Machine Quilting: Batik Hunter Star

Once again, I'm going to say how much I love my Nana. Not only does she make the best Chocolate Chip Cookies (which I was sent home with last week just in time for my latest Moda Bake Shop recipe), but she makes awesome quilts and she lets me quilt them for her!

Now going back to the cookies - I had all intentions of making my own, but they're just not the same. I had to go to Nana's house to drop off this quilt I'm showing you and she just happened to have made a big batch (is there any other kind) of her Chocolate Chip Cookies and sent me home with a small bag. I had one, just ONE and I left the rest for Ben and I to split (key word there is 'split'). Ben got home later that night and had dinner and had the bag of cookies sitting there too. He asked me if I wanted one and I said no, and then he proceeded to eat the REST OF THE BAG!!! Granted there were only a few in the bag, but dang! I was hoping for more than one.

Alright, back on topic. So a couple weeks ago I showed you all the first Rapid Fire Hunter Star quilt Nana made using Christmas fabrics (click here to see it again). This is the first one she actually made in class with all of those wonderful batik fabrics.

 This quilt is a nice size, about 44" square I believe. Plus that backing fabric is a wonderful wide backing, it's actually the same one I used on Leafy Greens (love that fabric!).

 I recently discovered this swirly style of quilting from Angela Walters new book. As soon as I saw it I knew Nana would love it, but I wanted to do something different in the stars so I did some line dancing with loops in the middle. It wasn't what I had planned initially, but I love how it turned out!

 I used the same principle as I did on her other Hunter Star quilt and carried the quilting for the stars into the border. I used my white Sewline marking pen to draw in the other half of the star and then treated that area of the border as if it were a completed star. You can kinda see it in the picture above, but the next picture shows it much better.

Small touches like this are so much fun for me to showcase the artfulness of the quilts. I am an artist at heart and this is where I get to "run wild". Don't get me wrong, I love quilting all types of quilts and I understand not every quilt needs or deserves custom quilting depending on what it's intended purpose is for.

But one of my most favorite and scariest moments that I encounter is when I get told to do whatever I think would be best... At first I shudder (just a tiny bit) until I understand who the quilt is being made for and what purpose it's going to be used (wall hanging, wedding gift, quilt for a 13 year old's bed, etc.). I'll quilt a wedding gift a bit differently than I would for a 6 year old. But then my mind turns on into overdrive and I think about the designs I could do almost too much until I come up with the "perfect design". This not only is a great end result for those of you making and receiving the quilts, but it also helps push my creative abilities and designs further and further.

I do have those designs I fall back on again and again. I always will. And if you ask most long arm quilters they tend to find themselves in design trends where you quilt a ton of flower designs for a bit and then a bunch of swirls and then it just continues. But the exciting part is trying something new, finding a new design, and getting an end result that inspires even more creativity.

This is definitely one reason why I love my job! Thanks again Nana! You're the best!