Fancy Nancy - The Quilter
I don’t think the children’s book series has done this story yet, so I will. 😊
This is my name for a customer who does beautiful quilt tops, often in a modern style, but not always. Her name really is Nancy and she is a creative quilt making dynamo! She found us through a neighbour who passed our card along to her. She makes quilts for all reasons: new baby, gift for a friend, herself, and often for charity. She’s “fancy” not only because of the variety of quilts she makes, but also making beautiful wall hangings, table runners, etc. Besides having a good eye for fabric and interesting quilt top designs, she uses quality fabric and sews really well. All this results in making our job so much easier and we can turn her items really quickly if necessary. Suffice to say, when she emails and says she has a project, we’re always anxious to see what it is and how we can add quilting to compliment it.
Below are two examples of charity quilts. The top is for an adult and the bottom is for a baby. Fun, modern fabrics used for the adult, so we chose a geometric design to quilt it. On the baby quilt, she used more traditional fabrics and we went with a soft, flowing “feather” pattern finished it.
I love the fabric she used for the backs.
Some of her quilt tops have been Tula Pink patterns and I have love seeing Nancy’s finished quilt tops. Below is Tula's "City Sampler" pattern that has some custom quilting in it by adding a few clouds to the sky, stipple for the breeze, and blocks and lines for the buildings. Sadly, the photographer (me!) didn’t do a great job of capturing all the movement in this quilt, but in person it looks so cool.
Notice each coloured block is different in this quilt top, no duplicates or repetition.
It isn’t unusual for her to bring two or three at a time and the photo below shows her quilts all trimmed and waiting for pick up. The “fish” baby quilt had gills quilted on the fish, bubbles coming from their mouths, and sea weed in the ocean they were swimming through. The “basket” quilt on the long arm is made from Tula Pink fabric and to not distract from the gorgeous fabrics and distinct quilt top, a simple, open chevron pattern was quilted to finish it. The quilt that would go to a charity is on the cutting table and it was quilted in a flowing edge to edge floral pattern to compliment the floral fabrics used in the top.
I was using all my display space for this pick up - design wall, long arm, and cutting table!
Her quilts are always colourful, creative, and sometimes come with a little story. The panda pattern was designed to just be one block, but she thought making a few and adding a different colour background to each would make for a perfect baby quilt. When she put it on the design wall and asked if I noticed anything, I saw one panda was “not like the other” to borrow from Sesame Street. She said, “Naughty Panda” couldn’t wait to eat his bamboo (bottom right). For this reason, she wondered if a bamboo pattern might be available. It was and a variegated thread was used to pick up on the variety of background colours and shows up nicely (in person) against the white and black of the pandas.
Naughty Panda in the yellow block is already eating bamboo!
And while we’re talking about her darling baby quilts, I could not leave this zebra out. Fun, modern, bright colours for the front with the negative fabric being used for the back with one colour block in the centre. Often when she brings a quilt top, she’ll say, “Work your magic.” or “Surprise me!”, so on this one we took her up on it and held our breath as we decided a whimsical zebra would be quilted on it in bright purple thread. She loved it and we hope the baby who received it has gotten a lot of good use from it!
Top left is the front of the quilt, bottom left is the back of the quilt. On the right is a closeup of the quilting. Just love the zebra!
We’re so happy Nancy gave us a try last summer and keeps us busy with her latest creations. Thanks, Nancy!!
P.S. The thumbnail photo is a wall hanging. Stunning!