Latest custom quilt

I just finished this quilt for my friend Becky yesterday.  It was on the machine way too long. Between my insurance woes, trying to send off the International World Painters Challenge Quilts, and just life in general, I had a really hard time trying to find a design for the parallelograms in the border.  I tried computerized designs and just making up something of my own, but I think my brain was disturbed by anything I tried because it was not symmetrical.  In the end, I just echoed them.  I think it looks fine now.  This was a lot of work, but I absolutely love the quilt.  There’s just something about a traditional blue and white that speaks to me.

 

Okay!  Now time to get back out there for a walk!  ;D

The fun part of quilting

Those of you who have longarm quilting machines know that quilting can be a lot of work.  If you have a custom quilt job (lots of fancy stuff in it), you need to do lots of SID, or stitch in the ditch, to offset the motifs.  Stitch in the ditch is pretty basic on a regular sewing machine, because you’ve got your presser foot holding everything in place and you just have to follow the path.  A longarm quilting machine doesn’t have a presser foot.  It has a hopping foot, and it does just that – it hops all over the place if you’re not careful!  Lines to be quilted along the X and Y axes are not that difficult.  The machine naturally wants to travel vertically or horizontally.  It’s when you come to those diagonal lines that things get tricky.  Anyway, I do all of my SID before I begin to lay in the designs.  Yep, all of it.  I want that whole puppy stabilized before I start to play.  This quilt had lots and lots of SID to be done.  I finished that part a few days ago and am nearly done with the quilt, but I’m running off to do something else at the moment.  This is a photo taken when the hard part was done and the fun began.

 

Although this type of quilt is a lot of work, it is my very favorite type to do.  Classic, blue and white or red and white quilts really melt my butter.  I hope you’ll all enjoy what I’ve done with this one when you see the finished photos.  It will probably be just over a week before you see those, because I’m running away to Silver Falls!  Gotta take the dog to the sitter, get the house and cat sitter all situated, finish packing, do a few errands, and I’m outta here!  Eat, sleep, sew, with a few campfires and a couple hikes around the waterfalls here I come.