Nov 16 14

Quickie Quilt (Warning-Lots of Pictures to Follow!)

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I did a demo on the George sit-down quilting machine a little over a week ago for Sheridan Kay Quilting Studio in Hendersonville, NC and you can find her web site by clicking here.  Sheridan is the local APQS dealer in western NC and I can personally attest to what a great studio and shop she has.  Anyway, I needed to come up with a quick quilt that I could work on during my demo.  I wanted to demo some basic ruler work on a sit-down machine, so I came up with this quilt:
 
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When I was creating all the digitized feathered wreath designs for the 2 Majestic Feathered Wreaths CDs which you can find right here, I ended up with about 10 million quilt blocks with wreaths quilted on them because I needed to test out every design in every size.  I decided to use a bunch of them up in this quilt, so throwing this together got me a quick quilt for the demo as well as used up some stuff I had lying around.  You can see the pieces of it starting to come together in the photo below:
 
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Once I’d pieced the whole thing, I threw it into a quilt sandwich and did my stitch in the ditch quilting, followed by outling each “zone” of the wreaths.  (The reason I do that is it causes the trapunto to really pop!).  For my ditch quilting and my outlining of the various “zones” of the feathered wreaths, I always use Monopoly Thread by Superior Threads.  This lightweight thread will not be seen but it allows you to create these kinds of fabulous effects and I use a TON of this thread in my quilting.  Once done with that “anchoring” kind of stitching, I switched to my ruler work.  I am a relative newbie at ruler work but I’ll tell you, I am really learning that a little bit of ruler work can add a whole new level of interest to your quilt.  I’m talking about a big time level of interest!  In this shot below, you can see how basic this ruler work was:
 
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The side setting triangles and corner setting triangles are all done with easy straight edge ruler work that creates a “skeleton,” or framework, and then you move in and add some fill in freehand work.  Once you’ve done a few of them, you start to appreciate the secondary designs they create.  For the blue blocks in the center, I used curved rulers and started by creating simple double arcs inside the blocks:
 
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I then marked the center of each block and a few guidelines and created these spinning something-or-other shapes:
 
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Notice that all those lines are double lines with a channel in between.  You’ve got to have that channel or the design will not have much punch, so take the time to create 2 thread lines.  My original plan was to hyperquilt something inside, but I decided against it…at least for right now!  I then filled in  my arcs with a row of pearls and you can start to see that this creates a secondary design of a frame of pearls in this next shot:
 
quick-quilt-center-section
The wreaths really poof out nicely because they have a trapunto layer of a lightweight polyester batting behind them.  You can appreciate that in this shot:
 
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…and here’s another good shot for that effect:
 
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Ooh-la-la, I can’t get me enough of that splay-of-fireworks feathered wreath!  Anyway, this was a very fun quilt to quilt and I am falling more and more in love with ruler work.  If you haven’t tried it yet, you really must…
 
quick2.1

18 Comments

  1. SewCalGal Says:

    Beautiful. I love the colors, machine embroidery and the free-motion quilting you did with this quilt. #quiltlove

    SewCalGal
    http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

  2. Duane Wiley Says:

    I am amazed at the beautiful quilting you do on just a sit down machine. It gives me hope! I bought your Craftsy video and need to get to it for more inspiration and tips. I’ve been a fan for a couple of years now.

  3. Jackie Says:

    Beautiful, I love the colours.

  4. peggy Says:

    those spinning doo-dads are really a great look. thanks for all the pictures–really shows the process/progress. love it. thanks

  5. Leslie mcneil Says:

    its amazingly gorgeous, and i so agree with the impact of the ruler work miss patsy! well done… well done!! love the splay firework design, too.

  6. Hannele Says:

    Gourgeous quilting: the wreaths are glowing beautifully, and the graphic ruler work patterns counterbalance the rounded and softer wreaths.

  7. Carolyn Says:

    So so beautiful, what more can I say. Stunning hyper quilting! I’m also beginning to like ruler work in my fmq but at the moment have to draw the lines as I have not come across the rulers yet in South Africa.

  8. Pat Says:

    Patsy –

    a craftsy class, as to HOW you manage to manipulate the ruler on a sit down machine would be a one-of-the-kind class. Consider doing one?

    Pat

  9. Susan Says:

    Oh my!! these are beautiful! serves as great inspiration for me! thank you for sharing.

  10. Jean Says:

    Gorgeous! I love the block treatment of the squared off “flower”. so pretty. I had to forward this to a friend.

    I can’t wait to play more with my designs!

  11. LJ Says:

    Wow! Gorgeous.

  12. Diane Evans Says:

    Absolutely beautiful, Patsy! Now I have another quilt design of yours to put on my list of Quilts That Must Be Made.

    Diane

  13. Jean Overmeyer Says:

    I love the ruler work, Patsy! I’m still trying to do it on my domestic machine, which seems to be a bit more difficult than with a machine with a hopping foot…

  14. Linda E in AZ Says:

    When I took a sit-down machine class with Debby Brown I, too, found out that ruler work is actually pretty easy and allows all sorts of great looking shapes.
    Beautiful!

  15. Lorie Bugaiski Says:

    Wow it beautiful! I would love to see the back, would like to see how the quilting looked around the wreaths.

  16. Sheridan Says:

    Patsy, Your work is incredible! Thank you so much for the demo and visiting the studio! Come back soon!

  17. Kelly Jackson Says:

    I have at least 8 of the wreath blocks already finished…now I have to make myself a quickie quilt!

    Love your designs Patsy.

    Smiles,
    Kelly

  18. Brenda R Says:

    My George and I would love for you to teach a class on ruler work in southern Indiana! 🙂