Featured #battgirls (November 2015) Marybeth O'Halloran // White Lotus Quilting

Hi, I'm Marybeth O'Halloran of White Lotus Quilting, on Bainbridge Island, Washington.  I'm a professional longarmer who works on an A-1.  I've finished almost 700 hundred quilts for clients.

This is my tenth year in business and I mostly focus on custom work now.  I've had clients win Grand Champion at our state fair with quilts I've done for them and have had quilts featured on pattern covers for Beach Garden Quilts.  Also I quilted several of the sample quilts in Jane Hardy Miller's fourth French Braid book.

Wish they'd sidelighted those quilts in the pics so you can see the quilting better!

Nautilus

 I also design pantographs for UrbanElementz. .Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville used one of my pantographs, Celtic Curls, for her Celtic Solstice mystery quilt.  This quilt pattern is no longer on her site as it is about to be released in a new book.  But you can see how other quilters interpreted her pattern if you like -- Definitely check it out!

This is a recent custom quilt I finished for a client, with my favorite cotton batting, Dream Cotton Select. This quilt is a lap-sized broken star in soft teals and burgundies, made by Margaret Mathisson of Poulsbo, Washington.  And quilted by me of course!

The feathers are custom designed for the quilt -- usually on a broken star I do feather wreaths in the surrounding diamonds, but the size of these was just short of my 6" minimum for wreaths, so I came up with a different radial feather for the diamonds.  I thought they would go nicely with the cascading feathers on the borders.  Everything is hand drawn as I don't own a computerized system. 

 On this quilt I love how the Dream Cotton Select (midloft) gives just enough to show the detail of quilting but is still supple enough for good drape, even with lots of quilting!

On most quilts I use just a single layer of batting but for applique I love to use two layers: a thin cotton for structure and a Wool or Silk top layer to lift the appliques.  If you quilt densely next to the appliques they fill with the loft of the airy batting and look a bit like they've been trapunto-ed.

Here's a few pics of a recent applique quilt done for a client in Arizona, Linda Nelson:

I am inspired by the crazy mad skills of the quiltmakers I get to meet through their piecework, including those long forgotten patchworkers who made vintage quilts.  I love finishing vintage tops into quilts with modern backs -- they're like little time travelers! 

Like this recent vintage quilt I finished for a client, Sally Kuhn of Bainbridge Island, who owns Sash Mercantile.  I put the soft paisley on the back.  The pattern is Joseph's Coat, it was hand-pieced, and I believe some of the fabrics can date to the late 1800's or early 1900's (the indigos and mourning-style prints).   I quilted stylized curved cross-hatches on this one.

Quilters are the most amazing people, always there to lend a hand, to comfort, to reassure, to encourage and inspire.  They perform the most profoundly and deeply touching acts -- to help others, often strangers, feel less alone in an increasingly impersonal world.

Like most quilters I donate time and energy (and fabric) to several charities, including two quilt guilds, our local Rotary chapter (who has a 6-acre rummage sale in the summer), and the American Heroes quilt organization.  Our small sewing group donates about 1 quilt a month to American Heroes.  My cousin John Priestner died in Iraq several years ago and it's something I participate in to honor his memory.  Every year during our island's outdoor quilt festival hosted by the Bainbridge Island Modern Quilt Guild, I host a community sew-in to benefit American Heroes.  We recycle old dress shirts and telephone book paper and use improvisational methods that just about everyone can try, on my collection of three-quarters sized vintage sewing machines.

 Instead of ending with a selfie, I'm going to include a pic of a commission quilt that took me four years to finish and won best machine quilting and viewer's choice at our last guild show.  The small spiked lone stars are from Karen Stone's book and the lonestar is by Quiltsmart, and it is an original layout.  The fabrics are vintage ties -- some 80-100 years old -- and the background is Italian pinstripe shirting.  I designed the quilting and hand-drew it all with my machine.  Somewhere I have a pic of this with me in front of it and if I find it I'll send it along!

Sincerely,

Marybeth O'Halloran of White Lotus Quilting, Bainbridge Island, Washington

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Featured #battgirls (August): Judy Martin & Lana Corcoran

Meet our August #battgirls 

Quilt designer/author:

Judy Martin

Judy began making quilts in 1969 when she was a college student. After that first quilt, she couldn't go into a fabric store without coming home with an armful of fabric for another of her quilt ideas. She jokes that she had to become a professional quilt maker in order to justify her fabric stash. In 1980, Judy wrote her first quilting book as an editor of Quilter's Newsletter. Since 1988, Judy and her husband, Steve Bennett, have been self publishing Judy's books. To date, Judy has designed and published 996 original block and quilt patterns, many of them in her 22 quilting books.  

In November, Steve and Judy published Judy's latest book, Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts. The book has comprehensive information and helpful tips for making Log Cabin quilts, as well as patterns for 15 stunning new variations of this timeless favorite. 

Main Street Log Cabin
Designed & pieced by Judy Martin
Quilted by Lana Corcoran

See if you have what it takes to
become a Master Quilt Maker
Game available soon.

This summer, Steve and Judy's  quilting game was published by Rio Grande Games. The game, Quilt Show, was a winner of the Rio Grande Games Design Contest. Game play is intuitive for quilters, who will love it whether or not they consider themselves gamers. 

Over the years, Judy has made more than 250 quilts; designed several fabric lines and rotary cutting tools; written scores of magazine articles; released several Electric Quilt pattern software products; recorded quilting videos for YouTube and Quilter's Newsletter TV and an episode of Simply Quilts on HGTV; and had a one-woman show of 30 of her quilts at The National Quilt Museum, where one of her quilts is in the museum's permanent collection. Judy Martin Books is active on Pinterest and Facebook, and Judy offers a free newsletter and Block of the Moment patterns on her web site: http://www.judymartin.com. 

Judy does a little hand quilting for gifts, and she likes using Quilters Dream Cotton (Request loft) because it allows her to make small, even stitches. In order to complete quilts in a timely fashion for her books, Judy has them professionally quilted. Because Judy designs and pieces the quilts as well as writing, typesetting, and illustrating her books, time constraints do not allow her to quilt the projects in her books. Instead, she entrusts the quilting to talented longarm quilter, Lana Corcoran. 

Lakeshore Log Cabin.
Designed & pieced by Judy Martin.
Quilted by Lana Corcoran

For years, Judy has specified Dream Cotton (Select) Loft as her batting of choice in her quilts that are finished with machine quilting. Judy usually discusses her vision for the quilting with Lana, but she trusts Lana, listens to her ideas and suggestions, and is comfortable scrapping the original plan if Lana comes up with something better. 

Meet longarm quilter:

Lana Corcoran

It’s hard to believe that I started quilting for others more than 11 years ago. The time has flown by and I’ve enjoyed every minute.

Like many long arm quilters, this is not my first career. My first was as a photojournalist; my last years as a photographer were spent in Washington, D.C., covering the President as a White House Press Photographer with a major wire service. I changed careers after earning an MBA, working with Fortune 500 companies doing business process engineering. Both of those careers have helped me as a quilter. From photography, I learned creativity, artistic composition, balance, and patience. From the business world, I know that successful businesses provide excellent products, services, and value to their customers. I've tried to apply lessons from both careers to my long arm business.

Aspen Log Cabin
Designed & pieced by Judy Martin
Quilted by Lana Corcoran

About 10 years ago, one of my customers brought me a package of Quilters Dream batting to use in her quilt and I've been a big fan ever since. Quilters Dream products are my favorites for my own quilts as well as my recommendation for my customers. It is important that batting is high quality, which means that it is consistent in thickness, is “clean” with no specks of cotton seeds that can leach oil onto the quilt fabric, and doesn't beard. My experience is that Quilters Dream meets all those criteria.

It’s important to me to have options to offer my customers to meet the intended uses of their quilts. For most quilts, customers choose Cotton Select, in either white or natural. It drapes beautifully, no matter how densely it is quilted. 

Those who like a loftier look and want a quilt that “breathes” love, I recommend the Dream Wool. For baby quilts, Dream Angel is the choice for its flame retardant qualities. For show quilts, a combination of Dream Wool on top of Dream Blend gives a look of trapunto without the intense labor of stuffing or cutting batts.

Dream Wool layered over Dream Blend
Designed by Nancy Sullivan Jacobs
Quilted by Lana Corcoran

Whichever one I choose, the quality is always consistent.

There are so many talented quilters. It is a pleasure and an honor when one of them trusts me to quilt their quilts. Over the years I have developed special relationships with many of them, both personally and professionally. Judy Martin, for example, has had me quilt the quilts in her last three books, including 12 for her last book, Extraordinary Log Cabins. I have quilted thousands of quilts for customers, and have won dozens of ribbons, including Paducah and MQX. I’m also very proud of the fact that I still quilt for my very first customer, despite the fact that we are over 1000 miles apart!











You too can get Lana's digitized longarm patterns available for download on Intelligent Quilting's website!

We hope you enjoyed reading about our August #battgirls and feel inspired to try some of their work. We will even send you some 10 X 10 size samples of your batting choice for you to play with. Just give us a shout! Until then, we are always on the hunt for the next Featured #battgirls....will it be you?


Happy Quilting,
The original

888.268.8664
quiltersdreambatting@juno.com

Dream Wool - It's B'ewe'tiful!

Have you been searching for a type of batting that will give your quilt more definition than usual? Our Dream Wool may be just what you are looking for! Dream Wool will show off your stitches beautifully – your designs will pop and your quilt will be extra snuggly, without it turning into a "comforter".

I don’t know about you, but when I think of wool, I think of my grandmother’s wool jacket from the 1950’s that my 16 year old daughter now owns - it is scratchy, heavy, bulky, and beautiful, but not what you would want for a quilt batting. Quilters Dream Wool has about 1/3 – ½ inch of loft, but it is very light weight, soft, breathable, and machine washable. Certainly not at all what I think of when I hear wool!

The type of sheep used makes a huge difference in the softness of the wool. Quilters Dream uses a high quality USA Merino and Domestic wool from the U.S.A. that is scoured, combed, and super washed into pure loveliness. The fibers are then carded and crosslapped for consistency, then thermally bonded for strength and durability.

Thermal bonding is a process of producing batting made by combining the main fiber, wool, with a low-melt poly fiber and then sending the fibers through an oven. The low-melt poly fibers melt and adhere to the wool fibers holding them securely in place. Because wool fibers are barbed, they are notorious for shrinking, bearding, shifting, and causing all sorts of other problems. (The fibers catch on each other, and when handled or washed they catch tighter and tighter until you have a lump of wool) The thermal bonding process used in Dream Wool secures the wool fibers firmly in place so there is very little shrinkage ( ½ a percent) and no bunching or shifting, while keeping the batting soft and breathable. It also holds the fibers apart so that the batting is easy to wash and air dries quickly.

Dream Wool can be hand quilted too. Even with the extra loft, when basted, your quilt sandwich will be flat enough to get the rocking motion needed for hand quilting. And because there is no scrim or glue used as a stabilizer, the needle goes right through without resistance. It is also stable enough to be easily machine quilted either with the domestic machine or on the long arm.

You can stitch up to 8 inches apart, so your quilt will not have to be “quilted to death.” If you desire the faux-trapunto look, quilt heavily where you want a flatter look, and more openly in the areas you want to pop – just look at Terri Stegmiller’s Green & Pink quilt! It is a stunning example of the faux-trapunto look.



Do take into consideration the heat when using Dream Wool – it cannot be ironed or dried on high heat, or the fibers can become stiff and the batting flat, so be sure and air dry your quilt when using Dream Wool!

Call us today and we will be delighted to send a free sample square of Dream Wool for you to feel. Then let me know if you love Dream Wool as much as I do!

Happy Quilting!

~The Dream Team