Show & Tell of some of Monique’s Quilts

We introduced you to Monique Wilson, our new Janome Canada Educator,  last week. Some of her quilts were shown in that post. Here is a little more information about these quilts. And coming up next month we have a great tutorial from Monique for a quilt-as-you-go table runner in our 10th October Saturday Sewing Janome Life feature.  So be sure to FOLLOW Janomelife so you don’t miss any of our posts! Ed. 

My love of quilting began more than 30 years ago watching my grandmother sew at her old treadle machine in her little house on the St Lawrence River.  She had a small cabinet with shoe boxes filled with fabric remnants from old dresses and what not. I would root through these boxes and loved playing with the designs and textures.  I thought to myself one day I would have a stash as big as this one.  Oh, has that dream come true.

I have since then made so many quilts that I honestly can not count them.  My favourite quilts today are the ones I have designed myself and of course stitched and quilted myself.  The satisfaction of completing a quilt and knowing it is a one of a kind is very rewarding to me.

The quilts I will be showing you today are just a few I have recently finished in the past few years.  I love the modern or new designs for its crisp clean look.  I don’t consider myself a true modern quilter because I still love traditional blocks and flower printed fabrics.

This first quilt, Full Bloom, is very special to me.  I designed this one myself using EQ7.  I love medallion quilts and log cabin blocks as well as applique. This pattern has it all with a large outside border to allow me to showcase some custom quilting.  I cut all the applique pieces on a scan and cut machine and machine appliqued the pieces using a satin stitch.  The batting has one layer of 100% cotton on the bottom and a layer of wool on top to really get the loft to show off the quilting.  This quilt has won a few awards such as Judge’s Choice, Viewers Choice, Best of Show and Best Long Arm quilting at the Ottawa Valley Quilt Show. 

The Maple Leaf Wall hanging is another of my favourite quilts.  I love creating designs that reflect Canadian designs.  It helps that my favourite colour is red.  This little quilt is just random pieces of reds and pinks cut into random shapes and ironed onto a background.  I appliqued the maple leaf with a satin stitch around the edge and just a straight stitch around the smaller scrap pieces.  The background is pieced with left over fabrics and cut up birch tree fabric sewn onto the background.  I quilted this wall hanging on my Domestic Janome 9450QCP using a light grey thread so not to show the stitching line. This pattern has been a very popular design this summer.

My truck wall hanging is a pattern designed by Laura Heine called Old Blue, I made my truck red because the very first vehicle I bought many years ago was a red truck.  These patterns are lots of fun and easy to assemble and make them your own.  I spent hours decoupaging flowers and organising them in small groups.  I used batiks for the truck and made my background using pieces of landscape fabric.  I also added a Canadian element by including a piece of Newspaper print from a Northcott line that had Canadian newspaper articles on it just below the truck. 

This last quilt is called Blueberry Fields.  The colour reminds me so much of blueberries which is one of my favourite berries.  I designed this quilt again as a medallion quilt with a centre focus block.  I designed the blocks in various sizes in order to make it more interesting and add movement to the quilt.  Each block is a variation of a nine patch.  Some of the blocks are on point where others are straight.  Again, I added a little Canadian element by making the dark blue blocks a Maple Leaf pattern in the centre.  This quilt was custom quilted by me using rulers, hand guided Free motion and computer designs.  I used 80/20 Hobbs batting and a white backing.