perfect result is obtained. Thirdly you need twice as much fabric then you have to join it and this generally works out most costly than buying an extra wide backing fabric.  When you have your quilt longarm quilted here at Quilt Sandwich, if you ask for it cutting down, all the spare pieces of wadding and backing will be returned to you  so you can use for another project or even the binding.

So lets have a look at what extra wide backing fabrics we currently have in stock.

The first range of extra wide backing fabrics I want to talk about is Vineyard.  This is a great all purpose range and it comes in lots of different colours.

w

 These are extra wide backing fabrics from the Moda range. 

Here are some of my other Extra Wide Backing Fabrics and these include Blank, Riley Blake Windham, Richard Kaufman & Marcus Fabrics

and these are just a few of our range.  To visit our shop click the link - http://www.quiltsandwich.co.uk