Definitely NOT your great grandmother's quilting
 

Loving Izabella (April) sent me a quilt she made for her DH. It has tons of significance. In addition to the quilt she emailed me pictures of her husbands tattoos. One tattoo was an Ankh with angel wings and the other was the grim reaper (Death) peeking over a chess board getting ready to move a piece. April explained to me that her DH philsophy of life is we are all playing a game of chess with death. One day death checkmates us. April asked if I could quilt these designs in her quilt and elaborate on the theme of "life is a game of chess with Death". So we emailed back and forth and I sent her some ideas and sketches and have been working on this for the past several weeks.

I say if I can draw it I can quilt it. This quilt totally stretched those boundaries for me. I am almost all the way done but had some great lighting conditions in my quilt room and thought April might also like a little sneak peek. The quilt pattern is BQ (big quilt). I used red and white Glide thread. This is free hand quilted on my Innova but I did mark the quilt siginificantly before loading it. I also did some curved and straight ruler work. There are two layers of batting. One cotton and one poly.

Here is the Grim reaper tattoo quilted front and back.
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Here is one of the winged Ankhs. There are 4 of them quilted on the quilt. Each one has wording. This one says "love"
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This was one of my ideas, Death's bony hand knocking over a king front and back

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]368412[/ATTACH]Sorry it is upside down

Then I quilted in different chessmen and hourglasses. Here are some of the chess pieces front and back

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Amazing quilting and quilt.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo love it!!!!

Outrageously gorgeous. It is a work of art

Amazing. You are right, traditional quilting it isn't.

Wow, this is art!

WOW,WOW,WOW....that is one totally awesome piece of work...her husband's socks are gonna be knocked off!!!!

nicely done.

wowza amazing details!!!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great quilting!!

You have totally outdone yourself on this one! Your creativity astounds me.

That is amazing! You really know how to go with a theme....honestly I think back on all your quilts and the themed ones are really your shining glory. You just know how to add to them in a significant, meaningful....and beautiful way. You have god given talent.
Love ya.
C

Amazing job on the quilting!

Your work is beautiful! I'm sure that your customer will be thrilled to bits.

Wow, never seen anything like it or comes close. You are so creative. I also think if I can draw it, I can quilt it, but I can't draw like you can.you are Quite an artist

What great quilting and what a way to look at life.

Just amazing, great job and thank you for sharing
Have a Blessed day
Ellen

wow that is a amazing quilt and quilting!!!!

That is absolutely incredible! It's definitely a one of a kind piece of art.

that is amazing. please post a picture of the whole quilt when you are finished.

Jane,
This is AMAZING!!! I love love love it. You have done a superb job and I just know Alex is going to love this quilt. I cannot thank you enough for the time, work and dedication you have put in to this quilt for me. I cannot say enough for how wonderful it has been to collaborate with you on this quilting and how exciting it is to see it come together.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you thank you thank you!!!
Huge Hugs
April

me too! You've done an amazing job on this!

Did you draw the objects on the fabric first? Awesome work.

Awesome quilting and great quilt.

Truly amazing skill. You are something special!

That is awesome. Love the quilt and the quilting.

Truely an original . I love it and the idea.

Absolutely!! First I drew everything out on paper. Once I was happy with the sketch, I scanned it and emailed it to April for her input. She let me know of any changes that needed to be done. Then I shrunk my sketches on a photocopy machine and put them on overhead transparencies. I used an overhead projector with the transparencies to mark the quilt. I used a blue water soluble marker for the white parts (the chess pieces) and I used a white chalk pencil to mark the red blocks which were the reaper, the bony hand and the Ankhs, along with the lettering April requested. I only marked the basic outline, all detail work was done without marking, like the feathers in the Angel wings, the detail on the reaper and the background chessboard with the skeleton hand.

Thank you everyone for your encouragement and comments. This was definitely a different type of quilt for me and a good experience. I have now completed it and will post pics of the whole quilt tonight. If not for the lettering, the back could be a wholecloth. It looks amazing with the red and white quilting on a black background.

Absolutely stunning!

Wonderful job of quilting. I'd love to see a picture of the whole quilt, it must be beautiful.

Wow, I looks you had a great time creating a peace of art.

Not for my taste but you must be admired for your creativity & your obvious talent !!! What a fantastic job.

a unique creation

WOW............ that's great.

You are either totally insane or extremely talented! I've never even heard of doing such things! Don't you know that there is a "box" you are suppose to be in? You, dearly lady, and so "far out" of the box that you must be one of those "trail blazers we hear about! Fantastic work!

You have gone above and beyond the 'call of duty'. Hope you are getting paid enough for this extreme amount of work you have put into this project. Haven't even seen anything like this before. Thanks for sharing.

The creativity you brought to this project .. just amazing! Even though it is not to my taste ... It has so much skill and talent in the work , I can't help but to like it.

Oh, my! Not our grandmother's quilting for sure:) What a fantastic concept. Great color selection for the theme. Very creative!

Just loved looking at your pics. You have great talent.