This beautiful quilt, made by Nancy & John, was brought to me to custom quilt. Nancy and I talked about what we thought would look good a few months ago, and we came up with a plan. Although the picture doesn’t look like it, this quilt measures 79″ x 90″.
I have to say that this quilt hung in my studio for two months. It intimidated me to no end. I doodled plan after plan of what to do and nothing really was sitting well with me except for the outer borders and the curves, which I already had a fairly good plan for. After putting off the quilting in June, I knew I really needed to get it done by the end of July. I was already a month behind with this quilt, and I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer. My thought was that if I started with one border and curved sections, that I would be inspired to figure out the rest.
Well, I have to say that quilting in the flying geese came to me through Instagram, where I saw something similar that someone had done in one block.
If you are on Instagram, take a look at @slightly_squiffled (Robyn Cuthbertson), as her quilting is amazing!! Robyn lives in Australia, and I had the pleasure of meeting her at MQX New Hampshire this Spring as she was on her first visit to the States to go to MQX and take classes.
Back to the quilt…..I just prayed that I had the measurements correct so that the spacing would work out like I had it envisioned in my mind. I did use a HandiQuilter Wave long arm ruler to get the wave as even as possible.
All in all, I was happy with the way that this turned out. I did learn to conquer my fear of huge areas of negative space….until the next quilt I get that has a lot of negative space…..lol!!!
I really do end up learning something on each and every quilt that I work on. This one intimidated me more than any quilt I have ever worked on, so I was able to breath a sigh of relief when it was done. What did I realize after I was done…..I really did love working on this and loved the challenge of coming up with a design that would be young and contemporary!!
Update on Teaching: I had a successful and fun trip to Syracuse to teach at AQS Syracuse. My one class was one of only eight classes that sold out at AQS, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of quilters!! We had a fun time and they got to use the newest “top of the line” Janome, which quilted wonderfully!!
I have been contracted to teach at Birds of A Feather Event in February 2017, where I will be teaching in their new Domestic Sewing Machine Room….both free motion and some other fun projects!! This is in Newport News, Virginia, and is always a great event. I attended and took classes there a few years ago, and it was wonderful!! To find out more information, click here.
Happy Quilting!!
Sorry you felt intimidated, Jane, but it pushed you to do one of your very best!! Thank you.
It was a good type of intimidated!! Like you said….it made me stretch myself to do something new…..and that is always a good thing!!!
Beautifully done!!!!! I’m curious as to how ‘stiff’ this finished and the type of batting used. Many of my clients want the super custom stitching but desire a soft finish and I’m having a real time of it to explain that, unless the batting is a wool or silk, the quilt will have a firmer feel than one with less stitching. I’m thinking a lot of this comes from the many quilt shows these gals attend where they see such extraordinary “show quilts” displayed…..maybe? Hmmmm, just random thoughs here! Thanks for the great post……I do share your feelings on the ‘tons of negative space’ thing but totally relish doing them!!!!!!!!
Doreen – Thank you!! We used Quilter’s Dream Wool Batting with this one. It turned out very soft and drapes beautifully. This will be used as a bed quilt, so we wanted softer. I have been known to double batt (mostly for show quilts or wall quilts), and if I use a thin cotton on bottom and wool on top, it doesn’t tend to make it too stiff. If this had been a show quilt and due to it’s size, I probably would have used a medium weight poly on the bottom and wool on top, just so that it would hang nicely and not hold any creases from being shipped. Thanks for your comments!!! Have a great day!!
It looks stunning! Love the geese with the feathers………
Thank you, Ellen!!! 🙂