Lets Quilt It

A quilt has to start somewhere.  One of the things that slows me down during the day in the shop is the distraction of finding things that I like together.  For example, Uzbek Patches calls out for an Ikat stripe in the border mixed with the joyful colours of the shot cotton.  The possibility of these fabrics together makes my mind wander from tasks at hand. I could start a project every hour.  However, there are some projects that are nearing completion and that makes me think about quilting.

There are many ways to go about this end of the project and quilting is not discussed as often as it should be.  " Quilt as desired" is often the last line in a pattern but if we really have a good look at what we might desire the options are varied.  At the moment I am loving looking at traditional patterns and blowing them up into big, graphic patterns and using perle 8 to bring the pattern to life.  These flowers are as traditional as they get but done in this manner they have a wonderful contemporary look.
Cable patterns are great for sashing and borders.  These are drawn on using a Bohin Chalk pencil and a cardboard template.  I first draw the outside line, then use two smaller templates to make the inside curved lines.  They are not very fussy and are easy to quilt running a few needles at a time down the length of the block.  The thing is that this quilt has a lot of large open areas as it has big blocks with screen printed images in some but not all of the open spaces.

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The feather patterns are often seen in traditional hand quilting as well as continuous or even custom machine quilting patterns.  However, I have to say they were really fun to draw freehand and then quilt and filled the space rather quickly.  I admit that this quilt is taking me a long time to finish but that is more because I have turned my hand to applique and hexagons a bit lately.  More on that another time (see how easy it is to get distracted?!)

It is of course possible to get a great result with a continuous machine quilting pattern.  Particularly when using large colourful prints in big blocks.  This style really suits this quilt as it lets the pattern of the fabrics come foward from the even surface pattern of the quilting.  Hand quilting this quilt although rewarding may not add much in the way of embellishing the simple structure of the quilt.

An then, on the other hand, there are quilts with heaps of applique designs like the Lollypop Trees.

Here we have a completely different story.  Vicki has finished her Lollypop Trees from our bom program.  After a year of dedicated hand applique she was ready to get the quilt finished.  In this case, custom quilting was the answer.  Recently  Adri Van Zel offered up her custom quilting skills to Material Obsession.  I had seen her work at the Eastwood Quilters show earlier this year on Jill's Twisted Tradition quilt (also from our bom program).  Jill had worked hard to get teh blocks perfect and then Adri had quilted it in such a manner that all of Jill's hard work was really showcased beautifully.
  Adri has a great respect for the process which fits in with our philosphy at the shop nicely.  It is our belief that machine quilting should compliment the quilt without overwhelming it and should be consistent throughout the quilt without making it rigid.  The brief was to keep it fluid and soft while stabilising the quilt.

The sashing treatment is simple but effective with criss crossing lines that add just the right amount of stability.  It is easy to forget when quilting that it is actually decorative function.  The quilting is there to keep the quilt layers together.

The quilting she has done delicately enhances the leaf and flower shapes while just filling the background with a bit of echo lines that don't distract from the applique but rather enhance the lines of the blocks.  The quilt is still huggable and looks fantastic and that's all folks.

And here is the best part, Ardi has just cleared all of her custom quilt jobs and the turn around time is very quick.  If you have been hanging onto a quilt that you want custom quilted or you need one done for Christmas the time is now to act so just let us know... time to hit the road. k

Comments

[Michelle]

I've always believed that "quilting makes the quilt" and you have shown some lovely examples there!

[Elizabeth E.]

I wasn't going to comment, but you said my magic word on quilting: "huggable!" Yes! While the heavy quilting is certainly it's own looks, not every quilt needs to be quilted within an inch of its life. I love huggable quilts--and also love that you showed us all these interesting ways to quilt.

[Kristen]

I'm so glad to see someone else who has the same opinion on machine quiting as I do....the quilt isn't about the quilting and overdoing the quilting, it should enhance the overall look of the quilt. I just attended a quilt show this weekend and there were so many quilts that were so machine quilted you couldn't even see all the beautiful hand work! Thank you for saying it so well! :)

[Moncler Outlet]

I just attended a quilt show this weekend and there were so many quilts that were so machine quilted you couldn't even see all the beautiful hand work! Thank you for saying it so well!

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