Today I want to share with you a lovely quilt pieced by Judy & Pearl, two ladies in one of our local quilt guilds. This quilt will be donated to our local Women’s Care Center where it will be auctioned to raise funds to support women’s health.

When Judy asked me to quilt this top I was pleased to do so. She asked that I do an all-over meander. Of course I said yes. Then she asked if I could work in the breast cancer awareness ribbon. I said sure thing. Then I came home and started stressing just a bit. I put off working on the quilt because I was afraid I would mess it up. But then I decided I needed to just do it. Before I could start though, I needed to figure out how I was going to work in that ribbon.

I found this free pantograph from Urban Elementz, and it gave me a starting point. It has too many curlicues for my taste, but I studied it to see how they worked the ribbon into the rest of the design.

I’ll admit I’m not very good at using pantographs. I don’t like working from behind my machine, I don’t like not seeing the quilt top as I’m quilting, and I’m lousy at keeping curves curvy and round when using the laser light to trace the design. I can make beautiful curves when I’m not trying to trace something. So I decided I would draw the ribbon a few times until I was comfortable with it and then just jump in and freehand the stitching. And I think it turned out ok. Here’s one of the ribbons I stitched:

I’m pretty pleased with the way it looks. The ribbons don’t all look the same, and there are a couple I’m not totally happy with, but overall the quilting looks good. My best friend is always telling me I stress too much when I work on quilts for people. But seriously, is there such a thing as stressing too much when it comes to quilting for someone who is paying me good money to do so? I think not. What do you think?

The back of the quilt is almost as pretty as the front.

This was the first time I’ve had to work with a backing that had so many seams. There are 16 long seams and 2 short, vertical seams. I loaded the back so that the seams ran horizontal and parallel to the bars on the frame. Doing this meant I had to load the quilt sideways, with the top of the quilt to my left and the bottom to my right. I was able to keep the top centered on the back AND keep all those seams pretty darn straight. I gave myself a pat on the back for that! And the next time I get a pieced back like this I can maybe not worry so much about it since I’ve already quilted one successfully. 🙂

I hope you have enjoyed reading a little about this quilt and the process of quilting it. Next up is a custom job on a wall hanging that started with my Star Bright pattern and ended with Lynne adding her own flair to it. I’m super excited to start the quilting and can’t wait to share it with you. For sneak peeks, you can follow me on Instagram where I’ll be posting in progress shots.

Have a great week!