Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Six years of marinating

This quilt has been marinating in my closet for six years almost exactly! It's been pieced that long and patiently(or impatiently) waiting for me to make up my mind how I wanted to quilt it.  Last week it came out to whisper to me "please quilt me, pretty please", so guess what, I listened!!!  

I had remembered seeing this quilt all quilted prettily by a fellow longarmer. I was sure I had saved her photo on my computer for inspiration, I did, but it took me a couple of days to find it. And I didn't want to copy hers exactly, but to use it for a guideline, which I did.

The pattern is Four Square by Cozy Quilt Design. The fabric was a Kansas Trouble Jelly roll called Autumn Journey.  At 81"x81" it took me a couple days to custom quilt it, but I love how it came out. Here is how I chose to quilt it.



I used an arc ruler to make the spine for the freehand lettuce leaf feather. No backtracking on these feathers which is the way I like it!  I used a tan Mother Goose Signature thread.


Quilters Rule nested circles came in handy for making all the rings in the center design, you follow along the outside edge of the circle with your hopping foot.  The pebble circles  between the rings are freehanded.






The inspiration for the big green border came from fellow blog buddy Beth at Cooking Up Quilts.  As I told Beth I had seen this type of border before but have never tried it, and when she showed hers recently it just grabbed me and said put me on a quilt!  Thanks for the inspiration Beth!   I used a big green template for the spine of the lettuce leaf feather. I used school chalk in a holder to draw on the quilt gently to determine if the scallop repeat would fit nicely on the border and it did, no fudging! School chalk will just wipe off the fabric when you need it to. I stitched the spine corner to corner on one border from left to right and stitched the U turns going back to the left. Then I broke the thread and stitched the second spine from right to left and started the lettuce leaf feathers stitching back to the right. Each green border was stitched in this order on my trusty Nolting Funquilter 17" using stitch regulator when using the templates, but the feathers and U turns are all freehand.

The circles in the red border are made using another Quilters Rule inside nested circles. These you put your hopping foot in the center and go around the circle.



 Thread used-Mother Goose Signature, red Glide, green Molly Polly.  Templates used- Quilters Rule Nested inside circles, Nested Circles, Renae's Amazing Arc, Deloa Jones castle(for SID). And the school chalk in it's yellow holder.   I am not advertising for any one, just sharing what worked for me on this quilt.


Rob's Ruler for making the spine for the feather/U turns.  I have had this ruler a long time and it is my understanding this company is not in business any more.

Linking up with other bloggers for inspiration at some of the linky parties on the left side bar.

22 comments:

  1. Wow! Must have been a great marinade :) This is gorgeous Vicki.

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  2. Love it Vicki especially the lettuce leaf feathers. All the designs work so well together. Great finish.

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  3. Beautiful quilting, Vicki! It really makes this quilt design shine.

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  4. Wonderful!!!! All that waiting time paid off!!! Have 'pinned' your ideas......beautifully executed!!!!!!!!

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  5. There's something to be said for marinating! Your quilting is beautiful, with so many inspirational ideas. I love all the circles you added against all that straight piecing, and those lettuce leaf feathers are fantastic - I can't wait to practice those! Thanks for sharing the tools you used. I'm going to find those circle rulers!

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  6. This turned out really nice, Vicki. So cool that you used Beth's design in the border. I have some quilts marinating too, but much longer than yours. Hehe.

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  7. So, so lovely!! Your quilting enhances this beautiful pattern perfectly, Vicki. I always wonder why more folks don't use that gorgeous lettuce leaf motif.

    And thank you for sharing the little details of how you stitched this. I love reading the specifics of which direction you were going and when you broke thread! I guess that makes me a real quilt nerd :)

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  8. This is so pretty! What a great pattern.

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  9. Vicki, that is just gorgeous! Your quilting really makes the quilt. I would guess that you have learned a lot about quiilting and perfected your skills in the last 6 years, and that's why that quilt had to wait!

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  10. Beautifully done, Vicki...I have that nested set of Quilter's Rule circles & I've struggled to make them nice. Yours are gorgeous & so are the leaf/molar feathers. I need to try those!
    I think this came out really, really nice...are you keeping it for yourself???

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  11. p.s. Yes, just like Louise said above me, I, too greatly appreciated reading about the PROCESS you went through to get the beautiful designs! THANKS!

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  12. just gorgeous! I have that circle ruler set, hmm need to play with it now with my new machine

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  13. You do incredible quilting! Love the patter, fabric and your finishing.

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  14. Your quilting makes the quilt. It looks great!

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  15. What a beautiful quilt. Your quilting is just gorgeous!

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  16. Your custom quilting on this is amazing. I don't know what I like better, the feathers or the circles and pebbles. Thanks for sharing what templates you used.

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  17. The quilting is wonderful. I particularly like your feather that, as you say, you don't have to backtrack. The whole is just gorgeous.

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  18. Gorgeous gorgeous quilting Vicki! I am going to bookmark this post for inspiration. I saw Beth's feathers and thought, yes, gotta do! Love the lettuce leaf feathers too--I miss Avril, waah! Where did you get your Nested Circles? I ordered some last year but going around the outside is just not working for me...

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  19. Beautiful quilt and your quilting adds that extra special touch Vicki! Feathers are so neat and I like the circles on the white sections!

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  20. What a great quilt, and the quilting really sets it off nicely.

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