Quick Curve Lanterns

If any of you have tried the Quick Curve Ruler patterns by the gals at Sew Kind of Wonderful, you know you're hooked before you can blink! I myself haven't sewn one of their patterns yet, but I plan on it in the future (along with about a dozen other quilts). Every one of my clients that has brought me a QCR quilt has raved about it and has already started another quilt or two. You really should check out these rulers and patterns!

Enough of that, back to the quilt at hand. This is the Urban Abacus pattern, but it looked to me like lanterns in the fabrics Anne (or her daughter-in-law) chose so that's how I planned the quilting.

 This quilt was so much fun to plan and execute. The curves are gradual enough that they allowed me to play without worry of bonus fabric or ripples or anything too harsh - visually or physically. I immediately thought of the collapsible paper lanterns when I saw this quilt so I ran with that idea first.

 To differentiate the lanterns from their "cords", I chose to quilt the cords in a ribbon candy design for added texture. Then came the hard part - planning the background. I pondered and stared at this quilt for a couple days before I came up with the idea you see quilted out above. That was because I was looking at it all wrong. I got the idea to quilt these curved bubbles when I looked at the quilt from the side rather than up and down. The pattern opportunity was so obvious to me I had to take a chance at it and I LOVE how it came out. I filled in the gaps along the sides just like the quilting in the lanterns to complete the design.

 You can see the trail of bubbles much better here. I love the texture in this quilt and how it's truly so simple yet looks complex. To finish off the border I quilted bubbles in various sizes.

 And here it is! Did I mention I LOVE this quilt?

And if it couldn't get any better, here's the view of the back. The movement and texture reduce me to a puddle of drool... Again, another quilt I was very reluctant to give back. But I had to. And I did. Even though I didn't want to. But it's part of the job, and I love my job...

Thank you, Anne! Once again I had a blast playing on your quilt and taking it to the next level. (Which isn't hard to do when you get awesome stuff like this to play on.)

Are you enjoying the peek at all of these quilts I worked on last year? There's plenty more to share so stay tuned and I will share them and much more as I can!

Machine Quilting: Metro Rings

There is so much inspiration for quilting designs out and about on the Internet. There was one particular pattern set that I kept seeing online, but was anxious to get my hands on... Granted, I could have made one for myself, but it wasn't fitting into the sewing schedule and luckily Jeanne saved the day.

 This is the Metro Rings pattern by the wonderful girls at Sew Kind of Wonderful. They have designed a whole line of patterns that feature their Quick Curve Ruler AND they just came out with a QCR Sidekick for long-arm quilting. I really wanted to get the rulers, but I didn't have an excuse to purchase them until Jeanne brought me this quilt.

I'm super glad I did buy the rulers, Jeanne wanted the quilting just like it was on the cover of the pattern. I honestly don't know how I would've accomplished that otherwise.

 This quilt has a TON of quilting in it. Each of the straight lines are 1/2" apart and the pebbles fill in the gaps in the "melons". It took me awhile to figure out a path on how to complete this design with as little starts and stops as possible, but it was a slow process. Honestly, the picture above was all I got done the first day...

 Once I got the hang of the design and got used to the rulers, I gained a bit of speed, but with a quilt like this, accuracy is key and you'll get done when you get done. It took much longer than I anticipated, but I'm so happy with the results, it made it all worth it.

 Here are the rulers I used to quilt. Each ruler matches the curve of the design and has 1/4" markings on both the curved and straight edges. I used the larger ruler for most of the straight lines because I could grip it easier, but either ruler works.

 After cranking up the radio and quilting along, the quilt was done!

 The texture created is just amazing. It's always more pressure to a quilter to recreate a design as someone has done before (especially when it's their own design and you want your work to live up to the high standard they've set) but this quilt was a challenge I was happy to accept. Jeanne asked that I use a loftier batting to emphasize the quilting and the Dream Puff worked so well in this quilt.

 A wool batting would get you similar results, but the Dream Puff is washable, it doesn't shrink, and it's just a better alternative if you're planning on using a quilt that may require washing and drying.

I know I've said several times before that with a custom quilting job as intense as this, I'm super excited to see the back of the quilt. Honestly, there was so much going on with the top and I had been staring at this quilt for days I didn't think the back would be as spectacular as the front... I was wrong! It's usually very hard to photograph the texture created with straight lines going in several directions because inevitably one direction is lost without shadows from the lighting. For whatever reason, the lighting this morning when I took these pictures was just diffused enough that you can see most of the lines and really see the pattern well.

I want to thank Jeanne for bringing me this stunner of a quilt and trusting me to "make it look like the pattern cover". Like I said before, that is a tall order, and is sometimes impossible for me when the original was done with a digitized quilting pattern. I'm glad to report Jeanne loved the quilting and I can officially mark this quilt off of my "long-arm quilting bucket list".

Yes, I have a bucket list for long-arming as well as piecing. No, I don't think I'm the only one.

Thank you, Jeanne, for bringing me this quilt to play with!

If you're interested in my quilting services, you can view more information on the "Machine Quilting Information" page or you can e-mail me at RubyBlueQuilts (at) gmail (dot) com too. Currently, my turn around is around a month, but please understand that custom quilting may require more time.