Friday, June 1, 2012

Tulips–enhance the design with quilting

FriedaAndersonTulips
Sometimes I just can’t help myself and quilt every little bit of a quilt. I like that too. Did you know that I am a Gemini, I can change my mind at any time, no notice required.

So quilting Tulips was fun. The first thing I did was to out line all the straight edges on this quilt. I quilted, stitch in the ditch right next to but not on top of the stems of the flowers. I do this with a straight stitch and the feed dogs up, letting the machine "walk" along the straight edge.

I discovered a long time ago that I like quilting in layers when possible. So when I started quilting Tulips I laid out my design and then pulled all the top layers off of the quilt surface and just started with the Tulip leaves and stems.
11fourtulip_fa
11fivetulip_fa
  • Once I finished all the straight quilting, I dropped my feed dogs and switched to free motion quilting and outline quilted the green leaves around the tulips.
  • Then I fused on the green leaves behind the little flowers on the bottom and outlined stitched around  those free motion.
  • IMG_2781
  • I like to do as much as I can in the same color thread before I switch to another color, so I am always thinking about what colors and what I want to quilt.
  • When I was done with all the green, I switched the color of my thread and outline quilted around the tulip flower heads free motion.
  • IMG_2780
  • I fused down the small flowers at the bottom, and switched out my color again and machine quilted around the flower heads on the bottom of the quilt.
  • Once I have all the “design” elements (the flowers and leaves) quilted, then I think about the background and border quilting.
  • For Tulips I just did a plain stipple quilting in the background area.
  • And for the border I quilted a little flower and leaf design. I could only make the flowers + leaves in the wide open areas of the border and had do just the little leaf design down around the flowers at the bottom.
  • And I ALWAYS machine quilt my name in the bottom of the quilt.
I love the way the quilting makes the “design” elements  in this quilt pop up.

4 comments:

Frieda Anderson said...

Daryl asked what kind of thread I used to quilt Tulips.

I use all kinds of thread, but for that little quilt I used Madeira rayon around all the design elements, YLI silk for the stippling behind the tulips and a variegated cotton (I think) for the border from Superior.
I always use a thin 50 or 60 wt matching cotton thread in the bobbin.
Thanks for asking.
Fondly

Rhonda said...

Outstanding, as always & the tutorial is very informative. Thank you for sharing.

Susan Turney said...

Hi Frieda,
I received my fabric I ordered from you and it's even more yummy than expected! I LOVE IT.
Yesterday on the Quilting Daily website there was a whole cloth quilt shown in orange that has inspired me to try to do something with a long strip of the fabric. Here's a link but I can't seem to get the photo of the whole thing.
http://e1.interweave.com/dm?id=A963544C38BD4591F4C2A44B072A9A53B619E5D9368D54D6
Maybe you saw it. Anyway, thank you again for the great blog and opportunity so purchase your gorgeous fabrics!
Susan

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

How beautiful! Your stitching adds so much and is perfect!

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