Sometimes Crafter

  • Home
  • About
  • Quilting
    • Price + Services
    • Designs
    • Gallery
    • Quilt Prep
    • Quilting Request
  • Blog
    • Tutorials
    • Quilting
    • All Categories
  • Contact
    • Errata
    • FAQ
  • Shop
    • Quilt Patterns
    • Bag Patterns
    • Sewing Patterns
    • My Account
    • Cart
Longarm Quilting

Quilting A Meadow Quilt

June 2, 2015

_MG_9231

This is going to be a picture heavy post today.  More often than not lately it seems i’m doing a lot of “custom” quilting.  What that usually entails is a few different designs in different places on the quilt, some quilts more intricate than others.  This quilt happened to be my favorite type of custom quilting, the kind where a client says “Do whatever you want!  Surprise me!”  We talk a little about the density and where they would like designs, but otherwise it’s left up to me what ultimately goes on the quilt.  When Oona and I first started talking, I had some general ideas right off about what would be quilted in the pink flowers, and two or three ideas for the spiderweb shapes between, but I wasn’t absolutely certain about the background until I started quilting.

IMG_20150423_131951

Giant swirls along the borders just seemed the right thing to do, but I knew that wouldn’t fill the larger borders of this quilt (which by the way is Meadow by Lizzy House, she talks more about this on her blog and it was interesting to see how she’s decided to “release” this pattern when I went to find a link for it).  After I had the swirls I decided the vertical lines to the edges of the quilt would be just the thing, and then swirl and pebbles just seemed the right thing to fill in around the main prints of the top.

IMG_20150424_152330

I love how the feathers turned out in the pink petals.  I arched the bottom petals around the circles to try and make a connection of a circle when viewing from the back.

_MG_9276

The part I had the hardest time deciding on was the center circle quilting.  Oona had taken time to fussy cut bees for each of the circles and I didn’t want to do anything that would detract from that, but at the same time I needed to be quilted to match the density of the rest of the top.  I finally settled on a circular petal, which you can see much better on the back of the quilt, in the next photo.

_MG_9284

It can be very difficult to balance different color threads front and back.  I am sure some longarmer somewhere can achieve this, but I’m only ever able to occasionally have success.  Because of the nature of the machine moving back and forth across the top and the tension changes from seams to different fabrics, balancing can be tough when you’re a perfectionist.  For this quilt I used a grey that matched the fabrics on the background so that you saw more of the texture and then I switched to a white for the print fabrics.  It blended on the front, but viewed from the back you get an unexpected treat.  Of course with that contrast of white on grey you also notice any mistakes….like the two petals that were missing from one of the feathers.  It seems I ran out of thread, replaced the bobbin, got distracted, and then didn’t restitch those two petals.  I was mortified when I was going through the photos and realized I didn’t catch that.  I roller all of my quilts when i’m done quilting, this not only helps me get off any lint from the batting, but it also lets me inspect the quilt closely before it’s boxed up and sent home.  I’m not sure how I missed this. Just a bit of “full disclosure” to let you know i’m not perfect, and as hard as I try to let nothing slip by me, i’m still human.  Oona was more than gracious when I contacted her about it after looking at the photos to do this post.  She said it took her awhile to find it and after showing it to countless coworkers and friends no one had spotted it either.  *Phew*  At least it wasn’t glaringly obvious.

_MG_9269

I had a great time quilting this quilt.  I had it on the longarm for about 2 weeks, but I always looked forward to working on it.  The grey background and pink petals were free-motion quilted, the lines in the spiderweb shapes were done with rulers and the circles in the center were quilted with the Statler (that’s the computer connected to my machine).  I love that custom quilting can involve all of these things.  I enjoy ruler work for precise lines without the hassle of dialing them into my computer, but I also love using the computer to give me exactly what I need done when I don’t have the skill or patience to do it myself.  Of course, free-motion quilting is always a joy.  I’ll leave you with a few more photos of Oona’s beautiful quilt.  I had a blast working on it, and i’m so glad Oona contacted me to help her complete it.  It was such a fun quilt to quilt on!  Honestly, a free-motion quilters ideal quilt.

_MG_9263

_MG_9240

_MG_9230

_MG_9241

_MG_9282

client quilt custom quilting free-motion quilting longarm quilting quilting

14 Comments

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments

  1. Susan the Farm Quilter says

    June 2, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    Love the quilting on this quilt! Every quilt I quilt has a “humility” area, just cuz I’m human!! Really love the way the swooping swirls create a border in that huge border – looks awesome!!!

    Reply
    • Christina says

      June 2, 2015 at 2:50 pm

      Lol – “humility area”….I love it. :)

      Reply
  2. Linda Fleming says

    June 2, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    Wonderful quilt and quilting!
    Love the swirls and the pebbles.
    What size is the quilt?

    Reply
    • Christina says

      June 2, 2015 at 5:54 pm

      It is 80″ x 88″

      Reply
  3. Kell says

    June 2, 2015 at 6:03 pm

    Absolutely gorgeous quilting!

    Reply
  4. kristie kulik says

    June 3, 2015 at 3:23 am

    This is just absolutely stunning!

    Reply
  5. Jenny says

    June 3, 2015 at 5:11 am

    Ooh, this is some of the prettiest quilting I’ve ever seen. Maybe it’s the botanist in me but I’m so enthralled with the feathers, swirls, and spiderwebbing – they evoke the feeling of being in a meadow perfectly! I even like the mistake – another touch that makes it all feel “real.” Just squealing over here, hehe!

    Reply
  6. Kaesmene says

    June 3, 2015 at 10:40 am

    This is beautiful, both the quilt design and the quilting! Someday I will makes something pretty enough to justify sending it to you…. =)

    Reply
  7. Janeese says

    June 4, 2015 at 7:36 pm

    As a new long arm quilter I found this very inspiring and I felt it really enhancesd her quilt.

    Reply
  8. Chris says

    June 17, 2015 at 3:52 pm

    This is so flipping gorgeous!!!!

    Reply
  9. Minipatch says

    June 22, 2015 at 6:00 am

    Georgeous quilting !! I love it

    Reply
  10. Susan says

    July 2, 2015 at 10:31 am

    Very beautiful! As someone said above, your swirl/paisley border really breaks up the enormous negative space and it frames the “meadow” perfectly.

    Reply
  11. Nancy says

    November 2, 2015 at 4:43 am

    Absolutely inspiring.

    Reply
  12. Cindy Rich says

    April 24, 2016 at 1:01 pm

    It is wonderful! I love your quilting.

    Reply
Previous Modern Medallion Workbook
Next Quilting Up and Down

Related Posts

Geometric Quilting

Longarm Quilting

Modern Feathers Class

Longarm Quilting

Quilting The Day Away

Longarm Quilting

Feathered Star Quilt

Longarm Quilting

Primary Sidebar

Shop

Binding 101

Categories

  • Books + Mags
  • Embroidery
  • Longarm Quilting
  • Patterns
  • Quilting
  • Sampler Quilt Along
  • Sewing
  • Spaces
  • Tutorials

Never miss a post

I noticed my feed was lacking vibrant color of lat I noticed my feed was lacking vibrant color of late, with the thick coating of snow in my recent photos, so today is a perfect day to share @mne_textiles colorful Lonestar quilt I quilted for her recently. It was such a lovely punch of color for this drab time of year, and it was so well done for all those bias edges and Y-seams. She did an amazing job on this! This was quilted with the pattern Celtic Sea and we used Poly Select batting with a light blue thread.  #sometimescrafterlongarmquilting #longarmquilting #gammillquilting #gammillstatlerstitcher #quiltersdreambatting
Day 4 - lots of ice! The ground looks like an ice Day 4 - lots of ice! The ground looks like an ice rink and the forest is full of breaking tree limbs and falling ice and snow. Its warming up pretty quickly, which is fine by me. I enjoyed the snow, but now I'm done.  #sometimescrafterfarm #pnw
Just so much snow! It's currently about 30 and rai Just so much snow! It's currently about 30 and raining, so we get to end with a nice coating of ice on 12"+ snow. Check out @elementaladventuring to see our buried cars. You can only see Aaron's car handles he has so much snow on and around his car. #sometimescrafterstudio
Day 3. So much snow. There's so much snow she can Day 3. So much snow. There's so much snow she can walk right over the patio fencing that's meant to keep the birds off.  #sometimescrafterfarm #charlotteandtheducklings #lucyandherducklings #chinesegoose
We're at about a foot of snow now, and just finall We're at about a foot of snow now, and just finally got a break from snow for a few hours. #sometimescrafterfarm #pnw #ridgefieldwa
The commute to work was a hard one. 😂 #sometime The commute to work was a hard one. 😂 #sometimescrafterstudio
I realized I haven't shared quilting photos in a l I realized I haven't shared quilting photos in a long time, and some of you are here for the actual quilting.  I'm currently working on a custom quilting for @duringquiettime so you'll see this one popping up in my Stories for the next few weeks. #sometimescrafterlongarmquilting #customquilting #gammillquilting #gammillstatlerstitcher
Daisy doesn't know what to think about the snow. S Daisy doesn't know what to think about the snow. She was happy to see us this morning and came right over and started doing her little goose talk, so I picked her up and she was happy. She started honking her alarm when we came back inside. She did not want us leaving her out there. The other birds are all hiding out in the barn, as they usually do. None of them care for snow days. They usually come out and wander around a bit, but we make sure their food and water is right next to the barn so they can hop out and eat, and hop right back in. While they are all hardy enough for snow, they do have to watch their feet as they can be prone to frostbite if they get too cold. #sometimescrafterfarm #charlotteandtheducklings #chinesegoose
Copyright © 2021 Sometimes Crafter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
Theme by SheShoppes