Here's a beautiful throw size quilt I made for my MIL for Christmas. My local quilt store was selling the kit. I loved the fabric and thought it would be perfect for my MIL. The center is a pre-printed panel and the striped inner border is actually a flange. I finally felt confident enough to quilt it with a scrollwork design. It reminds me of snow flurries and is perfect for this Christmas quilt. The scrollwork design can be tricky because it's hard to quilt over the same line you just quilted, but I am getting better. Yay! If you follow my instagram, I gave a sneaky peak of it in process back in November.
0 Comments
Just got the quilt off the longarm and attached the binding. Here's the full quilt after binding: This was a block of the month quilt project at my local quilt store. Here you can see when I was deciding how to set the blocks and an image of the top before the quilting was started. I used solid fabrics on the back so the quilting really shows - eek! But I love how the back turned out! Which leads to Lesson One: I think the quilting is too much for the front; it "fights" with the piecing. And Lesson Two: The thread is the wrong color. It just looks dirty on the light colored batik fabrics. I used King Tut thread in Riverbank on the top and So Fine in Clay for the bobbin. Maybe a light gray or off white would have been better and then black thread in the solid black areas and in the outer border. But the back is fun ;) So, it's not perfect; but the quilt is done, I learned some useful stuff and I have more quilting experience. It's not about perfection, it's about the journey.
I was pleasantly surprised with the back - maybe I should hang it like this! Batik Garden Jelly Roll Race Quilt Here's the 3rd quilt I've finished using the jelly roll race pattern. There are lots of free tutorials and videos on the web showing how to make this easy quilt. If you're just getting started quilting, this is a good pattern to start with because it doesn't involve much cutting. Jenny at Missouri Star Quilt Company has tons of great video tutorials including 3 variations of the jelly roll race. Here you can see the quilting progress while it's on the longarm. Quilting Info I used Omni thread in light sage on the top and So Fine thread in marco in the bobbin. I was inspired by the allover feathered rose design by Judy Woodworth in her book Freemotion Quilting. A lot of the prints in the jelly roll were floral so the quilted roses and leaves were a perfect match for my Batik Garden quilt. Quilting on Busy Fabric I love how it looks on my new sofa. Note that the quilting doesn't show much because of the busy fabrics, but it adds great texture. Practicing a new quilting design on busy fabric is a great way to try something new. If you bobble, it won't show much and you'll still have a lovely finished quilt!
Fran's Paper Pieced Cats QuiltThis is Fran's absolutely amazing paper pieced cats quilt. She designed the layout of the quilt and had a wonderful idea for the quilting motif - an allover loop-de-loop with yarn balls. The paw print blocks in the border are a really fun touch and I love the way she incorporated the cute pictures from a pre-printed panel in alternating blocks. Fran also included the printed cats along the sides and bottom so the quilt ended up the correct size - 110" x 115". This is a big quilt and I was excited and a little nervous about quilting it, but I think it turned out wonderful. Here you can see the quilt on my longarm and a closeup of the loop-de-loops and yarn balls. What a perfect quilting idea! Before and after quilting shots of the blue cat. He looks so cute with the runaway yarn all around him. The quilting helps tell the story of the quilt without overwhelming the top. On the longarm. You can see the quilted and unquilted areas. The completely quilted top with a peak at the back. Quilting Summary
![]() Fran did an amazing job on this quilt and I'm sure the lucky recipient will love it! This is the 4-patch posey quilt that I made in class at Quilter's Market a long time ago. I wanted to wait to do the quilting until I felt more comfortable with my longarm machine. I really like this top and didn't want to mess it up, lol. After looking through my books for some quilting motif ideas, Sally Terry's Terry Twist seemed like a fun way to do something special with the blocks. I have some of Sally's books and have taken a few classes from her, but I didn't have her special ruler. Instead, I used Ronda Beyer's Double S ruler and I think it worked pretty well. Here's Ronda's ruler lined up along the curve that I just quilted. All the swirly, feathery bits in the blocks and borders were done freehand and it was great practice. Because the fabric is so busy, you can't really see the quilting unless you get close or look at the back. I was pleasantly surprised when I turned the quilt over - isn't that awesome! The quilting motif is much easier to see here on the back: Here's a closeup of the freehand feather/swirl quilting: On the right side you can see the star shape that I quilted with the ruler and it's ready to have the freehand feather/swirl design quilted around it: Below is a closeup of the piano key border with the freehand swirl design. Quilting Summary
I'm glad I waited to finished this until I felt more comfortable quilting with my longarm. But don't wait too long to finish your quilts so they can be loved! This one definitely has some boo boos, but that's okay. I had fun and learned a lot. |
To You:My favorite way to express my creativity is with fabric. Join me as I share my journey with you. I hope you'll be inspired to create something too! Archives
February 2020
Categories
All
|