What kind of a design have you used to machine quilt a OBW?
I've made three so far and have used a feather stitch on all. Any other ideas?

I'm not sure, but I'd love to see the quilting on yours with the feathers.

I haven't done a OBW yet. Are they challenging? How big are they usually?

Sorry what is a OBW??

OBW = one block wonder. I just learned that last week!

Hi,

Giggling out loud here.......so very glad you explained the OBW as I have been sitting here going through every single quilting term in my brain trying to guess it! I think I would have still been sitting here, ahhhhh, next week! LOL

Thanks!

Bev

Actually my avatar is one of the three I've done, but you can't see the quilting from the front side. I used a variegated green,red and yellow thread, so it blends in totally with the prints. The feather stitch is very similar to the background leaves in the original print, so that's why I did that design. The back is solid black and that's the side I did the stitching from, otherwise I'd never be able to see where I was going. I'll have to work on getting a picture of that side. This quilt was made especially for my son and he lives 70 miles away from me now. I'll have to have him send me a pic. thru e mail, then I can get one on here.

Of the 10 different quilts I've made, each being a different pattern or method, making a OBW is the easiest and shortest from cutting the fabric to having a top sewn together. If you make one with hexagons, (there's also octagons) each block is then made from 6 pieces of fabric, each a triangle. So there's 2 seams to get 3 triangles sewn together to make half hexagons. At this point you finalize your block arrangement, before sewing the half hexagons together into strips. Then when the strips get sewn together, the whole hexagons appear. I cut repeats, strips, triangles, sewed half hexagons together for a quilt for my other son, in 4 1/2 hours! That quilt top measured about 4' X 5'. It does go fast. I think the longest part is deciding on the final block arrangement. There's so many ways you can put them.
They can be whatever size you want them to be. If you have a repeat in the print of your fabric that's less than 6", you'll probably want to buy more fabric than just 6 repeats worth, because you won't have much to work with. The width of the strips you cut will be half the finished hexagon width. I've seen quilts made in this method that covered a queen size bed. Others were lots smaller, down to 2' X 3' or so.

i love your OBW...i am just now thinking about making one. i have bought the book and have read through it several times and you made it sound easy and you made it in 4.5 hours! i think mine will take me 4.5 months!! :lol: :lol: Have you got a picture of the original fabric of the one in your avatar? I just love to see the before and after pictures.

fireworkslover,
I love your OBW :thumbup: :!: I just bought 13.5 yards of fabric today for one. I have made a stack n wack but like the looks of OBW much better. Would you please post pictures of your other OBW's you have made and also the fabric before it was cut. That is fun to see.
As far as what pattern to use, well I wouldn't want to see the quilting on it. So anything "blendy" is what I would do.

I've done 5 OBWs and in the body of the quilts I've done a meander in a very fine thread as I didnt want to detract from the kaleidosopes. But I have tried to do something different in contrast thread in the borders.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-27510-1.htm

The one I'm quilting at the moment,
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-34436-1.htm
I am doing a three different thread colour motif in the black borders, hope to finish it today.

What is the title of the book? I'd like to look for it on Amazon.

There are two books so far

One Block Wonders - Maxine Rosenthal

One Block Wonders Encore - this is the one with the hollow cubes in.

There is a new book out in April with new variations on the hollow cubes, One Block Wonders Cubed, which would be a good addition for doing the cubes too.
http://www.amazon.ca/One-Block-Wonde.../dp/1571208348

Thanks Katrine

On amazon the prices range from 14.29 to 62.79. Can anyone tell me why anyone would pay 62$ for this book. This was the encore one.

katrine, your quilting and quilts are stunning!

would love to see the feathers on yours.

me too :roll: now I want to see a OBW! please? I need to learn to read ahead. Wonderful quilts! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Katrine. This will most certainly be added to my book collection.

The meander in fine thread- was the thread a matching color to the body of the quilt or contrasting?
I've been told by way more experienced quilters than me, that when you have a very busy quilt top, then you need to do a meander or a design with much less detail to it, because you won't see it anyway with all that's going on with the pieced top.
Are your borders a solid fabric or the original fabric print?
Please post pictures. Thanks

fireworkslover - If you open these links I'll explain
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-27510-1.htm
The first two (Pirouettes) the meander was done in Bottom Line (top and bobbbin) Cream. The feathers in the border I did with Mettler Silk Finish top, and Bottom Line Cream in the bobbin.
"Will-o'-the-Wisp" I did the meander with Bottom Line black top & bobbin, but Superior Metallic Gold top & Bottom Line bobbin.
Chrysanthoscopes I used a variegated pink/lilac Superior King Tut in the whole quilt - but I was not so happy with the main body of it. Its fine in the borders but I considered unpicking the meander as I thought it looked too "heavy", but thought the needle marks would still show so I left it.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-27510-1.htm
This one I have been quilting today - will post when the binding is finished. I have done the body of quilt with Superior Masterpiece (a dk red), and the black border is a sort of feather motif done in three colours of Masterpiece, red, orange and yellow - and I'm very happy with it.
I played around with doing something more fancy in the main quilt, but with some blocks which have more background, and others "busy" with the flowers, I decided to go again for a meander.

I know Bottom Line is marketed mainly as a bobbin thread but it really is so good for fine quilting, and there is a good range of colours too.

Thanks Sandpat - still learning, don't look too closely at the stitches - but I want to do fmq without having to trace or draw the pattern on, so there's a bit of artistic interpretation!!

No pic. yet but the original fabric is macaws,parrots, toucans and other tropical birds all sitting in green leafy foliage. Thus the title is "Parrots, Toucans, Macaws, Oh My!" There's 16 colors in the print. And the OBW effect really works, even with all those colors. Look closely at my avatar and you can find parrot heads, bodies, tails, etc. So Fun!

Thank you so much for the info. You know those designs in the border of "Chrysanthoscopes" look an awful lot like fireworks bursts... I've done very similar stitching on a black border of the first fireworks quilt challenge quilt I made.

ssshhh I meant them to look like chrysanths!!

I know and they do, but...

OH my, those OBW's are beautiful. It is not at all what I thought it was. I think I have a book for OBW's. I'll have to check my library when I get home.

FWL I would love to see more pics of your avatar quilt. I think I saw that fabric in a QS in Holland a while back - wish I'd got some now!

I can't add to what Katrine said (SHE taught me!) except to say that I do meanders in the main body, sometimes I go 'swirly' round a particular block to emphasise it. In my Turning Over a New Leaf one I posted recently, I did FMQ leafy shapes in a variegated thread but you have to look close to see it. As for the border treatments - see Katrine's! I can't come anywhere close! :D

Do you do your stitching from the front side or the back?

From the front. Having said that, this afternoon I've been quilting a chicken one with a toning variegated thread and it's the very devil to see. I'm short sighted and in the end I took my specs off and practically had my nose pressed to the quilt! My FMQ is not usually that bad but today for some reason it REALLY stinks! Oh well it's done now and luckily it tones so well it hardly shows! :D I'm going to do a couple of parallel lines round the 3" border then just got to bind it and I'll post pics. :-D

On 3 of mine I have first of all done STITD where the border joins the main body. (Know you're not "supposed" to do this, but start in the middle, but I had no problem doing it that way).
Then flipped over and quilted from the back side up - as they are wallhangings they were backed with natural muslin so much easier to get an even quilting pattern being able to see where I was going.
I've just quilted Candescence and although its a black background I did front front side up using a red. There are no rules, just whatever is the best and simplest way to do it.
I've done a 3-colour thread border treatment, I'm happy for the first go doing something like that - will post when I finish binding tomorrow.
I do think the OBWs are more challenging to quilt, because the eye is always drawn to the kaleidoscopes, and I try not to detract from them. Some of the illustrations in the books are incredible - they are so imaginatively and beautifully quilted.
I keep going back to just oogle them.

Katrine,
Do you do your FMQ from the front or the back side? Is your back a solid fabric or a print?
My first back was pieced together strips from the fabrics I used on the front. I found it fairly hard to see where to go w/ my FMQ. I did feathers (Sally Terry's book "Hooked on Feathers"). The others I've made, I purposely made the backs be a solid color fabric, so I could draw on it with my chalk and see where to go. I've done feathers on all three that are done. I'm not sure what this next one will be, prob. a meander.
Also since I have 4 different prints,on this top, the general colored areas are forest green bkgrd. w/ the fish, blue bkgrd. w/ the loons, brown for the deer and medium to forest green for the evergreen needles. Should I use like colored thread for each area? I'll have to fmq from the front since the areas kind of meander across the quilt - no specific shape for each fabric.

I have some chicken fabric too. Mine has a mass of yellow chicks 7" X 6", then a nearby group of cocks 8" X 7", all on a brown background with little tufts of green grass scattered around. Is yours the same fabric?

See above, it depends on front fabric design really. I like a very fine thread for these and sometimes it's easier to do from the back.*

Personally I wouldn't change thread colours for different areas, but would use something like Bottom Line or Masterpiece in one colour. But if you want the stitching to show more, go for a heavier weight. I would select a colour which is most dominant on the print. Then again if you have largish separate areas of colours it may be better to use different colours.

*I use natural muslin almost all the time for backs - at French prices we cannot afford to back with print (or solid!) quilt fabrics. Unless it's something small like a crib or lappy.

I'd not heard of that book by Sally Terry, and just been reading the reviews - and have just ordered it! I'm still at early stages of no-draw fmq and I'm impressed by what people have to say about it, so looking forward to having a go!

This is my fabric - for once I remembered to take a pic before I cut it! ;) :lol:

Oohh Katrine another book? :mrgreen: when you've learned you can teach me, right? 8-) :D

Kathyrn, I think I have that fabric and I never dreamed about trying a OBW with it! Oh great...another one for my list of to-dos!! :lol:

Nope they aren't the same, but could very easily be companion fabrics. My group of cocks could be pulled directly from your fabric!

I pinned safety pins around the edge of the border, so could see them from the backside. Then I knew where to stay away from when fmq the body of the quilt from the backside. I fmq the borders from the front side later. All these OBWs are wallhangings, so not so large. The largest so far has been about 4' X 6'.

Katrine,
I really like the method that Sally Terry has come up with for making feathers. I want all my stitching to look free hand not like it came from a stencil. Do lots of practicing on paper with a pencil and if you can find large enough paper so you'll be drawing the same size that you'll be stitching on your quilt - all the better. You'll probably find it's easier for you to go one direction VS another. You make the vein first, I used my walking foot for that, but you wouldn't have to. Then you start from one end and make all the feathers on one side first, then go back and do the other side. I also like all the bazillion variations you can do to add variety to your feathers. Hope you have fun!