As It Happens...A Heather Bailey Original: Part One

While finishing up one of my freemotion machine quilting classes recently at Cranberry Quiltworks in Yorba Linda, California, owner Gina Halladay got a call that someone was going to stop by to see the shop. Who was it? It was none other than fabric designer Heather Bailey! Gina asked if I would like to hang out for a while and meet her. I said, "Are you kidding? Heather Bailey!?? Of course I'll hang out to meet her!"

I first became familiar with Heather Bailey from reading Gina's online column, Quilters Buzz. I read about Heather as she launched her first line for FreeSpirit fabrics, "Freshcut." I love her fabrics! I have also been reading her blog for quite some time now. Hello My Name is Heather. There she has shared the life of a fabric designer and an amazingly talented lady. I was even inspired by her beautiful photography to get a better digital camera. (My photos don't even compare to her's or her talented husband's!...I'm such a rookie!)

Well, there she was, in person! She was in the Los Angeles area on business and traveling with her family as well. I met her husband and two kids. We had a nice visit. It was a great honor to meet her, but then...

as we talked about machine quilting, she said she had a quilt she'd like me to see. She brought it in from her car and as I oooh'd and awww'd over it she asked if I would quilt it for her. I was thrilled!

Over the next couple of days I will show you the progress of doing this quilt for Heather Bailey. It will be a step-by-step process. Now you'll see what I do a little more clearly.

This is how the quilt looked when I first saw it. Heather had basted some of it as she had originally planned on hand-quilting it. In order for me to do my magic on the longarm quilting machine, I needed to take out the stitches to have three separate components...the backing, batting, and top. As you can see below I left the pretty ruffled edge in tact. (oh and BTW, I did call Heather to make sure it was ok to take out her stitches before I started!)

The beautiful flower petals in the center had been tacked down and I needed to remove those stitches as well. Isn't it beautiful?

Now I had three separate components. First I racked up her backing fabric, and then her batting to canvases on my longarm table.

Next I placed the beautiful quilt top on the batting. Now all three components are in place and time to get to work.

Check my blog tomorrow and you'll see what I'm doing! I know this picture below shows a very serious Vivian working away. (my BabyBoy took the picture.) But I can assure you, working on this Heather Bailey quilt was an absolute thrill for me!