Early Monday morning I received a phone call from my quilty sister – she needed a baby girl quilt, STAT! Even though she is the only other person in my family who quilts, her life is so crazy that she hasn’t been able to sew barely a stitch since last August. Being the fantastic sister that I am ( 🙂 ) I said no problem.
Then she said, “btw, I need it in 13 days and I want you to do a white wholecloth quilt with that free motion stuff you do.” Hmm, now it just got a whole lot more interesting!
So I pressed a piece of Kona White, dug out some Quilter’s Dream Select white batting, and went to the store to find some Minky because a baby quilt needs that deliciously soft Minky, right? I have never used it before but this gave me the perfect opportunity.
This is a progress pic:
Before I started, I sketched out a design I thought I could work with. I have only experimented with this type of free-flow quilting one time so I thought a sketched plan would be helpful.
I practiced on a quilt sandwich before I started so I could test the tension. This is also the first time I have used Bottom Line from Superior Threads so I wasn’t sure about it. I have to say it is quilting beautifully! But I digress…. When I started on the practice piece the design just seemed to flow. At that moment I scrapped the sketch and decided to just go for it.
I chose to use just a few elements that all have curves – hearts, spirals, feathers, leaves – and fill around them with pebbles. I am trying to make sure the elements are spaced evenly throughout. For example, I don’t want an area that has too many pebbles or spirals, etc.
I am also using my stitch regulator, but only on the bigger elements. I’m in manual mode for the pebbles, that just seems to work better for me. There’s a jerkiness to the needle movement if I try to make pebbles in regulated mode.
I am using Superior’s So Fine 50# in Pastel Pink to give a bit of subtle color to the top and I absolutely love the way it looks. It gives just enough color to know it is there, but not enough for any stitching wobbles to be super noticeable.
For some reason, I was suprised to see all the texture of the stitching in the Minky. I guess I thought it would be hidden more? I don’t know why I thought that but I’m really happy with the way the texture shows:
I only have two of the corners left to quilt and then I can trim and bind. I don’t know what I’ll use for binding yet – any ideas? I’m leaning toward a light gray, but I’m not sure. I need to dig through my stash to see if I have something “just right.” If not, I’ll be making another trip to the quilt shop. They are always so happy to see us quilters walk in, right? 🙂
Linking up with Let’s Bee Social and Needle & Thread Thursday.
Wow – did that turn out great!
Looks fabulous Beth. I liked the idea of pink and white polka dots. Can’t wait to see photos of the finish.
I’m feeling a white and pink polka dot binding, but that’s just me.
This is absolutely adorable and makes me want to go quilt something right now. Thanks for the inspiration!
Beth that is just delicious quilting, do I see a bit of Christina’s class in there!! I finished watching it and loved every second of it!!
Oh my, Beth, this is scrumptious! I would have been surprised to see the quilting to well on the minky, too – it looks fantastic. I have so many thoughts on binding, but I am guessing you will either find something great in your stash or the perfect thing at your store. Have fun finishing this one up!!
Beth, this is beautiful! Your sister asked and you came through. I’ve never tried flow quilting, but I sure do love how it looks. I’m kind of surprised that all those little minky bumps disappeared on the back, but they melted right into the quilting. I’m sure this quilt will be 100% loved.
Looks fantastic Beth! I haven’t tried a whole cloth quilt yet. It looks like a lot of fun.
Gorgeous! With your quilting skills, you never have to piece again! Although I’m pretty sure you will want to . . .
Boy, you’re a champ!