If you are visiting from SewSister's Blogathon Canada! Welcome!!
I recently worked on a King sized quilt top that was really
fun to plan out and design. The client
was quite easy going with the quilting to put on the top - but specified that a
tree off center was to be a feature on the quilt. Usually a quilt top has blocks and
boundaries to keep your design in line and contained. This one, I figured to be more of a modern
landscape.
I planned to do organic flowing lines in the background with
swirls to show movment. The bottom of the quilt, brown prints,
indicated the ground, and so I quilted swirls, leaf shapes, pebbles and lines in a flowing,
more dense design.
The spruce tree required a bit more planning and practiceI
did a google image search - continuous line drawing – spruce tree; spruce tree drawings, etc. to come up with five or six images that
I could play around with. I would
sketch them out on a scrap piece of paper, and then decide if I could manage
that type of sketch as a large scale drawing on a quilt. After analyzing and coming up with two
designs that I thought would fit well with the fabric selections in the quilt
top -
I forwarded these two images to my client and had her choose what style
she would prefer for the top. When that
was decided, I did a little bit more sketching on my whiteboard and paper.
Next up, I had to estimate a scale for the quilt- off center and large enough to look like it
was ‘part’ of the quilt. I actually
laid out the quilt top on my floor and used string first and then painters’ tape to place an outline
of the triangular shape and vertical trunk of the tree first. After a few shifts in location and sizes, I
then added a few tape ‘branches’ to mark out the different layers of the
branches. The tape worked well – but
it does come off easily. I also used a
marking pen to mark some of the branch layers
Quilting the tree was not as easy as I thought - after doing
just a single outline, I realized that I would need to do a bit of thread
‘painting’ to give more texture. When
doing this type of quilting, it is really important to step back a few feet as
well, to get the whole picture of what the ‘painting’ looks like. I had to be careful not to do too much thread painting, to keep the quilt soft and pliable. Using the machine, my nose is often about
6-8 inches away from the quilt top – and so I see every. single. stitch. And that can make one a little
neurotic. ;-)
The end result photos were really hard to capture the design
and the texture - the backing colour was
solid orange – anyone have tips on photographing orange? But I did want to
share my thinking and quilting process with you - maybe it can help you in a future quilt. Some of the following photos have been edited, lightened, etc to show more detail of the stitching.
Batting - Quilter's Dream 100% cotton
Thread - Glide thread top, Wonderfil Decobob bobbin
Well...the quilting certainly made the quilt! The tree looks amazing, and that sort of freemotion landcaping/swirly thing is a favourite of mine right now.
Replystunning quilting!!!
ReplyBeautiful quilting, Hi from the Canadian hop.
Replyhopping in from bc...nice quilting...tree looks stunning...lucky you to be a stay at home mom and a long arm quilter
ReplyBeautiful!!
ReplyLove the tree!
ReplyVisiting from the blogathon, I'm a fellow Albertan. Such a cool idea to use the tree design on the quilt. Your work is lovely (just heard you are quilting something for a friend - I look forward to having a chance to see your art in person!)
ReplyI can honestly say that, in person, this is a phenomenal amount of work that looks amazing!
Reply