Machine Quilting - Mixing Techniques

Here's the other Rapid Fire Hunter Star that we have as a sample at Cottonpickers.

 This was made with a mix of Jo Morton's fabrics, but it mainly used her Ember Reds and Evergreens line for the colors. This is the 5" block using the Studio 180 Rapid Fire Hunter Star Ruler.

 First I machine quilted the top but I left the stars alone until after I unloaded the quilt. (I've done this a couple other times and I love this new technique) Once I got the mostly quilted project home I used some Pearl Cotton and utility quilted in the stars.

 I'm very proud of myself as I try to build my quilting skills and these were the first border feathers I've ever done! They were so much fun to do!

You can see more detail of the utility quilting here and the dense meandering I did in the rest of the block with the machine.

Combining these techniques are fun and add another dimension to the quilt that would not be able to be had otherwise. This is definitely something I would encourage you to try, but you'll have to discuss it with your machine quilter beforehand. They would most likely do the machine quilting and you would then have to do the utility quilting (and yes I would do it in that order).

Have you ever seen this before? What do you think? Let me know! Don't forget, new patterns should be premiering very soon!