Quilting Design Choices

I think I've said it here before, but in case not...I admit that my least favorite part about making a quilt is the actual quilting.  

Much of it is the process of trying to figure out how I want to quilt the project. I get stuck thinking that I want to do a custom quilting job even though the quilt is meant to be used and will not be a show piece by any means. I then have a reality check moment and admit that not only do I not have the patience or time to do that, I don't have the skills. 

I also struggle with choosing what thread to use. It's really not so much what thread, but what color thread. I am always tempted to try to match the thread color to the fabric so I can hide my lack of quilting skill. But let's be honest, most of the quilts I make have a lot of different fabrics and colors in them so that is not a realistic thing to do. Can you imagine how many thread changes would be needed, let along the thread stash that I would need to do that? 

On a side note...here's a fun picture from many years ago. Quinn and Sadie used to love playing with my thread. I let them do it and called it my version of thread play.  LOL

Back to my decision making...

I ponder my quilting options for a while and then ask Jack for his opinion. Jack thinks I have much more skill than I actually do and he usually has ideas of custom quilting too. He has some really awesome ideas, but they are simply not realistic for me. He steps back and thinks for a while and often comes up with his thread color choice first. He then moves on to the actual quilting design. Isn't if funny how we all have our processes and how different they can be from that of other people?

So...long story short (Too late, I know!), the top often gets pushed aside for a while and another project gets started. That is just one of the reasons I have so many UFOs. My quilting indecision is a problem that has many ramifications.  

I'm trying to make a concerted effort to make faster quilting decisions and finish some of my UFO backlog. The other night, I realize that if I get more tops quilted, I can do some binding, which I enjoy. LOL  Ahhhh, If only it was that easy.

Fast forward to Saturday morning when I was driving to a softball game. I noticed a farmer had planted a new crop recently and I thought that the rows looked cool. I was driving, so I couldn't take a picture, but it got me thinking. I have often seen fields that were planted with interesting designs. The reason for the designs was to accommodate various equipment used, the landscape, and possible obstructions in the field, like trees. Why can't I transfer that into quilting designs?

When I returned home, I did a quick internet search and came up with the following images. 

Even though I know the rows are equally spaced, the plant color makes it look like they aren't. I like that look!

I really like this image below. I think it would be fun to quilt "a river" on the quilt and then quilt vertical lines coming up to it. I even like the white that shows here and might be tempted to make that thread color change so it really stands out on the quilt. 

I really find the image below fun! I like the spacing of the straight line quilting here. I also like the idea of adding some kind of circular design on top of that. Heck...I might even be tempted to make the circular design an applique. 

Time will tell if I put any of these images to use in my quilting, but at least I am thinking and feel a willingness to try something new. 

How do you choose your quilting designs? 

Project Catch Up Time

I've been quite bad at posting lately, but in my defense, I have been very busy.

In my last post, I shared some sneak peeks of a secret sewing project that I was quilting. It's all done and I can now share it.

Ancient Words - a Rachel Rossi design

I think this is such a unique quilt and was thrilled when I saw the invite to test the pattern. As with most of her patterns, Rachel has provided multiple size options with the pattern; but based on my schedule, I knew that making the baby size was the best choice for me.  

There are a multitude of different layout options with this quilt and I played quite a while before deciding on this one. 

There are special templates used to make this quilt and they are wonderful!

The Shorthand Templates are available in Rachel's shop. (There is a free pattern to go along with the templates and I think it's really neat!)

I love taking photos from a side angle! I think it often shows the quilting so much better, as well as the overall design.

While taking these pictures, my granddaughter thought that the top right looks like a turtle. I didn't see it until after I pulled up the pictures on the computer. 

The quilting design was pretty simple and straight forward. 

Another pattern tester used the templates to create her quilting design and as much as I tried, I couldn't come up with anything that I liked better. :-) This isn't the greatest pictures, but I think you can see the quilting pretty well. 

I wasn't sure about my fabric choices during the early stages of constructing this quilt. I was worried that there wasn't enough contrast, but I stayed with it and am glad I did. 

During the time I worried about my fabric choices, I decided that I needed a Plan B, just in case the original fabrics didn't work. I played with some fabric scraps that I had from making a t-shirt quilt and liked how they looked, so I made a bunch more. (After making a few more of the original blocks, I decided that the fabrics would be ok, so I stuck with those for the test.) I have a nice pile of Plan B blocks waiting to be put together. :-)

While I was making the Plan B blocks, I got to thinking that it would look really cool to add a small flange to the inside of the blocks. 

I really liked the result so after I finished the original quilt, I started making these as a leader/ender project. (Yes, the blocks without the flange got set aside, but I will do something with them soon.)

Using all the fabric I had left, I was able to make a decent size wall hanging with the flanged blocks. It's already quilted; and I've machine stitched the binding down and am ready to flip it to the back and stitch it down. I'll take pictures when that's done and share them here. :-) 

Sunday Quilting

We've had a busy couple of weeks and this week will be more of the same. I decided that I just needed to sit down, put the walking foot on the machine, and do some simple quilting.  

AHHHHHH! This is so relaxing...

I can't show you the whole quilt because this is a secret sewing project.

This is a terrible picture of the backing - I just can't get the color to show up properly.

Here's a bigger picture of the quilting design.

Besides the backing, these are the only two fabrics in the quilt. 

I'm thinking the binding will be the multi-colored fabric, but I won't decide that until I'm done quilting.