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: Summer Solstice

Mom just completed her Summer Solstice designed by Judy Niemeyer (Quiltworx) and I had so much fun quilting it!

We had so much fun picking out the colors and the fabrics from Timeless Treasures. This quilt has a big future ahead of it and I'll share more on that later!

 I've learned with many of the quilts we use and stow and bring out to hang at our various shows that the quilts with the most dense quilting hang the best when they are needed on demand. So I took that theory to heart and went a little crazy on this one.

 I only used a few thread colors and kept the quilting fairly simple in plan (yes it's dense, that I know) but I kept the same design in the same colors since this pattern is truly simple in construction.

 I thought long and hard about the center and I'm happy with how it turned out. I know I've said this before, but the center is the focus. It's where you have to sum up all of the personality of the rest of the quilt into a small area.

This quilt was so much fun and I will hopefully be quilting another version Mom is doing out of this pattern in the near future. Her new version is a color opposite since it features tans and cool blues with this awesome batik that has pine cones in it! It'll be neat to see the differences! She already has the Lonestar done, now it's just to choose the right colors for the New York Beauties and the borders!