Quilting on Dress Quilt

Here is the promised post on the quilting designs used on my dress quilt.

I thought a lot about what to put on this quilt.  Over the years I had tried a variety of designs, some with easy to use marking tools that rubbed off, others required scrubbing.  Nothing pleased me and so I kept placing the top back in the fabric cupboard until guilt would make me drag it out again.  This year, I'm determined to get rid of the unnecessary stress of having unfinished projects, either I hand it on or complete it.  So far, I've had a lot of success.

What made this work for me?   I took pictures of the quilt and drew designs on the printed copies.  Over and over again, I tried.

This has become my motto and I repeat it until I believe that I will succeed.

Here are the designs that got chosen.  I used a long arm machine for the feathers and then a walking foot on my domestic machine for the straight lines.  This was my first and definitely not my last attempt at quilting feathers.  To see the quilt click here.

 A simple star pattern for the nine patch.

The nine patch variation with four patch corners got a feather treatment.

The rail fence received easy up and down straight lines.   The lines were marked using painters tape which worked really well.

The friendship star also got feathers.  The thread often broke when I went over the same spot as the intersection of 5 pieces of fabric and so I learnt the hard way to move the quilting line just slightly away from that point.

I drew my signature heart on the log cabin.  I've been dotting the i in my last name with a heart for many years now.

The final block in the sampler quilt is the flying geese which had more feathers.  Seams appropriate, no?

I hope this gives you ideas for your own quilts.  I'd love to see any you are working on.

Luv pauline

Warm memories wrap me up in this quilt

Hi!

When my girls were young I used to sew them beautiful dresses. 

I was never interested in easy to create outfits.  These projects would allow me to explore my creativity and to collect fabric.  At some point I realized I had more fabric than needed.  What could I do to continue justifying my desire for more?  Take a quilting class.  

This is the result.

The majority of fabrics used in the sampler quilt are remnants from my daughters' dresses.  I was worried I wouldn't like quilting and so I used up my scraps.  Thankfully, I loved the quilting but I was terrified of wrecking it so the top remained stashed away until this spring.  I've been in a finish it or give-it-away mode this year.  

There are only two tops remaining in the to-do list, both of them Bargello in the Round quilt tops.  Then there is the Wolf Quilt and the Fred the Fish Quilt which don't count because they are still being completed.

I'll be posting the quilting I used on this top, very soon and also a fantastic way to try out your designs before actually committing to the quilting.  Stay tuned!  (for more of your favourite programming)  hehehe, couldn't resist

Luv pauline