Isn't this lamb adorable?
He looks like he could have jumped right out of our One Sheep,
Two Sheep Baby Quilt!
Adding a complimentary toy to a baby quilt is an easy way to personalize the gift. It also makes a nice connection between the child and quilt.
Over the years, we've received dozens of notes from customers who like their quilts and get an even bigger kick out of the toy!
If you've ever told yourself your simple embroidery stitches aren't enough to make a custom gift, think again.
Elaine will be the first to tell you she's not accomplished with hand embroidery.
And yet, when all the embroidered quilt blocks were put together, there's a decided charm to this garden dreams throw.
Simple embroidery stitches - a back stitch and a few french knots, and she's created a whole charming custom quilt garden. Love the yellow honeybee fabric tying them all together...
Charlotte
One of the wonderful things about visiting Hawaii is tasting fresh pineapples.
Our customer was a recent resident who had fallen under the pineapple spell and wanted a custom throw to celebrate. What I loved about this custom throw was the range of beautiful, hand-dyed fabrics our customer selected. In order to showcase the fabrics, we made each pineapple in the custom throw just a little different.
See the fabric shading around the edge? Very much like a Hawaiian sunset.
Mahalo!
Charlotte
Every custom quilt has a story. It's one of the reasons why I love quilt shows. Besides being inspired by beautiful work, I love to read the back story of why the custom quilt was made.
This charming wall hanging throw was one of the custom quilts at our last local quilt guild show, made for the quilter's little daughter. As a former little girl, I thought the quilter did a nice job of capturing the basic elements in a fairy tale.
And this, boys and girls, is how a custom quilt becomes a wall hanging and lives happily every after!
Charlotte
We have such fun making custom crazy t-shirt quilts.
Besides putting them together, the favorite t-shirts themselves tell a story.
Great way to preserve those stories, too and repurpose those memories.
One of the wonderful things about visiting Hawaii is tasting fresh pineapples.
Our customer was a recent resident who had fallen under the pineapple spell and wanted a custom made tp order quilt to celebrate. What I loved about this custom quilt was the range of beautiful, hand-dyed fabrics our customer selected.
In order to showcase the fabrics, we made each pineapple in the custom quilt just a little different.
See the fabric shading around the edge? Very much like a Hawaiian sunset.
Mahalo!
Charlotte
Looking for a creative way to pop the question? This customer planned to ask his girlfriend to marry him on Valentine's Day.
It was our job to get the personalized cherry time throw to her in the mail; then he was going to fly out to surprise her. After sewing on an embroidered felt heart, I added the card with a poem he wrote her, gift-wrapped it, and timed it so that it arrived two days before Valentine's Day.
The card had only part of the poem written on it. He was carrying the other part in a larger fleece heart pillow we made for him with a pocket where he had the engagement ring.
In case you were wondering - she said yes!
Charlotte
Just as flowers have special meanings, so do names. One way to make a gift special is to add information about the meaning of someone's name.
This customer had us make a custom double wedding ring for her best friend and wanted it to be "extra" special. Besides picking fabrics that matched her bedroom decor, we added the meaning behind the bride and grooms' names printed on fabric next to each other in the custom quilt center.
Since the friend was a bridesmaid, we also had inside information about the wedding flowers, which we custom embroidered on each of the custom quilt corners. Any one of these would be a great way to customize a quilt; this one had lots of personal touches from the bride's best friend!
Charlotte
Every custom quilt has a story. It's one of the reasons why I love quilt shows. Besides being inspired by beautiful work, I love to read the back story of why the custom quilt was made. This was one of the custom quilts at our last local quilt guild show, made for the quilter's little daughter.
As a former little girl, I thought the quilter did a nice job of capturing the basic elements in a princess fairy tale. And this, boys and girls, is how a custom quilt becomes a wall hanging and lives happily ever after.
Charlotte
One of our custom made to order quilt orders included this well-worn card.
The customer insisted the card needed to be printed on fabric and placed in the center of the custom quilt.
This is inspiration for all of our customers who want suggestions on what to embroider on a quilt for their Mom besides "thanks, Mom!"
Charlotte
We have such fun making custom made to order mixed blocks custom t-shirt quilts, also called crazy t-shirt quilts.
Besides putting them together, the favorite t-shirts themselves tell a story.
Great way to preserve those stories, too and repurpose those memories.
Charlotte
There's nothing quite like seeing the world through the eyes of second grade elementary school children.
Over the years, we've made a number of custom quilts with their original art work printed onto fabric.
This quilt featured their drawings of a pine tree.
Can you tell this is the same tree?
Charlotte
T-shirt collections make great made to order custom t-shirt quilts and they can also be turned into home decor accents such as custom pillow case shams.
Saving the logos and t-shirt sayings, a bed pillow case sham can preserve favorite memories and add color to any room decor.
We added a soft green jersey short strip in the center, where the cheek would settle when hugging the pillow!
Wouldn't you hug the pillow cases, too?
Charlotte
One of the more unusual custom quilt requests we have had was to make a custom made to order quilt to cover a casket.
What made this quilt unusual was that the family wanted family photos printed onto fabric and included with names and birth dates.
As the dignity custom quilt was used, death dates were to be added, leaving a "dignity quilt" as a family memento.
It's very interesting to see the different uses our customers make of our custom quilts.
Charlotte
As a high school graduation gift for her daughter, this customer wanted us to incorporate photos we printed onto fabric in the center of the blocks of this handkerchief quilt. Not all of them, just enough to highlight some of her daughter's favorite school memories.
Nice to have the handkerchief's handy!
Charlotte
This customer wanted the personalized double wedding ring quilt to look handmade and insisted it couldn't look "perfect" so I quickly volunteered - I knew I could do that!
She was thrilled; said it looked like something she could have done.
I won't tell if you don't!
Charlotte
Sometimes there's not enough time to make something from scratch so why not start with something ready made.
We printed photo collages onto our treated fabric, then added it to a ready made quilt. Picking the right throw to compliment photo colors helped make this quilt look like it was custom-made.
Charlotte
Sometimes our customers like to personalize their custom double wedding ring quilts with photos and embroidery.
The bride's best friend sent us a copy of the wedding announcement, which had the flowers the bride would be carrying down the aisle. T
he best friend didn't know what the flowers were but we did and quickly added these white orchids to the corner circles of the custom double wedding ring quilt.
Pretty, don't you think?
Charlotte
Many decades ago, friendship quilts were very popular. Each friend would make a pre-determined block and add their name. The blocks would then be sewn together to form the gift quilt.
I love this friendship quilt made recently by an area nursing home. Each block was hand-embroidered with a friend's name and an embellishment like a flower and the name of each corporate sponsor. It was auctioned off as a fundraiser for the nursing facility.
Friendly thing to do, don't you think?
Charlotte
This family wanted their Mom to feel extra special on her birthday.
We started brain-storming adjectives and ended up embroidering our brand new, all cotton Wildflowers Throw in brick red embroidery. Each adjective was carefully discussed and added to the list, words reflecting all of the qualities family members saw in their Mom.
I have only one word for this family: beautiful.
Charlotte
Personalized Gifts
