One day I was visiting our guild Charity Bee and grabbed this quilt top to quilt……
It looked nice and easy, but it sat in my “to-do” basket for almost a year because I simply couldn’t figure out HOW to quilt it.
In this video, we look at my process and also see a bit of the quilting.
It is a great start and the quilting should go pretty quickly.
Crisis averted!!
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For Free-Motion Quilting ideas, be sure to check out my YouTube channel…… https://www.youtube.com/c/francesquilts/videos
My Mandala project was started in January of 2024, hot on the heels of my “Grid Quilting” project in 2023.
To me, the mandalas were simply an extension of that project. I was still quilting on a grid, but the grid went around in circles!
At first, I despaired of being able to come up with 12 mandala designs, but I quickly got into a groove and enjoyed designing them each month.
I learned a lot along the way.
I love the “peacock” feel of number 12….
I have a “Quilt-As-You-Go” planned for finishing this quilt up, so stay tuned for that!!
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Yesterday I posted about the “Finally Finished” exhibit at the International Quilt Festival.
The gist is a woman who takes antique quilt tops from unknown makers and quilts them to “Finally Finish” them.
Well, I have a quilt top that my Grandmother made…..
You can’t tell it from this photo, but the sashing fabrics are little blue frogs!! SUCH FUN!!!
I have no idea when the top was made, but my mom gave it to me back in the 1990’s. (Granny passed away in the early 1970’s).
It has been part of my “UFO” box for all of these years because I was uncomfortable finishing the quilt by machine. And, I knew that I would NEVER finish it with hand quilting.
After seeing this exhibit, and seeing how wonderful the finished quilts are, I am thinking that I might plan to finish it with free-motion quilting.
What do you think? Is this a valid way to finish an old top??
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Do you struggle to decide what to quilt in your blocks? If so, check out my FREE series…..
Back in February, I was making headway on my scrap projects when I ran across a stack of teal-ish fabrics. I quickly left the project that I was working on and made this top instead…..
The top sat in my studio all year and now….the last few days of 2024, it is time to quilt it!!
I am happy with the quilting on this one…
and am looking forward to trying a new binding technique on it…….. Wish me luck!!!
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Yesterday, I left you with the completed top….
I got it basted and sat down to do the quilting…..but where to begin?
My original plan was to video the quilting, but with the matching thread, you couldn’t see ANYTHING that I was doing….
….so….scratch that plan!!
I wanted to continue the flower theme so decided to work with Angela Walters “Petunia” ruler…..
If you use it correctly, it makes a fun flower!!….
I wanted to keep the quilting continuous, so I chose to quilt the flowers in a line.
I added the swirl in the center and the prongs leading out to the petals.
In the lower section, I wanted to do something different so just quilted parallel straight lines…..
That just left the center flowers!!
I outlined the flowers and leaves, going around each piece twice. I think that the double stitching will help secure the appliques for the long term.
…and in the background, I quilted the design that I call “You-turn”….
I am delighted with the quilt and am thinking about turning it into a pattern…what do you think?
Then, it was time to make the label. I printed the label, using a picture of the flowers on the quilt…..
To ship it, I rolled it into a cute roll, folded the label over and added my note…..
It is now winging its way to Kentucky, hopefully to be a comfort to a sweet little girl!!
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If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..