The 'No Special Event' Quilt'

The making of quilts probably started out as primarily a way of filling a practical, everyday need. It surely migrated to a way to add color and beauty to one's life and a way to share that love with others by giving of quilts to a friend.

That's what this 'everyday' quilt is. Just a gift from one friend to another; no special occasion, no birthday, no early 'Christmas present'. But it is the true expression of love and friendship to be able to share fabric, texture and color with someone else. Karen made this quilt for her friend and brought it to us to finish for her using our longarm APQS Millennium machine.

But just because it is a 'no special occasion' quilt does not take away from it's attractiveness nor the precision and care Karen put into it. Look closely at the detailed picture. See how she carefully aligned the directional fabrics. See the precision of her matching seams. And in the background, see the quilting we put into it - simple watery designs in the center of the quilt and angular designs in the border.

I'm sure this 'simple' quilt will be loved by the recipient and held in great esteem as if it were a $1,000,000 masterpiece, which it will be, to her!

Love Passed On

We were recently honored with a commission for a small quilt. One of our clients who was about to be a grandmother for the first time asked us to create this wonderful wall hanging. Debbie wanted her new granddaughter to have a part of her life forever. She brought us her 30 year old wedding gown and asked us to cut it apart(!!) and use the bodice and lace on the sleeves to make this meaningful connection through the generations. We chose a design which would reflect the love and joy of a wedding day coupled with the love and joy of the birth of a child. Do you think we succeeded? Debbie seemed to think so since she gave us the greatest gift of all by shedding tears of joy and pleasure when she first saw the quilt.

I have my wedding dress of 35 years ago still hanging in my closet and I bet many of you too have the same situation. When my son gets married and has his first child, I just may take advantage of Debbie's wonderful idea and make some real generational use of the fabric in my dress. Think about for yourself too. Pass on the love.

Texas in a quilt

Last week, I wrote about trying to find Texas wildflowers in bloom and sadly, saw very few outside of Austin TX.

But I got back some of the total Texas feeling by working on this incredibly detailed 'Texas' quilt created by one of our most prolific quilters.    She does amazing machine applique with the more intricate scenes.

Take a good look at this quilt;  it depicts a panorama of the different and varied regions of Texas,   I'm sure many of you recognize the Alamo near the upper left, the Capital next to it, NASA towards the bottom and even bluebonnets to the left of the Shuttle launch pad!

I've included a photo of the scene showing the Texas coast line.   Take a close look at the insets of the sand dollars. Jean, our quilter, had to put in the tiniest of machine stitches to make them show up that way.   And take a look, too, at the lovely quilting work Chris has done to make the sand and shoreline come alive!

So, if you are unable to come visit us in Austin TX, do enjoy some of our scenery by looking closely at this quilt.

Mandy's Softball quilt

How does a Mom celebrate the phenomenal athletic achievements of her talented softball-playing daughter? With an impressively large, vibrant and meaningful T-shirt quilt filled with bright photos of Mandy in action!

One of the wonderful things about working at Over The Top Quilting Studio is getting to know the quilt maker through his or her work but also getting to know the eventual owner of the quilt thorugh the gifter's words. You cannot believe how much that helps us as we create or finish the final quilt! We keep a picture of that person in mind as we stitch. In this quilt, we learned that Mandy has been playing softball all her life and in fact, has played for a women's professional softball team. To make it even more real, while we were meeting with her Mom discussing the quilt, Mandy called and we got to share in her most recent success through that phone call to her Mom.

We've discovered that the work we do is more than just the 'pretty-fying' of a quilt. It is the celebration of a son's or daughter's growth, the pride of a parent coupled with the mixed tears of joy and sadness as their kids pass onto the next wonderful stage of life and the sense of a job well done by all.

Do think about that as you wonder what to do with all those old T-shirts and athletic jerseys of your children.

Welcome to the Over The Top Quilting Studio blog

Welcome to our first blog! Our goal is to be able to reach out to our quilting friends by creating a community of friends interested in quilts and the stories of the quilts.

We hope to keep you coming back as we share the stories behind every quilt we have the joy and privilege of working on.