Marla’s amazing Steam Punk quilt!

Aug 1

It’s always a treat to custom quilt, quilts like this one. Marla made this amazing Steam Punk quilt, pattern by Jen Kingwell.

I love the pops of color with the scrappy low volume background, and the black sashing...such a striking combination.

Marla requested a custom quilting design. When I can, I draw out the shape of the block on grid paper, and then sketch one or two options. This was my favorite of the two, that I sent to Marla. It translated so well from a drawing to quilting.

I used a 30 tex Perma Core thread from A&E called Antique Cream. I also used my favorite Winline 8020 cotton/poly blend batting.

I also wanted to keep the sashing simple, because it was an 1” wide, and I wanted it to frame the quilt nicely. I couldn’t be more pleased with it. I love the four pointed star in the intersecting corners. On the back side of the quilt it looks amazing. (See pictures below)

In the past, I haven’t loved quilting the on point triangle blocks that fill in the edges on a quilt that is designed on point...that is until I started doing ruler work and adding some interest to an otherwise plain part of the quilt. This is a new take to a curve design that I’ve done several times. 1” lines crisscrossing to create a 4” grid. Which actually mimics the four 1/2” grid in the center on each block. I love tying the same design in different ways, on the same quilt. It creates cohesion in the quilting design.

I always love a good angled picture of a quilt to show all that texture.

This is the block that I quilted in the video below.

The purpose of this video, is to show the process of quilting a block custom as continuously as possible, and how I went about it. I love watching the ruler twist about as I quilt. That is what works for me. I twist it like that so I can use the lines on the ruler and not have to make a single mark on the quilt. I love The Edge rulers from Linda at The Quilted Pineapple!! I’m using her 16” Edge here. To check out her awesome rulers go to: https://thequiltedpineapple.bigcartel.com/

Hope that helps to see how I go about custom quilting this block. One of the reasons I don’t quilt over a previously quilted line or go into the ditch and make my way to the last background that I couldn’t quilt continuously, is because my personal quilting style is to keep my quilting as clean as possible. Excess quilting detracts from the overall design I want the quilting to have on a quilt. I would much rather stop and start one extra time.

The overall design is pretty great, if you ask me. It shows great on the back as well...

It’s always fun for me to see how the custom quilting in the blocks and sashing on the quilt top, turn out on the backing. This one didn’t disappoint. I love the echoed 4 pointed star in the sashing, I didn’t see the outside layer until I looked at the back, after it was all quilted.