My Design Process and A Few Quilts Too...

I have been really slacking in the quality blog post department, for that, I apologize!  You can really tell when I get busy around here because my posts become more "show and tell" than posts.  Well, I'm not lacking in work - and that is a true blessing - but I do want to make an effort to share a little more about my process here.

When I talk to a potential client for quilting it generally begins with a photograph.  Sometimes that photo is after the quilt is in my possession, but because I work from home and have very little open space for photography I love when folks send me a photo before hand.  Here's a photo Darlene sent me of her Seven Sisters quilt when she asked me to quilt it for her:

The next phase in the process for me is planning design.  Sometimes an idea comes to me right away - maybe I see something in the patchwork and know a quilting element that will really work well immediately.  Other times I scour books, magazine, the internet, or my own past work for inspiration.  Even more frequently I take that photo and simply play with ideas until I get hit with something that works.  Something that is REALLY important to me is to come up with my own designs.  I may borrow elements or draw from others, but I want my own work to be unique to me.

 That was really the case with this quilt of Darlene's...she always brings me the most unique designs.  I played this one for quite a while before something I really liked hit me.  If I'm really lucky - my clients like the idea too!

I use a Wacom Bamboo tablet to draw my designs onto the photograph using software that came with the tablet set.  If you do a lot of custom work it is a fantastic tool.  There are times when something I've drawn up doesn't play well when I actually get to the quilting - so I do try to leave some room for changes.  Lucky me this time everything went very smoothly!  Here's the finished quilting - not a wonderful photo I'm afraid because I took the photo late at night just to have a few before I sent the quilt home early the next morning.  In a perfect world all of the quilts I work on will have a photo shoot before they go home.  :)

I shared this quilt belonging to Wanda in my last post but I'll show you how I used this process for her quilt too - and do so for just about all of the custom quilts I work on.

It REALLY helps me to envision the quilting before I quilt it.  Planning each and every quilt can be tedious but it is tremendously helpful in not only communicating design to clients, but also seeing how things will actually look before I sew a single stitch.  I admire folks who can load a quilt with no plan start to finish and come up with something amazing - but that method just doesn't work for me!  I have way fewer "oops - that doesn't look very good" moments if I know ahead of time to some extent what the quilt will look like.  You can get an idea of what will work with the actual pieced design and what will not.

I never realized until now how fun it is either just to sort of see the before and after photos side by side!  I'm going to have to do that more!

Now something to really watch out for...is to be sure you can execute the designs you come up with.  Since you are "just drawing" on the computer it is very easy to get carried away...or forget the actual size of the patchwork you are dealing with and create a design that is ridiculously intricate.  This sort of happened to me with Jane's Dear Jane quilt:

 When I drew up the design for this quilt I wasn't thinking about the fact that her gray sashing was only about 1" wide by 6" finished...or something close to that.  Whoops.  She gently reminded me in an email and we decided to go with the intricate design despite the small sashing because it just worked so well.  But definitely creates a lot more work than it seems in real life than on a computer.  (I'd like to think the finished product was worth the extra effort!)

I have some more amazing quilts in store for you in upcoming posts.  I cannot believe some times the quilts people send to me - they are fantastic and so very beautiful!  I truly love my job!

Darlene's Feels Like Spring Quilt Finished!

I absolutely loved quilting this one!  It was so much fun thinking up different backgrounds for each of the appliqués.

The pattern is called "Feels Like Spring" by Smith Street Designs.  Darlene Gerber is the owner and top maker.

The quilt was quilted entirely with Bottom Line Thread by Superior Threads.  It is quickly becoming my go to thread for custom work.

We used a layer of Hobbs 80/20 batting layered with Hobbs Tuscany Wool on top to make the appliqué's pop.

Because of the intricate detail of the embroidery on the appliqué's there is actually NO quilting on the flowers themselves.  Luckily, there was so much detail around the small leaves and petals that I was able to squeeze in and still give a close tightly quilted feeling.   The use of double batting and a lofty wool on top helped to keep the unquilted areas very full against the densely quilted bordering designs.

This was such great fun to work on!  I'm going to guesstimate 50-60 hours quilting time with two weeks on the frame.  I moved a turtle's pace truly only finishing three or four blocks some days, only because of the wear on me with carrying baby Olivia.  :)  I think I would have moved much faster if I weren't big as a house!
I didn't start out intending on adding quite this much detail - but it was so fun and turning out so lovely I kept adding.  I think the finished quilt is fantastic!  I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to work on such a lovely quilt.

Now I am off until July but I will still be posting my own work.  I am looking forward to a few months off to enjoy baby and work on my own projects!

A Few More Appliqué Blocks

I finished a few more appliqué blocks on Darlene's floral appliqué quilt yesterday.  This quilt really is a joy to work on.  I have had a lot of questions about the pattern - it's called "Feels Like Spring" by Smith Street Designs.  It's an embroidery pattern - meaning you'll need to have an embroidery machine to create it...and after seeing all of the beautiful flower details that can be created I have to say an embroidery machine is on my Christmas list already!  The lily of the valley block below is my favorite of the entire quilt...

I have Darlene's quilt scheduled through the end of April and although I've been a madwoman getting quilts completed these past few weeks, I'm certainly feeling almost 9 months pregnant and am taking my time with this one.

I had a bit of a long and exhausting weekend and yet another coming up this weekend.  Baby Dr. appointments are now two weeks apart now and honestly, though I know they are good for baby and me both, they are a total inconvenience!  LOL  We have a busy schedule as it is and I'm so grateful I have a Husband who likes to come with me.  So we go on his days off but it is out of town and right now they mainly just measure my tummy and check her heartbeat.  I think my appointment coming up this week I will have another ultrasound to get an idea for how much she weighs - so that I am really looking forward to.

Just a few more weeks - I have a scheduled cesarean planned for the end of May, so a few more quilting posts and then hopefully I'll be able to share some photos of our newest little addition!  :)

Darlene's Kaleidescope and A Feathery Floral in Progress

Getting a lot of finishes done lately - I'm getting kind of excited at the idea of having a whole month just to clean house, organize, and work on my own quilt.  Baby comes in about six weeks!

Here's a few shots of Darlene's Kaleidescope quilt...

I had a lot of fun quilting this little one.  I want to say it's only 40 x 40?  I was able to get it done in one work day which is rare unless I'm doing an E2E or pantograph!  :)  I used Glide thread which I love for things like all overs and also straight line quilting.

Her next quilt is a lovely floral appliqué that we decided to go a little more detailed with.  For this one I'm using all Bottom Line thread in both the top and the bobbin.

More photos to come as this one will likely take me a little longer...not only is it a large quilt but there will be lots of pebbling and detail work.  I'm looking forward to it though - it feels very very summery!  :)

Simple Custom for Darlene

I'm a little behind on sharing photos of this one, but here are a few shots of the simple custom I finished for Darlene last week when Millie arrived.  I am amazed at how much easier tensioning this machine is.  If you ever began sewing on an older machine and then bought one of the newer fancier high end machines...I liken it to that experience.  Before purchasing my Juki I sewed on an old 1970's Europro, then a Simplicity Quilter's Classic and a White that my mother gifted me.  When the Juki came home, it was as if the angels were singing when it came time to tension finicky threads.  Same with Millie Mouse!

Not only is the tension easy to master and much more consistent, I am finding that having that stitch regulation allows me to work with a broader range of threads with a lot less fussing.  I have actually been using the same size needle between 40 wt. glide, metallic, 100 wt. invisifil and 100 wt. silk.  Of course I had to loosen up the bobbin tension a bit for the finer threads, but I was kind of pushing it leaving the same needle in (I only have one 3.5 left so I was trying to see if I could get away with it without having to wait for an order of new needles)...and surprisingly I had only one thread break that was more from my hastily pulling at the threads than stitching.

This was a fun quilt to work on - not terribly labor intensive so it was very enjoyable without a lot of thinking behind it...also those pretty lovely consistent stitches are great to look at!

I actually started this one on the Ulti when the handles went...so it was really fascinating to compare how much easier it was to quilt after Millie came home.

I am definitely enjoying my new machine!  :)  Working on another beautiful and giant quilt from Cindy today and as always I will share photos when I'm finished.  She has requested the pantograph Sonnet by Patricia Ritter and I - it will be my first time using it and also my first pantograph with stitch regulation - I'm very excited!

Darlene's New York Beauty - Finished!

It is always SO gratifying to FINISH!  I love that moment when you pull a quilt off the frame after looking at it and being so close to it for days, sometimes weeks.  This one I dilly dallied a bit with just because I had appointments and things to do this week...but I knew it was going to be gorgeous on both sides when finished...so it was even more incentive to get to work!

I am still working at finding a place or a way in my home to get great photographs.  I have had some complaints of them being dark or taken at odd angles - truth of the matter is I live in a very small ranch home and space is extremely limited...I cannot even begin to explain the lengths I go to attempting to get good photographs!  I know they are not all ideal, but I'm working on it!  Now that baby is coming soon we plan to do some renovation and hopefully, I'll have my own private studio area and a place to lay out quilts.  I cannot wait!

The back you know is always my favorite.  I feel like it's my stamp on the quilt.  :)  This is the part I feel like I'm good at, and where I get to show off a bit!  Above I did use some filters on Instagram to allow you to better see the texture.  Below are natural light images with no filters.

This design was much easier to draw out on the computer than it was to carry out!  Not that it was too terribly difficult, but I had to really pay attention to measurements and keeping things the same size.

After a lot of time and practice I've decided I'm just sold on using the same color in the bobbin as in the top.  Not that I won't use a thinner thread in the bobbin - but I'd just much rather watch my back tracking and bury threads than try to tension out two contrasting colors.  I think it turned out so nicely too!

My children are getting antsy and I have to make dinner, but I PROMISE a post on rulers up next!  :)

Progress on Darlene's New York Beauty

Happy Valentine's Day!  I had wanted to get farther than this today but life just got in the way.  Kids were feisty and I started cleaning up my sewing room (still didn't finish) and it seems the day just got away from me.  I am really happy with the progress though, and let's hope I can replicate those feathery rays and pearls on the opposite side as evenly spaced!  I think I will be able to manage it if I go slowly.

For minds that are curious I am using Bobbin Line thread by Fil-Tec in the creamy tan batik fabric, also in the blue, and Glide in the pink.  Bobbin Line is very comparable to Bottom Line by Superior Threads in that they are both somewhat shiny polyester and 60 wt.  I use Glide quite a bit but this is my first go with Bobbin Line.  I'm really liking it so far.  I'm sure I will use it again - my only gripe being I wish they had more colors!

Using my blue 12/13" arc I bought from Quilts on the Corner for curved cross hatching and below, the sort of feathered ray curved design with the pearls...I used Linda Hrcka's swag ruler again.  I'll try and post a photo of all the rulers I used for this when I'm done.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and hopefully you're not in the path of the blizzard!  We've got quite a bit of snow here and I'm longing for spring...  :)

Darlene's Quilt and Week Update

How was your 4th of July?  Ours was amazing!!!  We had such a good weekend spent with family and watching fireworks.  It was really nice to relax and just enjoy the beautiful weather.  Yesterday was rainy and stormy...but great weather for quilting.  :)

I finished Darlene's panel - all over feathers with a few accent borders that I went ahead and ditched so they would pop.

I used black Invisifil by Wonderfil on this which turned out really lovely - it's high contrast in some areas but Invisifil is such a delicate thread that even in the highest contrast areas it doesn't read thread.  It's great for texture or delicate soft quilting...also stitch in the ditch or anywhere you want your quilting or stitches to be hidden or less visible.  I have found that Invisifil doesn't like certain fabrics though - I had a heck of a time in the multi-color print border as well as the panel center with thread breakage...every three or four inches!!!  I loosened up the tension as much as I could while still maintaining good stitches...this was a rough one.  I will say in the future I don't think I will use Invisifil on any bonded/printed fabrics.  This quilt should have taken a day to two days tops to complete and I ended up working on it for a week.  Gah!  During my busy summer months too!!  ;)  I was able to get through it though and the end result is really lovely.  :)

In other news I'm still watching my calories and working out 5 days a week.  It's becoming a new routine.  I am 19 pounds down so far, 2 inches smaller in my waist, and I've dropped a pant size.  I won't show a full body side by side photo yet, but you can already see it in my face!  :)  Being that I've been so overweight all these years I avoid getting my photo taken, so I don't have a ton of pictures to share but here's a little side by side of me a few years ago at a wedding reception versus a photo I took (with my daughter who's not shown) a few days ago!  :)

I'm getting there!!!  :)  I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.  I see the blogs are slowing down (like mine!) what with all the summer out door activities and holidays...we are about half way through our daughters summer break and while I adore them so very much, I cannot say I'm not looking forward to having some quiet time to work on quilts again!  :)