A Custom Quilt - Ruler Work

Summer!  Summer in Wyoming!  Oh I love the warm weather, even if it is windy.  It has been sooooo nice being able to get outside and garden, even if it's pulling weeds!  And my morning walks have been delicious!

Along with the busy times of summer comes the busy time of preparing for the fall quilt shows.  Each summer I start getting contacted about May to beginning quilting quilts to be entered in fall quilt shows.   This gorgeous customer quilt is one of those!

The geometry of this quilt is magnificent and we wanted something unique that would showcase that geometry.  So I started from the beginning photographing the quilt and printing a photo of it.  Using tracing paper on top of the photo,  it was time to brainstorm.  Doing some ruler work seemed the most logical plan so I started trying different angles and circles with the plan of combining them with some gorgeous feathers.

 Thanks to my rulers by The Quilted Pineapple, the results turned out gorgeous!  After stitching in the ditch in the major block intersections with a 50 weight Aurifil thread in the top and cream Bottom Line in the bobbin, the background fabric became the focus.   At this point I really wasn't sure what to do with the pieced blocks.

This star block became surrounded by a broken and echoed circle and then filled with feathers.  At this point the outer circle seen here did not exist.  That can be the beauty of using rulers.

What created the outer circle of that previous star block was the arcs surrounding this little hunter star.  While the arcs created a dramatic effect in this background area, they also created a double circle around the large star block.

The pieced blocks needed a little quilting so we did something simple that would accent the background designs.  The circle area got some of those gorgeous arcs along with a  couple of feathers in the points.....

while this hunter

star received some 1/4" curved quilting to soften the dramatic angles.

These lovely flowing feathers on the border finished the inside of the quilt off beautifully.  Now to the border!!

The border is striking but with a print, we wanted to keep it very simple.  So I used my Quilted Pineapple rulers again for a large dramatic double arc with some triple lines coming out of each.

The backing shows off the simplicity of the design a little better.  It's actually quite elegant.

This quilt will actually be judged so I am eager (and scared) to hear feedback on the quilting portion. But the owner is thrilled and so am I.  Hope you enjoyed the quilting process of this custom quilt.  Now on to the next one!

I'll be linking up with some of the quilty spots on my sidebar this week.  So come join the fun.  And as always, don't miss Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts  http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com

Out and About!

We are finally approaching summer weather here in Wyoming.  In fact, we have gone from the mid 60s to high 80s in one week.  That's a difficult change!  Hope you are enjoying summer!

I finished a beautiful customer wall hanging this week called "Out and About".  It's not big, only about 20.5 x 26.5 but it still took about six hours to complete.  I had a grand time!

Once the quilt was sandwiched with two layers of 50/50 cotton/bamboo batting, quilting began with stitching in the ditch around the borders and then edge stitching around all the appliqué.  This was done with Isacord thread.

Next came the background fill, which although it appears white, is actually a avery light green.   I needed a 60 weight thread and usually use Bottom Line from Superior Threads but I would have to order it and pay shipping and I wasn't sure whether the color would work or not.  So I tried a 60 weight Prescencia thread in cotton which Blakeman Vacuum and Sewing recently started carrying.  They had a light green that blended perfectly.

It was great to work with and turned out beautiful on the quilt.

These dragonflies have gotten into my system and are just too fun so a few worked great in this setting.  And a sun was perfect for the outdoor scene!

It didn't turn out quite like I wanted but Mr. Red Wing is supposed to be carrying a little twig in his beak.

The border fabric is stunningly gorgeous but I went with some simple stitching in order to let the fabric shine and not overdo the appliqué area.  The plan was to give the appearance of water.

And that's Out and About!  My customer was thrilled and so was I!  

Have a wonderful weekend; we plan to take advantage of the nice weather and play in a tennis tournament.    

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