Sneak peek of quilting with high contrast thread

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12-08-2018, 05:51 AM

#21

anonymous

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I always anticipate amazing when I click on your posts and again, you did not disappoint. I just wish I knew how you start a quilting project like this. Does it evolve, or do you plan it all out on paper first? My brain does not work in the "big picture" like yours does. Simply gorgeous.

12-08-2018, 05:54 AM

#22

sewbizgirl

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Looks totally amazing!

12-08-2018, 07:53 AM

#23

luvstoquilt

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Join Date: Feb 2011

Location: Yorkville, IL

Posts: 7,639

What beautiful work. I absolutely admire what you do and your patience to do it! I hope it wins a lot of ribbons!

12-08-2018, 08:03 AM

#24

feline fanatic

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Quote:

Originally Posted by summitbay

A bit of both actually but I definitely want a solid game plan before I load any quilt on the rack and I do mark quite a bit. I seem to always gravitate towards themes on a quilt and once I come up with a theme I tend to run with it. I first stand and stare at the top for as long as it takes (sometimes several sessions!) until ideas start coming to me. Sometimes they hit me like a ton of bricks right away and other times it takes a lot of SAS (stand and stare). Which is ok because I love looking at the tops and taking in all the pretty fabrics and designs. Things I try to keep in mind when I go through SAS is where a motif can be replicated, how often and how does it tie in with the rest of the quilt. Does it unify it and help compliment it? If the answer is no, I scrap that idea and try to come up with something else. Sometimes I will load the quilt when I only have the bare bones in my mind and let the details flow as I am working. I take ques from fabrics used, block designs, setting and amount of quilting space while always trying to keep in mind my limitations, budget, likes and dislikes (if it is a client quilt) if the quilt is a gift and if quilting should have significance to the giftee (again, theme) and what I am capable of achieving with the tools and skill set I have, again if I draw it first I know I am capable of quilting it, especially if I mark it.

This quilt is very Asian (a favorite of mine) with Asian fabrics and the design of the piecing so I had my theme. I knew I definitely wanted to stick with motifs and designs that had an Asian theme to them.

I do always start with sketches on paper, especially on quilts that have a lot of negative space for quilting, like this one. I will draw a very rough draft of the quilt on graph paper, or sometimes a photo of the quilt printed out on copy paper and lay a piece of tracing paper over that to test some ideas. I will also do this with individual blocks. I look on line (Pinterest mostly) to see if other quilts like it will spark some ideas and also look to some of my favorite quilters for inspiration like Judi Madsen of Green Fairy, Bethanne Nemish, Margaret Solomon Gunn, and so many others including members of this board like cat on a mac, Harriett, Charismah and others. Believe me, this stuff wouldn't come without inspiration from all the other generous quilters who so freely share their work on the internet. Which is a big reason why I try to share my processes and tools used to help others a pay it forward if you will. I also look at books that have motifs in them like Dover publications books or books authored by other longarm quilters that have motifs like Karen McTavish, Sue Heinz, Gina Perkes and so many others. And also clip art images from the internet that are simple line drawings easily replicated in quilting (the peonies in the fan for example were a clip art I cut and paste into a word document then adjusted the size until I got the size I needed)

Because there was so much negative space in the two opposing corners of the quilt I wanted to do something that would take up that space while complimenting all the other elements in the quilt. I also knew from experience that it is darn near impossible to see black thread on black background so asked the quilt's owner if she was ok with high contrast thread that pulled color from the fabrics (red, gold, peach, etc) which would also make the quilting a major design element of the quilt.

The overlapping fans in the corners were inspired by a sashiko design out of the book "Sashiko Designs" by Sylvia Pippen. So I took my sketch and put the overlapping fan shapes in the corners but was at a loss as to how I would fill the fans. That would come later. Overlapping fans looked good on the sketch so then I went on to figure out what to do everywhere else. I knew I needed continuity and didn't want to do anything more with fans so looked to Judi Madsen's ruler work. I knew I wanted a floral motif in the middle of the ruler work and the diamonds and floral evolved as I was marking my "bone lines" (which you can see just under the stencil motif picture). As an aside, those diamonds also evolved in the marking process in size and shape with lots of measuring marks and having them disappear behind pieced elements and continue when the background fabric reappeared.

The detail designs in the diamond evolved after I already loaded the quilt and that also involved drawing out the diamond full size on paper and experimenting with dividing lines and fills. Drawing serves two purposes for me. First it gives me a solid plan of what to do and second it allows me to figure out my thread paths so I can do as much as possible continuously without having to constantly have starts and stops in the quilting. It allows me to figure out where I can backtrack and if the motif is freehand it gives me muscle memory for stitching it out.

The stencil motif was serendipity. I was marking the quilt and had these two big open corners and had no idea what to put there. I glanced up at my stencils hanging on the peg board and decided to shuffle through them as I knew I had some Asian motif ones in there. Came across the magnolia blossom stencil (in the perfect size no less!) and thought, may as well audition it as chalk is easy enough to brush away if I don't like it. Chalked it on and loved how it seemed to tie right into everything else. I did a feather spray in black thread behind it as I didn't want to take away from the high contrast stencil but knew I needed to have quilting in the negative space behind it. That also was figured out on the fly, I had also considered fills like pebbling mixed with swirls, leaves and vines and a meander. The feather spray won out when I quickly marked it with chalk and was pleased with the result and the density of the quilting was just right. At that time the stencil was already quilted.

With all of the above, it also helps me to know when custom quilting shouldn't even be considered and a panto or all over end to end design is perfectly appropriate. I have often been surprised when I viewed a picture of a completed quilt and E2E looked fabulous on something I would have thought should be custom.

12-08-2018, 08:16 AM

#25

Teen

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Join Date: Dec 2017

Location: Southwest Idaho

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Amazing work....just beautiful..

12-08-2018, 08:17 AM

#26

A1penny

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Location: Long Island/Beechhurst, NY

Posts: 1,295

I am in awe and breathless looking at your amazing work!

12-08-2018, 08:44 AM

#27

anonymous

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Thanks for your explanation. It would be easy to think that you are so artistically gifted that the quilting just flows. That is only partly true, in that you put the brain work into it too. I am sure many hours go into your quilts and more than getting it on your frame and turning on your machine. Just know that I study your quilts and always try to learn from them. I appreciate you sharing and would love to be a fly on the wall in your studio. You are very talented, but I know you put the work and time in to get to this point. Please share when finished.