The Underground Railroad Quilts

Hello everyone, I hope you're enjoying your summer.

A local quilt guild has sewn a lot of underground railroad quilts (pattern by Elanore Burns) and are having me quilt them, as these type of quilts appear to be my specialty.  I thought you would enjoy the photos of how some of them were done.  It's a great project to be doing in July!

This top was sewn by S. Mann.  She chose loop the loops for the background areas, longarm feathers for the outer border and "E's and L's" for the inner border with longarm feathers in the red sashing.  She also gave me "artistic license" to quilt anything I felt like in the squares themselves so I did a lot of orange peels and other motifs I learned from my HMQS class by Pam Clarke.

This quilt top was by M. McReynolds.  I really like the way the teal sashing draws in your eye.  She chose longarm feathers for the outer borders and sashing, leaves for the inner border with a background of loops to fit the quilted area.  She also gave me the same artistic license so I used some Pam Clarke techniques in the blocks as well.

This quilt top was by L. Whitemore.  She chose alternating swirls for the sashing, longarm feathers for the blue outer border and a ruler work cable for the outer border.  The blocks back-grounds were quilted with longarm feathers in the back-grounds and continuous curves over hte piecing.  It's another beautiful quilt!

This quilt was by K. Cundick.  She chose a repeating star border in the yellow areas, longarm feathered vines with swirls and stars in the outer white border and red sashing, alternating swirls in the black border, and a back-ground filler of loop the loops with stars.  It's cute.  I also liked that she had me quilt-write a dedication to her spouse and the year on it.  That saves the step of putting on a quilt label!  :)



Boat Block

Crossroads Block.  I like the orange peels in the brown squares.

Crossroads block.  It was quilting using contiuous curve in the square piecing with feathers in the triangles.  Pretty!  It's fun to see the same block quilted three different ways.

Birds in the Air Block.  I liked adding the swirls in it to mimic the wind.  This area needed something to even out the quilting and I thought this did the job nicely.  It's a lot easier to do than cross-hatching.

Monkey Wrench Block with an orange peel center, longarm feathers in the sashing and loops background filler.

This monkey wrench block features a swirl center to compliment the sashing and back-ground feathers.

Drunkard's Path Block with loop the loop background filler.

Basket Block with loop the loop background filler and orange peel center.

This flying geese unit quilt pathway was from a Fons & Porter magazine article.  I loved it and was glad to try it.

This flying geese block was quilted with continuous curve in the geese triangles with plume feathers in the outer triangles.

Dresden Plate block. I like quilting a longarm feather wreath in these circular blocks.  This feather wreath features swirls in the center brown patch. The back-ground feathers compliment the design.

This block features continuous curves in the red squares and feather plumes in the back ground.

These blocks are simple continuous curve--beautiful!

These bow ties are quilted with feathers ony in the back-ground, yet still looks luxurious.

A close-up of the rope cable border (beige) with a longarm feather border (blue).

On the other quilts, I did a wreath in the wagon wheel block.  I really like thi sone, I did an 8-pointed star in the center with swirls coming out of hte center then caught the ege of the applique using the loop the loops and star background filler.

Sometimes the simple continuous curve looks the best!

I like the clam shells in the "water" portion of this boat block.

Unloading the quilt from the frame.

Bear Paw Trail block quilted with orange peels and a alternating loop in the sashing center blocks.

So many quilts are fun to do!  It's great to see the different colorways.

Just A Few of My Favorite Things

Here is a list of a few new quilting favorites!

1. Deep Wave ruler from Off the Edge Quilting my hubby gave me for my birthday!  Look how nice and even these waves are in the border!

2.  1 1/2 inch by 2 inch wave ruler by the Westalee system with Quilter's Rule.  This is the perfect ruler for smaller waves.

3.  I always seem to use my circle templates!

4.  Using my laser pointer to trace little cute elements and place them with perfect positioning on the quilt top.  Here I traced over lines from a free coloring book page from the Internet (and modify it for correct thread paths) using the laser pointer and quilted it to the top.  Genius!  I admit it wasn't my idea...it was from my quilt club at Floyd & Lizzie's quilt shop c/o B. Bell.

5.  When they don't make the shape of template you want and you really really want that cute figure in a specific spot and don't trust your tracing abilities...spend an extra 10 to 20 cents on...yeah...a child's wood cut out from your local craft store!  No, serious--another genius idea shared at my quilt club and Floyd and Lizzie's also c/o B. Bell.  Now, you have to be careful when using wooden templates.  Quilting machine manufacturers recommend a thickness of at least 1/4 inch of templates for safety reasons--I've found templates can slip a little.  So...I have woodworking connections and get these cut out of a thicker wood.  The only draw-back is that they are not see-through (like the "professional" snowflake in the photo next to the wood templates).

6. My favorite customer's quilt in April: the stork by J. McArthur.  She chose long-arm feathers driven off the curved seam lines to wrap around the storks.  It has Minkee backing which helped the quilt puff up and 80/20 quilter's batting by Fairfield.  I want to share this photo (with her permission) because it turned out beautifully.  The variegated thread makes the whole quilt sparkle.

7. Minkee fabric for the backing.  At first, I really dreaded using Minkee, it seemed like no matter what I would encounter thread breaks and tension headaches.  Well, after playing around and adjusting my settings (and writing them down) I no longer have troubles with it.  Look how beautifully the stitch detail shows up on this backing--and it is so soft an warm!

My Daughter's Birthday Quilt

Several years ago, a friend of mine gave me her leftover 1 1/2 inch strips that she used to create a 1930's log cabin quilt.  After playing around with them, I created this quilt for my daughter's birthday.  It is an original pattern and I hope you like the pictures!  Perhaps when I get some time, I'll post the pattern here for you!  Let me know if this interests any of my readers.

 For many years, I have admired quilts where simple quilted background designs appear in the muslin or not-pieced areas (I call these the negative space areas).  Although the piecing is the focal point of the quilt, extra effort in the non-focal point areas always added value to the quilt.

At the time, I was new to machine quilting and did not possess the skill to trace a negative space design in the muslin areas, but I knew I could do small scale back-ground fillers around it.  To quilt this project, I first marked the area for the flower negative space design.  I then loaded it on the frame and did loop-the-loops with hearts in the pink borders and patchwork areas and did a small scale stipple in the muslin.  Because I had learned to quilt first using a domestic sewing machine, I took the quilt off the frame.  Then, after changing my domestic sewing machine to it's walking foot, slowly went around the drawn on negative space design.  I was pleased how well it turned out.  The design was able to be followed with perfect accuracy.