This day started with a sideways quilt:

Which I turned around so I could quilt the borders right-side up:

These cute snowmen were quilted with a beige-gold Glide thread, using my Wavy Ruler:

Aren't they cute?

After all of the borders were successfully quilted:

I framed in some of the larger applique blocks to tame them:

Tomorrow I will be framing in more of the blocks to make the overall appearance of the many-sized blocks more uniformly quilted.

And if it wasn't so late, I'd take a nap.

: )

When discussing quilting options with my customer recently for this Christmas quilt, it was refreshing to hear that she trusted whichever route I would end up taking. Some parameters were established, but the decision for the background behind all of the applique blocks was left to my discretion. Knowing I would be outlining the applique first, I shared with her the 2 main ideas I had for the blocks: 1) a medium meander through all of the blocks to unify the background and set off the applique; and, 2) SID around all of the blocks to highlight each block, adding special quilting designs to fill in the areas that were too open.

This morning as I came into my studio I knew right away that I wanted to SID around all of the blocks. When a piecer spends so much time putting together a quilt top, and individually appliques so many cute blocks, my gut instinct just tells me that she'd love to have them stand out. So, I began the day stitching in the ditch around each block:

In order to determine how densely I want to decorate the blocks later, I set out to quilt the borders. The outer border was stenciled with a 4" Christmas tree design called "Tall Pines" #BS187 , which has a wonderful stitching path requiring just one start and stop in the same hole. 

First the spiky tops are quilted all the way across the border, in my case left to right:

And then the bottom of the tree with the trunk is stitched across the bottom of the spiky part, all the way back across the quilt. In my case, right to left:

When discussing the plan of a meander in the center of the quilt, I had offered the option of a star border in the smaller dark green border. I wanted to see a gold star repeated somewhere on the quilt since there are star appliques. But when I decided to go with SID in the blocks, I knew I'd be quilting gold stars in some of those individual blocks, and so a star border would've been too much. Too many stars and too much "spiky" going on. My instincts were driving me toward something more curvy instead. The border is only 2" wide so I knew snowmen would not fit, even though snowmen are adorable and little boys love them. I auditioned several border ideas, and scrapped them all. Until I realized that this golden rope was the design puzzle-piece that would make everything right in my world:

Maybe I'm being too dramatic. But initially I rejected it right off the bat because I was focusing too much on what a little boy recognizes about Christmas. As I stood and stared and wondered what to do,  I realized that the entire quilt represents every fun thing about Christmas already, and that a classic touch - a golden rope - would elevate this gift to lifelong reminder of his Grandma. 

Like I said, maybe I'm being too dramatic...

As is the case with me, I was not able to craft corners for either of these cute borders. It's obvious how much time and attention my customer has put into matching her green border fabric at the corners. That fabric changes color from light to dark as it works its way around the quilt. She matched up the color changes perfectly. The rope border stencil (#SCO-011-1.5) does include a corner, but it's a heart. And, it requires that the rope design gets flipped halfway through the border. This quilt is so small that I didn't want any interruption in the rope at all.

I used 2 wonderful Glide threads for the borders. The top color, "Prickly Pear" #60618, was used for the Christmas tree border because it has a goldish green color that blended beautifully through the color changes of the fabric. The bottom color, "Honey Gold" #80125, was used for the rope. Both threads behaved perfectly with a Magna-Glide Classic prewound bobbin. I used a 3.5 needle and set my SR to 11 SPI so that the backtracking in the rope would look nicer. 

My favorite trick for stitching backtracking, and stitching around applique, is to lower my pick-up bar so that it rests on the machine head. This gives me some drag so that I can move slower and more accurately. Over the years I've gotten accustomed to just how much drag I like, depending on the design I'm quilting. 

Tomorrow the quilt will be removed from the rack and turned sideways (which is actually right-side-up, but never mind that). That is how I will finish stitching the remaining dark green borders. There is not enough backing on either side of it right now, which means my machine would be slamming into the clamps if I tried to quilt those cute trees on the sides. Even though it's extra time spent unpinning and re-pinning it is totally worth it. The quilt will stay on that way while the remaining designs are quilted throughout the quilt. 

This adorable Christmas quilt begins a new week of quilting for me. The machine applique is perfect, the borders are perfect, and the backing is nice and straight. My customer has requested stitching around the appliques, but not in them, and separate border treatments with Christmas designs that a little boy would recognize. She has left the background designs up to me, which I'm still debating about in my mind.

Perhaps you're wondering why this quilt was loaded onto the rack sideways. As with just about every quilt that gets loaded onto the rack, it is determined by the backing. In the case of this quilt today, the backing is seamed down the center, and the seam is running the length of the fabric:

Additionally, the tiny Christmas tree design on the backing is directional: 

I know from past mistakes that my machine likes to have the backing loaded with a) the seam running parallel to the bars, and b) the lengthwise grain of the fabric running parallel to the bars as well.

After I loaded the backing according to my machine's preference, I then needed to make sure the seam would land exactly through the middle of the quilt top. Knowing the quilt top is 45" long (which is actually the width of the quilt - but never mind that), I measured 22.5" up from the seam and marked it with a hat pin and then with a safety pin just in case the hat pin fell out and I'd have to measure all over again:

I laid the Hobbs 80/20 batting across the backing so that it would extend about 2" above the pin. Pulling the batting back so I could see the pin, I brought my machine head over to the pin and set my horizontal channel lock right over the pin. Cover your eyes if you sell these machines for a living:

I keep all of my body parts as far away from the red button as possible at this stage. One false move and that needle is going to hit that safety pin and throw the Earth off of its axis. 

I remove the pin, lay down the batting, and set the needle into place. Then I stitch a nice straight line all the way across the backing to the other side.

After securing the quilt top exactly on that line with pins, I stitched that down too using an 8 SPI setting. 

My first line of attack on this cute quilt was to SID every border seam as well as outline every applique. For both of these treatments I used YLI clear monofilament thread in the top with a Magna-Glide Classic white prewound in the bobbin. My goal was to make sure that the applique was outlined on the fabric and not on my customer's embroidery stitches. That way it appears that the stitching thread matches each and every fabric around each and every applique:

With the whole quilt stabilized and ready for background and border treatments, I'm loving how cute the applique is looking as it puffs up just a bit...

The center of a Lone Star is always the part that pulls us in. It doesn't require very much quilting. It's very happy showing itself off by being humbly stitched in the ditch. 

Who can pass by a beautiful quilt like this one, and not stop and want to see more?

This quilt used the Lone Star center to anchor it, and 9 borders to frame it. Many times a quilt with too many borders will throw itself out of square. But this piecer is meticulous. Her borders were absolutely perfect. My job was to unify all 9 borders so that the quilting definition wasn't all over the place. When they are seen in side-lighting, they flow nicely because they reflect each other's style. The cables unify the three mottled borders, and the chevon border is mimicked in the pale green border. Had I chosen different shapes for each border I believe it would've been way too busy. 

Such as it is, here is the finished Radiant Star quilt with the best side -lighting my studio had to offer this morning:

Because this quilt is so large, it took me over 3 hours to "detail" it before it could be ready to deliver. To detail a quilt is to examine it inch by inch looking for mistakes, chalk marks, missed stitching lines, loose threads, and basting holes - particularly in batik fabric. It must be examined from the front and the back, and usually several times because each time there is something else that didn't appear before. Missed stitching lines need to be filled in with the correct thread. And, sometimes there will be a fold on the back which requires un-stitching in several areas and re-stitching it without causing a fold. 

I'm happy to say that I burned a few hundred calories while moving this quilt around to achieve just the right camera shots today. Unfortunately these are the only ones that came out good enough to post. 

Have a great weekend!

Truly, one of the most rewarding things to do is to teach people to quilt. I know doctors save lives, and scientists discover wonderful things. 

But do their students look this happy when they're done?

My very sweet quilting students loved discovering rotary cutting, strip piecing, chain piecing, and pressing seams from the front. Choosing 8 different fabrics was a challenge, but they didn't complain about such a fun challenge. They helped each other and encouraged each other. And, endured getting their pictures taken:

So today was the big day: quilting the quilt! My quilting class includes finishing the quilt on my machine, which my students get to participate in themselves. 

Before they arrive, I load the quilt and have it ready for action. That way, they aren't bogged down with the particulars of my job. Instead, they get to walk into the studio and see what the elves have done:

I never get tired of their "oohs and ahhs"! Seeing their masterpiece laid out on a huge industrial machine is typically the most unusual experience they've had lately. So, as they take it all in and gush over the wonderfulness of it, I am reminded of how blessed I am to be doing this job.

My first goal is to take away their fear. And there is ALWAYS fear. Just looking at such a giant machine can even put fear into men who love power tools. I've seen it. I don't care what a person has handled in their lives, this machine will always spark fear. At first. So I want to eliminate it right away.

Step 1: I remove the needle, thread, and bobbin case from my machine. I pull the machine over to their quilt to show them how smoothly it moves. I push the red button. And then I let it just sit there to show them that it will not move or stitch unless I move it with my hands. I move it slightly to show how slow it can go, then I increase the movement to show how fast it likes to go. I push the red button again, the machine goes off, and everyone exhales. 

Step 2: I tell them, "try it". I don't ask them "do you want to try it?".  Taking the bull by the horns (so to speak) and accepting that challenge brings out a whole new woman! I need to hire a photographer for these moments. I would love to capture the beaming smile on my students faces as they effortlessly move the machine head in waves of pure art across their quilt top. As soon as they feel their own power, it chisels away some of the fear.

Step 3: We choose a pantograph, and then thread. This gives them time to relax again.

Step 4: We go to the back of the machine. The machine still has no needle, thread or bobbin case in it. The students again take the bull by the horns, and they carefully follow the pantograph with the laser light. This is where my expertise finally clicks in with them. No matter how gracious and appreciative they are about what long arm quilters do, it's not until they actually have to be one that they say out loud "hey, this is hard!". 

Step 5: We return to the front of the machine and I load the needle, bobbin case with bobbin, and the chosen thread into the machine while we cluck and cackle about life in general. They are excited and nervous still because they know they have to really use the machine. Soon. 

Step 6: When it comes time to actually stitch the pantograph, we solemnly retreat to the back of the machine and I do the first row while they watch in amazement and trepidation. 

And then, it is my student's turn to officially be the lone Master of the Machine:

Within literally 30 seconds, she has conquered the fear and begins to perfect her moves. We alternate stitching the rows to speed up the process. And before long, we're clucking and cackling about life in general again...

It's Friday, and that means I've got a whole bunch of pictures to share. Between headaches and long-distance dental appointments, I've managed to complete 3 borders as well as some finishing touches to the center of the Lone Star. 

In my world, a quilt with 9 different borders is asking to be unified. The different-colored borders add a beautiful array of interest to this quilt. Not only are their several different fabrics in the borders, but there are pieced borders, too. As a longarm quilter I had to ask myself "what part do these borders want to play in the overall look of this quilt?"

Seeing that the 3 largest borders have fabric that would not show the quilting, I chose to do the same design in all 3 of them: a double cable. The repeated texture is what makes sense to me. Especially if they are broken up by angular designs in-between. That's just how my brain works. 

So, after I finished the purple cabled border, I decided to do the same design in the dark green border - with a twist:  I turned the stencil so that the design runs in the opposite direction as the purple border. This is the large green border, chalked before quilting:

And, after:

The pale green dividing border is small, but not small enough to leave unquilted. So I took a cue from the pieced chevron border and mimicked the design, chalking lines with my 1-inch grid stencil:

Here is how it looks finished:

The two green borders required 2 different threads, and so I chose Madeira PolyNeon color #1602 with variegated greens and blues for the larger green border. For the small green border I chose the perfect solid green polyester Glide thread, #60624 Mint Julep:

The entire Lone Star center of this Radiant Star quilt has been stitched-in-the-ditch, except for the corner pieces which look like arrows. I left these open so I could make a design which begins from the middle of the Lone Star and works out. A serpentine was stitched first using my Gadget Girls Medium Petal Plus acrylic ruler to guide me up one side and then back down to the center:

It's hard to see in this picture below, but I also continued the half-petal design all round the outside of the star:

The inner-most dark purple border was too wide to be left unquilted, also. So I took my cue from the petal design I'd already done in the Lone Star and continued it. I marked out the lines and used my Petal Plus ruler again, making sure I lined up my marks:

I'm a bit nutty about my intersecting lines matching up perfectly. That's why I do a serpentine, so that all of the intersections cross neatly. This was made possible by chalking lines where my intersections would be:

And, here is how they look minus all the chalk:

For this dark purple border I chose Rainbows polyester thread #848 in variegated dark plums, which behaved perfectly for me:

As I previously mentioned, this huge quilt will have to be removed from the machine while I wait for the final outer border stencil to arrive in the mail. It's the exact same double cable as the other two cabled borders, but it's 5" wide instead of 3.5". I could've chosen a double cable with a feather, which I already have on hand. But the density of the quilting would've been too much, especially considering that the outer border is the one that is the tightest between the quilting bars. So to over-quilt it would be to make it shrink too much. And, since the center of this quilt is larger than the outer border, I would never want to do that.

Have a wonderful weekend!