Machine Quilting: Feathered Star

Judi sent me this Feathered Star to quilt for her niece (I believe, it's been awhile) for a wedding present. The theme was all about snowflakes so I kept that in mind while designing the quilting.

 The blues used in this quilt were very icy and bright which made it all the better. The way the colors and fabrics were laid out made my job so much easier.

 I'm not sure if you can see in the pebbles there, but I quilted it like a snowglobe (or so I like to think). Every so often in a pebble I quilted some simple snowflakes and it just adds a bit more to an already fun texture. Then I quilted the spikes in the border like icicles. Both of these designs work well in these spaces to fit and fill these non-square shapes but they are very forgiving too - the spiky border for instance are all different sizes and widths in order to round a curve so some pieces have more down-and-backs than others.

 Here you can see more of the snowglobe quilting.

 The center is always fun for me. It's the heart of the personality of a quilt like this and it's naturally where your eye is drawn to so it has to look good. And this is where you can play and try new things.

 Basically I try to keep the quilting plan simple (if you can believe that). With a quilt like this with several shapes and areas to fill, I try to stick to a few basic quilting plans and use them throughout the quilt. Here you can see the "icicles" again in the white, some simple lines in the light blue and some swirls. The straight lines were used in several areas of the quilt and the swirls were used in the dark fabric around the outer edge of the quilt, so this brings it all back around.

 Keeping the pebbles going in a slightly new way, I stacked them to fill the other side of the spiky border.

 I really wish some of these quilts look as good in photos as they did while I was staring at them. I honestly try to take really good photos, but it's just not the same as the quilt in your face. And under your hand. So you can pet it. And squeeze it. And name it George. Hahahaha. Don't mind me.

 Here's some more photos once it was off the frame and the sun was hitting some of the fabrics.

I love this quilt! Any Judy Niemeyer design challenges me in ways some other quilts can't because I rarely encounter a square or a rectangle in her designs. It's all shapes and curves unlike any other. But in this case challenging equals fun.

Thank you, Judi!!! This quilt was fun and amazing and I hope it is being well loved at it's new home!

Lumina Feathered Star

Wanda contacted me about quilting her Lumina Feathered Star and I couldn't wait to get started. As many of you are aware (if you're familiar with Quiltworx patterns), Quiltworx offers computerized designs specific to many of their quilt patterns and they're amazing. But many, if not all of them, are super dense, super detailed designs. Wanda didn't want that much quilting, yet she didn't want to settle for just a plain pantograph over the entire quilt. So that's why she contacted me.

 Wanda was hoping for more of a semi-custom touch - my specialty! The fabrics for the Lumina Feathered Star are a ton of metallics and they are very busy. In several areas the quilting would only show up when the lighting is "just-so". So what's a quilter to do? We opt to keep those areas simplified and put the details in the areas you're actually going to notice it, like the center and that amazing satin in the border.

 Wanda requested swirls and just whatever would work to make the center pop and amplify the quilt as a whole. I thought of these fun circles in the spiked border and they worked out perfectly. In order to fit the curves, not every spike is the same size and shape, so circles are easy enough to adjust as needed so the border as a whole looks finished. Some designs may not be as forgiving and the small differences would stand out terribly.

 This quilt has ginormous pieces (for a Quiltworx pattern) so the center was played up and kept subtle at the same time. I kept the swirls in the satin and played with straight lines to emphasize the feathers where I could.

 The majority of the quilt was covered in swirls, and you can see some of the other details here in this shot. This quilt plan definitely fell into the less-is-more category. Swirls, circles and straight lines in a variety of uses are all that made up this large quilt.

I love how you can see the sheen from the satin in the spiked border here. I think that was my favorite part of this quilt. And in case you're wondering, Wanda knew satin wouldn't respond the same as a quilting cotton, so it all was backed in a super light interfacing to make it behave, yet it wasn't too bulky to interfere in the piecing or quilting process.

All in all this quilt was a stunner and I was sad to send it back home. However I know it went to a great place and is probably being loved on as I type! That's what makes my job a tad easier, knowing that the quilts I spend so much time on go to good homes where they are loved and used!

Thank you, Wanda! Your quilt was spectacular, your piecing was phenomenal and I had so much fun working on this quilt with you!

Machine Quilting: Crazy Thistle Pods

I don't mean crazy as in this quilt is crazy. I mean the quilting in this quilt is crazy! Maryellen sent me this quilt after she worked on it for a long time. Knowing that she put blood, sweat, and tears into this quilt, she wanted the quilting to be in the same ballpark.

 I mean seriously, when you have this much work in all of those points and curves... you want the quilting to be awesome. And crazy. And that's what we did.

Maryellen and I went back and forth for a while trying to decide on a plan. There were definite elements she knew she wanted in the quilting and other areas we had to figure out as we went. All in all, it is stunning, but I'll let the pictures do the talking...

 I only used two different threads for the top - a light green and a variegated blue and green for the darker fabrics. The majority of the quilt was filled with a mixture of pebbles, swirls and a random feather or two.

 The outer border was split between these fun feathers in the lighter fabrics and simple shadow compasses (mimicking the pieced compasses) and wavy lines in the darker fabrics.

 The variegated thread worked so well in the darker fabrics. It had just enough pop and sparkle without being too bold.

 These stars are very similar to a New York Beauty block that you'll find in several of Judy Niemeyer's patterns (this is four of them put together). I quilted this ribbon candy design in a New York Beauty section of this quilt, and I knew it would look so neat as a continuous design in a circle. To contrast the curves in the center and the pebbles in the background, the spikes were kept simple with straight lines.

 The biggest trick with quilts like this that have several complex elements already - keep it all cohesive. You don't want any one area to stand out too much and it all has to work well together.

 I can't get enough of these feathers! I may have to do them again soon! You can probably see a shadow compass here a bit better.

 All in all, this quilt is large and crazy quilted. However, at the end of the day I'm so excited with the result and Maryellen is too. I think her exact word when she got the quilt back was YOWZA!

 I could stare at this quilt all day...

 I love how the texture turned out and everything is quilted just enough...

 I used two different threads on the back of the quilt, but both blend in well enough on this fun fabric.

 I love being able to see the designs and details on the back as well as the front.

Here you can see the thread detail a bit better. The fabric was a very blue-green and it altered the thread colors just enough that my first choices were too bright or dark or something. I ended up using Midnight Harbor and Olive Green and I'm so pleased with how they worked out. In this picture, the blue is on the left and the green is on the right. The straight lines are done, one of each color.

I chose to use the blue with the variegated thread since I was dealing with batiks top and bottom. It limits the range of thread colors I can use (if I'm not using the same thread top and bottom) since batiks are woven much denser and can cause some tension issues if you're not careful. The closer the thread colors are to eachother, the better the end results will be.

Phew, what a quilt! Wouldn't you agree? Thank you, Maryellen!!! I hope some binding fairies came to help and you can enjoy your masterpiece of a quilt.

If you're interested in learning more about my quilting services, please e-mail me at RubyBlueQuilts at gmail dot com, or you can see more information on the Machine Quilting Information page here on the blog.

Congrats, Judi!!!

Let me set the scene for you...

You make this amazing quilt and you love it. You enter that amazing quilt into your first quilt show and you come home with the big prize winning Best of Show...

Sounds like a dream, right?

Well, I think we all need to pinch Judi to wake her up from this dream, because that's exactly what happened!

She sent me this picture yesterday with the ribbon for the Glacier Star I quilted for her last summer. Her quilt was amazing and I had so much fun playing with it, I'm so honored she shared this special award with me!!!

To see more of Judi's gorgeous quilt, you can see the original post about her Glacier Star quilt here.

Thank you, Judi!!! Congrats don't seem like enough, it's with beautiful pieces like yours that let my creativity blossom!!! Congrats!!!

Machine Quilting: Summer Solstice Deja Vu

I got an email from Lindsay one day and she was super excited to finish up her Summer Solstice quilt but was in that mood of "now what?". She sent it off to me and said she liked the original version of this quilt that I had done, but if the mood struck me to try something new or add something in, go for it. (I love when that happens) and this is what we ended up with:

 This quilt was made just like the original Summer Solstice I quilted because that quilt was featured in Timeless Treasure's booth at Market and turned into a project sheet for other shops to make into kits. It was interesting for me working with the two quilts because of the slight change in the coloring of the fabrics (the original quilt was made with advance yardage and this quilt was made with the actual fabrics from their normal release date, plus batiks can differ from run to run so that could've been it too). The tans were a bit deeper, the greens were more vibrant, the orange was a bit bolder, but it still has that same charm as the original quilt.

 The first major change I did with this quilt was play up the piecing in the border fabric. This fabric was much brighter and had more vibrancy than the original quilt, so I used that to my advantage. I kept some of the quilting in the tan areas the same...

 Here you can see the quilting better in the borders. I also made a slight change to the quilting in the orange, but not a major one...

 I did however change up the center a bit and tried a new design in the inner background of the New York Beauty blocks and I will be using that again in the future!

 With this design (and almost every quilt design that springs from my fingertips) I tried to keep it simple and relative by using about three or four designs scattered throughout the quilt so there is a consistency but you can still see each piece individually. This quilt was mainly line designs in a myriad of configurations, ribbon candy and tendrils with some swirls to calm the backgrounds.

 The other little bit that I did differently with this quilt was to use this amazing raspberry colored thread in the magenta and purple areas including the center star (pictured above). It's a much bolder choice so I had to check with Lindsay before going forward with it because some people like their quilting a little more subtle. Luckily she loved it and I got to finish up this quilt and send it on it's way and I think it turned out awesome!!!

This pattern, unlike many of the other patterns designed by Judy Niemeyer, is relatively simple and methodical. Now, many of her other designs are methodical, but not simple... Not in the foggiest... For a quilter, this quilt is basically just diamonds, New York Beauty blocks and borders. Usually Judy's designs have like 27 different elements and there's a lot more planning that can go into them. The neat thing with this pattern is depending on how it's colored and where the accents lie, I can quilt each and everyone differently to make the personality of the quilt stand out. That's how I play and get creative and end of loving my job at the end of the day.

Lindsay did an amazing job piecing this quilt. This design is almost never square and here's why... The border is pieced with several angled pieces... and the corners are mitered too. Plus when you combine that with how this quilt top is constructed (it's weird, just trust me) no matter how good of a quilter you are, there is a ton of bias edges going on and it can get wonky fast.

Any quilt with a pieced border and mitered corners can have it happen. Basically you can think of the pieced border and the mitered corners as the exaggeration of the center of the quilt. If there is any bonus fabric in the center, it will find it's way to the outside and definitely into the corners... NOT LINDSAY'S!!!

It was awesome and I had such a fun time quilting it. I want to thank Lindsay for sending me her quilt to play on and letting me share the pictures with you too! Continuing on with the trend of quilts on the blog this week, I DID NOT want to send this one back. I may just have to break down and add this quilt on my to-do list too... It just keeps growing...

Speaking of which, the next quilt I'll share added my "blizzard project" for this winter on my list and I'm going to share it with you guys, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only person crazy enough to make this particular quilt... We shall see... I can't wait to share it with you guys, but that's for another day. Have a great day and I'll be back with more awesome quilts!

Machine Quilting - Thistle Pods

Doris is at it again and made this wonderful Thistle Pods quilt designed by Judy Niemeyer.

 This quilt is simple yet complex - here's why: There are really only four elements - the two different blocks, the flying geese and the outer border. BUT, there is ample background space but not much area between the elements from all of the points... I honestly wasn't quite sure how to tackle this quilt at first, but after consulting with Doris, she said she liked the swirls I did on this quilt and maybe try those again.

This pattern is one of those that is somewhat deceiving to long arm quilters. When you see pictures it looks big, but when you see it in person, there's not as much room between those points as you hoped. It limited me on designs a bit, but I'm happy with the results and Doris is too and that's all that matters :)

 This is one of the blocks, I'm not really sure what to call it, maybe a sunburst...

 Here's the other block, a compass of sorts. That's it for the center, just these two blocks offset in rows.

 Then there are these awesome flying geese around the center. I quilted back and forth lines traveling from one goose to the next to separate the swirls on either side of this element. Remember that how the design looks on the back of the quilt can be as important as how it looks on the front!

 Finally, I quilted these tendrils into the outer border to soften the jagged-ness of all of the spikes. Oh, and this quilt does have a small extra border put on it that's not in the original pattern to make it just a tad bigger.

 Now this quilt ended up roughly around 103" square. Here's how it looks draped over the machine after quilting. It's big. I've had more and more customers coming to visit me and I realize that I probably haven't shared the best part of my "office" with you here. In the photo above, it just looks like a big room, right?

 Well, here's how it looks when you walk in from the house. I have these amazing vaulted ceilings that work so well to bounce indirect lighting onto the quilts as I'm working, or just to give some breathing room. It's one of those things that just makes me love my job and makes going to the "office" pretty easy to do.

 Alrighty, back to the quilt. so here's how one of the corners looks with all of the elements and quilting aspects represented.

 And because I couldn't stop taking pictures...

 Here's more to share :)

 And then there's the back of the quilt. I love how you can see all of the details!

Once again, this quilt was a pleasure to work with and I love working on Doris' quilts.

If you are interested in my long arm quilting services, please feel free to contact me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com or check out the Machine Quilting Information page.

Also remember, Christmas is fast approaching so if you have quilts you would like to give as gifts, you can either reserve a spot or get them to me by November 7th (subject to change) for guaranteed Christmas delivery.