I thought this very geometric quilt top needed something to soften the edges a bit, so I quilted it in a squared-off variation of the ‘open headband‘ motif I’ve used many times before. I stitched this design all over the quilt, using a cream thread.
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Threads used:
I’ve never done a ‘whole cloth’ quilt before, though I’ve admired those I’ve seen. For those not familiar with the term, a whole cloth quilt is created from one piece of fabric for the top — no piecing, no blocks sewn together, no applique. Typically, the single piece of fabric is one colour with no pattern in it, often a light colour like cream or white, though I have seen some stunning whole cloth quilts done in black. The decoration comes from the quilting.
My challenge with this quilt was to take someone’s whole cloth top that they had carefully marked (the blue lines) in 12″ squares and a 4″ (?) border, and make something of it. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I followed the markings the creator had made, then added fills where I thought they were necessary. I didn’t do ANY ruler work in this piece — all the ‘straight’ lines are either deliberately wonky, or are done by ‘eyeballing’ an imaginary straight line.
The centre square was the only one that didn’t have any markings, so I found a picture of a square Celtic knot and printed it out then marked it up with orange chalk.
The person who marked up this quilt did an awesome job in the ‘borders’ as she segued from one design to another in a seamless manner.
I REALLY REALLY hope that when this quilt gets washed before it gets given away that the marks come out! That said, the back looks pretty stunning too! 😉
(Some of the photos weren’t as good as I’d like — it was pretty windy outside and rain was threatening)
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Some of the designs after I had only stitched the marked lines:
And then I quilted each square….
I started with this one, as I figured that 1/8″ straight lines creating a checkerboard effect of about 1″ diamonds would suit the markings:
With the central Celtic knot design, I did some very tight scribble stitching inside the background areas, then less and less tight stitching heading out to the edge to the 12″ square. I was really pleased with how it came out, as my original intention was to do tight scribble stitching for the entire square. However, I thought it might pull the quilt out of shape if I did that, so I changed tack and made the outer areas far less tight, though it’s still scribble stitching.
Detail of some of the border designs:
And this is the back:
Time taken: About 6 hours or so (maybe 10??? — I wasn’t keeping track…)
Threads used:
This was quite a traditional snowball block quilt, with lots of small floral fabrics used in all the scrappy squares.
I stitched in the ditch around all the blocks first, then did the cathedral windows/orange peel motif in all the blocks of little squares (each scrap square was about 1.5 inches square),with a half flower in the half square triangles setting off the snowballs. In each snowball, I did a single loopy spine and bulbous feathers. All stitching was done in the same variegated pastels (pink, yellow, green, blue, and cream) thread. In the black floral border, I did flames all the way along. I didn’t stitch the pink border.
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Threads used:
I liked this bright scrappy quilt! The crisp white set it off perfectly. I think this pattern was used (http://weddingdressblue.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/tutorial-film-at-five-quilt/) or a variation of it.
How to quilt it? First I stitched in the ditch around all the blocks to stabilise the quilt. My next thought was ‘modern’ with lots of straight lines, but then I decided to just do the straight lines in the centres of the sashing and border strips, using white thread. Once that was all stitched, I tackled the small squares. This time I decided to do the cathedral windows/orange peel motif as it’s quick, easy, and gives a great effect of circles and/or flowers. I used a variegated red, yellow, blue, and green thread for these sections. And I finished off the sashing/borders with the scrappy squares using the cathedral windows motif, but in white thread.
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Threads used:
This was the final one of the current batch. Again, it was a bright scrappy quilt. How to quilt it?
I figured there was more than enough going on in this quilt as far as colour and pattern went, so I opted for an all-over continuous line motif — one of my old favourites: the ‘open headband‘ motif. I made the arcs quite large, which meant I was able to quilt this quilt in just over an hour (I continued the motif into the border so I didn’t have to quilt that separately).
I used a variegated thread in blue, purple, and green, which I thought matched the quilt quite well.
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Back:
Threads used:
Another scrappy jelly roll strip style quilt… this time in reasonably bright colours. While I quite liked the effect of the strips in the quilt, I’m not sure the border fabric adds much — while the colours are OK, the floral pattern clashes in my opinion.
I decided to quilt this one ‘modern’ style, with continuous line stitching in a square/rectangle motif. I used a variegated overlocker thread in primary colours that I’ve had for YEARS, which I though worked quite well with the colours in the quilt.
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Threads used:
This was a pretty pastel scrappy quilt, done in a jelly roll strip style. The temptation was to quilt it ‘modern’ style, but I decided to use a soft rounded motif instead, using a variegated soft pastel thread.
I like how it turned out.
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Back:
Threads used:
This was a big quilt, made mostly with batiks in purples, pinks, yellows, blues and greens.
After stitching in the ditch around all the large blocks and the border and the outer edge, I decide to counter the rectangular/square design by quilting it in a rounded motif. I used my favourite ‘open headband‘ motif, making the arcs much larger than usual to try to get this quilt stitched fairly quickly as I wanted to get it back to the Community Quilts coordinator on Monday. I extended the quilting design into the border.
I really liked how the King Tut variegated thread (in blues, greens, purples and yellows) matched the fabrics so well.
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Back:
Threads used:
I quite liked this quilt — even though the colours weren’t my preference, they went well together. Normally with a sharp geometric block design like this ( a disappearing nine-patch, if I’m not mistaken), I’d soften it by quilting a curved/rounded motif. But not this time — the quilt design and colours just begged to be stitched with a rectangular motif 😉
This is a continuous line motif I’ve used several times before. It’s pretty easy to do as there really are no rules. And no rulers either 😉
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Threads used:
This was an odd quilt — I didn’t ‘see’ the pattern in it until I saw it as a thumbnail image on my camera, and by then I’d already quilted it ;-). The pink/purple with the cream/black/brown was also odd, although looking at it finished, it seems to work.
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How to quilt it? Well, as there were so many odd-shaped blocks, I started by stitching in the ditch (ESS, yes EVERY one!). Then I quilted the small cream squares — in the ones surrounded by the cream and black floral fabric I stitched a wavy cross-hatch matrix, and on the ones surrounded by the black fabric I stitched a spiral.
I followed that by echo stitching 1/2″ in from the edges of each diamond shape, then repeating the wavy matrix in the diamonds within the cream/black floral, and spirals in the diamonds within the black fabrics. So that took care of those spaces.
Now, what to do for the odd-shaped beige spaces? I started by stitching the centre square in a big spiral, then came out from each corner with a snake-like sweep down the odd-shaped spaces, filling in with circles, then echoing the stitching about 1/4″ from the initial sweeps. I repeated that motif in the other odd-shaped cream spaces on the rest of the quilt.
For the large cream triangles, I stitched a large circle, surrounded by two smaller circles on each side. Then I straight stitched about 1/2″ in from the seams of the cream/black fabric pieces. I didn’t stitch the black fabric or the pink or brown triangles at all. For all of this stitching, I used a dark cream thread (I ran out of the Madeira, but fortunately had a Robison-Anton thread almost the same colour).
The border fabric was strange, with pink/blue/purple squarish shapes in it. I kept it simple by stitching a straight line 1/2″ in from the seam and 1″ in from the edge, then stitched perpendicularly between these two lines to create a ladder or bookshelf effect.
The only ruler I used was the Line Tamer for the long straight lines and stitching in the ditch — everything else was free motion quilted, including the perpendicular lines in the border.
The back:
Threads used:
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 