My last custom finish of 2020 was on this fabulous quilt made by my friend and customer Kit. I always get excited when I see Kit’s quilt coming up in my queue. She uses so many fabulous fabrics and tells me to ‘have fun’ with the quilting. And boy, do I have fun! LOL

For this quilt, I used free motion, rulers, and a bit of robotics in a portion of the blocks. I was in quilting heaven!

I started with the top border first. I’ve always wanted to stitch this particular design but needed to wait on just the right quilt to come along. I have no idea what the name of the design is. I’ve seen it on Pinterest a few times and probably even saved it to one of my idea boards. It really wasn’t too hard to figure out how to stitch it. I used my 9″ straight ruler from Green Fairy Quilts and did some minimal marking with chalk. If you want more detailed info on how I quilted it out I’ll be happy to write a post with more specific instructions.

The quilting really pops because of the wool batting we used. Quilter’s Dream wool is one of my favorite batts – it gives so much dreamy texture and feel great when the quilt is wrapped around me.

This is the only block I used my computer to help with. It stitched the center flower design and I filled around it with the pebbles. I was really happy with the way it turned out.

Filling in all that background space can be a little intimidating. I started by sketching a bit in my notebook, just to warm up the brain a little. Some days (um, most days) my brain needs a bit of a kickstart to get going. 🙂 I chose about five or six designs and repeated them throughout the entire quilt. I filled in with pebbles and used them to travel from one area to another. I tried to keep the spacing of the designs pretty consistent over the quilt, but didn’t get real OCD about it. After all, this is suppose to be fun and I wanted to have fun with this quilt. And I did!

It took me 8 days to quilt and another 2 to trim and bind. A little too long, but all that quilting can really stress a body. I had to take lots of breaks to give my back a rest. When I first started I could stitch for a few hours before taking a short break to stretch my back and shoulders. By the last two days I was stitching about 30 minutes and then breaking for about 60-90. Longarming can be pretty physical!

I love the finish on this quilt and so did the owner. It always warms my heart to see the reactions when customers see their quilts after they are quilted. It’s why I do what I do!

I hope all of you enjoyed a wonderful holiday and wish everyone a healthy, peaceful, safe, and prosperous 2021. I also hope all your quilty wishes come true! 🙂

TTYL,
Beth