Machine Quilting: Opportunity Quilt

Sue and the other ladies in the Flying Geese Quilt Guild in Irvine, CA sent me this quilt to work my magic on...

 This quilt is large and absolutely covered in amazing applique! Seriously, the only "real piecing" in the entire quilt are the HSTs in the sashing. That's it. Everything else you see is applique. You also have an opportunity to win this quilt - keep on reading and prepare yourself for photo overload! I love this quilt and took a TON of pictures. I couldn't help myself!

 The challenge with a quilt like this is to make the quilting be functional and emphasize the details without competing for attention. This border was one of those moments where less-is-more. Simple straight lines to fill the background accent the curvy swirly applique and make it pop.

 Each block had it's own feel and design. Some blocks are blatantly seasonal where some are a little more subtle like this one.

 We only chose a few background designs and I think two different fillers for the vases. Again, less is more when there's so much to look at with this quilt to begin with.

 I love some applique pieces that show up to me looking like blobs. These flowers for instance, I knew they were supposed to be flowers, but without being familiar with the pattern I wasn't sure what type of flower.

Remember when you take a quilt to a quilter - you've been staring at that pattern for a long while, they may have never heard of it. Don't assume your quilter is familiar with every pattern you're working on.

I wasn't sure if they were something specific that I needed to be aware of or if they were just a blob that needed to look like a flower. They were just non-typical blobs in this case and I'll show you below what I did in the details.

 When in doubt with flowers, most radiate out from a central point so I started there and used wavy lines to fill the flower until I got to the edge. Each one is a little different!

 The center block was this amazing house and I used the details in the fabrics to guide me and filled in the other details as I could. All those art perspective lessons are still coming in handy!

 I don't know why, but I loved these eggs. And seriously, all of this applique was AMAZING! It all makes what little I've dabbled in applique look wonky and rough. These ladies use the most teeny tiny stitches that are absolutely perfect!

 Oh, here's more details on the house!

 I really enjoyed working on this quilt block by block and watching it come to life. It was one of those projects where at the end of each day I got to stand back and be like - did I do that??? This is really my job??? Say it isn't so!

 The HSTs in the sashing perplexed me when we were planning the quilting because of all the contrast in the fabrics. I was originally thinking of coming up with two different designs, one for the light and another for the dark. But you know what, the more I stared and pondered at this quilt, simple was best again and this orange peel was the winner! It filled the area well but also was the perfect divider for each block and border. It's amazing how it looks on the back too (you'll see that in a bit).

 The colors, the textures. This is one of those times that a quilt being full of amazing batiks with a few prints dabbled in here and there was the perfect mix. This quilt could not have been this vibrant without all those batiks!

 Here's some more shots of the quilt as best I could get laying this monster on the floor of the studio.

 And here's the back. I love a good pieced back and I love how you can see each and every block and detail from the front of the quilt.

 Here's the house! Isn't it too stinkin' adorable?!

 Again, you can see the orange peel in the sashing separating all of the blocks and the border. Seriously click on each of these pictures of the back and zoom in  to see all the details. It's amazing what you can see!

Oh, and before you ask, this entire quilt was done with only two threads, both tans. One just a tad darker than the other.

And now for the even more fun part. Remember how I said you could win this quilt? Well, this is the Flying Geese Quilt Guild's Opportunity quilt for 2017. Kinda like a raffle quilt with a different title. If you're going to be in the Irvine, CA area the beginning of June 2017, you could see this quilt in person. The quilt winner will be drawn at the quilt show on June 4th.

Not going to be in Irvine? Not even in California? Maybe you're stuck in Ohio like me? No worries, you can purchase tickets! Just contact Sue at sue.glass (at) verizon (dot) net for ticket information. Trust me, this quilt is amazing and whoever gets to win this quilt will forever be stalked by me. Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh, maybe I'll just get my tickets and cross my fingers that this quilt gets to come back to Ohio and live with me forever. Just drop Sue a line and she will get you all the info you need to get your own tickets!

I couldn't wait to share this quilt with all of you, but I had to be patient and persistent and catch up in my quilty photos. Don't worry, I still have plenty more quilts to share, but for now, get your tickets from Sue and drool over these photos until you get the call in June that you won the quilt. I will remind you all before the big day seeing as how it's almost Christmas and all. There's still plenty of time! Email Sue and tell her I sent you!

Machine Quilting: China Shop

Fair warning here - you are about to experience photo overload. There was just no other way to show this quilt...

 Sue sent me this quilt and here's what I learned very quickly - it's Kaffe Fassett so it pretty much rocks from the start, Sue is an applique phenom and I love her work, and I pretty much couldn't wait to get started on this one but wasn't sure where to start at first.

This quilt took a ton of planning, moreso than I usually do for most quilts. Part of the reason being there were so many different types of vases and dishes and we wanted to keep the same quilting in each one if possible - the goal was to use a few different designs and repeat it as much as possible. Originally I was all set - this vase will have this quilting and this background... And then I took another look at the quilt. Some vases were in individual blocks, some blocks had 5 vases, some had three... My plan wasn't going to work how I thought.

 So I started with what I knew and chose a design for each vase and went from there. It was still a challenge to have an even mix of designs scattered throughout the quilt and then to choose a background that would both work well with the vases and the surrounding blocks too, but with a little perseverance it happened and I think the results are magical.

 Basically the sashing was quilted with ribbon candy. That left the vases to be quilted in straight lines, cross hatching, double cross hatching, and curved cross hatching. The backgrounds were generally filled with more organic flowy shapes like pebbles, clamshells, swirls, curls, etc.

 Again the hardest part of planning this quilt was making sure the blocks had enough contrast within the quilting designs as well as contrasting to the designs around them while trying to balance out the designs overall. Phew. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

 There were a few special blocks that only appeared once or twice in the quilt like these platters.

 This center block was fun and unique due to the raw edge applique. In the flowers I followed Sue's lead and just followed along her stitching or just did enough extra to tack down the flowers without adding in another visual design.

 I improvised here. I originally planned to have this background as all straight vertical lines... But the block was too large for the span of my quilting machine (and it's one of the biggest out there), so I did a little echoing and then continued on with the lines. It was less adjusting and I think it turned out better than the original plan!

 This was quite a large quilt and a little challenging to quilt it custom without going super crazy. I know it doesn't look like it in photos, but we chose to quilt this a little more open than I normally would... It still has a lot of quilting but only a fraction of what I thought we were going to do.

 I love how each vase and each block has a personality but it all works so well together. I can only say planning ahead and keeping meticulous notes on this quilt was my saving grace. I could have gotten off track so easily with all this going on!

 I LOVE this quilt. This is normally not my colors, not my style, but there's something so captivating about this quilt that I didn't want to give it back... But I did... Even though I wanted to keep it and love it forever...

 I did stare at this quilt for days and could still do it. There are so many details just within the fabrics and what Sue chose to put where... Kaffe will do that to you, but in this pattern with the contrast available it allows for so much more...

 Normally Kaffe quilts have the fabrics all run together and it's just a big mass of color and flowers. This is the same but not. Even though it's really bright and bold it's almost calming...

 Not the back though. The back is all wild and wonderful Kaffe too. Sue pieced this back and appliqued circles here and there (like she's not an overachiever already).

I always love pulling the quilt off of the machine and flipping it over to see the back and this quilt did not disappoint. I love when you can see the blocks and the details without seeing the pieces parts. It's like a second version of the quilt that's just as nice. As a quilter I always want the back to look as good as the front, no detail too small!

Thank you, Sue!!! I always enjoy working on your quilts and your applique is beyond words. Seriously, I can't say enough good things about it, it's perfect every time! And the teeniest tiniest little stitches! Perfection!

If you have a quilt you'd like me to work my magic on for you, please check out the information page (click here), or you can call me at 440-567-1688 to discuss details or email me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com.

Machine Quilting: Applique Pooches

Anne brought me this quilt she made to donate for a local shelter's annual raffle. I was so excited to work on it and put a little sparkle in it to bring in as much for the shelter as possible.

 Each little block had it's very own dog with it's own personality which made it fun for me to come up with the background for each block.

 Some blocks I just followed the fabric, there's no sense to compete designs between the quilting and the fabrics. Other blocks just needed a fun filler.

 Anne embroidered a name for each dog too and I'm particularly fond of the little Chihuahua named after our little Paco. I miss him so much, but it's nice to see these memories. Anne also named one of the pups after her own Sam who is the biggest puppy I've ever met!

This quilt was so much fun! Thanks, Anne! It's always so much fun to work on your quilts!

Berries and Flowers and Berries, Oh My!

There are definitely quilts I've come across in my quilting career that get a mental milestone for one factor or another. This quilt got several milestones like the most quilting  per square inch, the most intricate design and plan, and the most daunting. Yes, you read that right. Daunting. Just look at it.

I would be foolish not to be intimidated by such a quilt. Being a bit timid forced me to think slowly, plan as I knew best and quilt this sucker to the best of my ability. It was much harder and took much longer than I anticipated, but it was soooo worth it!

Basically the plan was to quilt around each and every applique and then fill the background with a double cross hatch.

Some of the applique pieces were several layers thick and at times all this bulk caused some issues with the rulers and even getting the hopping foot of the machine close enough to the applique. It's nothing that I can't work around, but there's only so much room with the tools you have to work with and I have to work within my means. There are some pieces I would have loved to quilt in a bit more, but we also had two layers of batting that added a lot of bulk you don't notice here except for the nice loft it gives the unquilted areas.

In the end the quilt turned out beautiful. The applique popped just as it should and Sue loved the quilt.

I'm not sure if you can see or if you noticed, but some of the vines of berries, the color gradually changes from a light to a dark red. Look for it in other photos too. It was a spectacular effect!

I know this quilt probably looks much larger than it is, but it was only about 60" square if my memory serves me correctly.

Here you can see the change in the berry color better. All of those berries are perfect. I can't applique a circle to save my soul and Sue did hundreds of them!

The pictures really don't do this quilt justice. The mixture of fabrics and colors and designs were spot on.

And with a pieced back, it was the icing on the cake for a quilt like this. I love how you can see all of the quilting detail. So so much fun.

Thank you, Sue! Your quilts are a fun and exciting challenge that I'm willing to take on any day!