Hello Friends,

I hope that you’re all doing well. The holiday quilting rush is well underway over here, and Christmas will be here before we know it. I still have a few spots available, if you need something quilted. Please keep in mind if you’re planning on shipping a quilt, to send it as soon as possible. USPS shipping times are even slower this year. Please email me for questions or to get on my quilting list. quiltingit@gmail.com

Back in July I quilted this fabulous quilt that Beverlee made, beautiful huh?!?! The pattern is by Joanna from Fig Tree and Co. and is called Sea Glass. She actually has a couple of the full kits available. She did it as a block of the month. It’s such a beautiful pattern! The following pictures just don’t do this quilt justice.

I love it when my clients have me custom quilt quilts like this one, and just say do whatever you think will look good. That gives me the opportunity to be creative as I quilt, and not worry about planning out the entire quilt. There are definitely times when I draw out what I’m going to quilt on a block that is repeated throughout the quilt. When it came to this quilt, I knew that I wanted to use my Circle²™ machine quilting circle rulers, that are available in my shop, and the 8” Edge ruler from Linda at The Quilted Pineapple. Then I just look at the size of the blocks and start quilting. If you actually look at the individual lines or curves, they are very simple shapes, yet together they look great! One little orange peel petal linked to another, creates a chain through the corners to the block that is diagonal to it. Which frames the unique quilt blocks beautifully. That was my plan going into quilting the “chain blocks” or the repeated quilt blocks, because they were every other block. It’s also nice to have a repeated block, because not only can I quilt the same design out on each block, it helps create a beautiful overall design.

I love to take progress pictures to post on my instagram, which Beverlee was so excited to see. Go follow me there, and check out my stories for pictures or videos, as I quilt.

I love a good angled picture. Even though you can’t see the entire quilt, you can see all the beautiful quilting shapes and textures. Quilting brings a quilt alive, and I feel so bless to be able to do this for my clients.

I used bamboo batting from Winline Textiles out of Ogden, Utah and Natural White Omni thread from Superior Threads.

Here is a straight on picture of several of the blocks. When I quilt the single blocks, that are not repeated anywhere, I do a lot of similar shapes which helps bring the overall design together while highlighting the shape of the block itself.

I love how simple lines mixed with curves, add just the right amount of detail to a quilt block, like these blocks. With a lot of the horizontal or vertical lines I quilted, there is a 1/2” spacing.

These blocks are some of my favorites!! On a quilt like this one, that is mostly quilted with rulers, I love to add some freehand loops or petals. It helps soften the near perfect lines and curves that are quilted with the rulers that I use. Like pictured below.

Lets talk borders…I love a good pieced border, why??? Because look at these fun details. It’s a great way to frame a quilt, and sometimes that comes with multiple borders…like the 4 you can see below. Yes, I’m considering the row with the half “chain blocks”, as the first inner border. Having those half blocks completes the overall look of the quilt. I was a little perplexed on what to do in the solid rectangular background. So perplexed, I quilted everything else and then just starred at it for a moment. Ultimately going with squares that are the same size as the 9 patch block. I personally think, those simple squares allow the quilting to breath a little. It helps define the space and blocks that surround them a little more, too. I quilted the half “chain blocks” the same as the full blocks in the quilt. The 9 patch blocks are quilted the same on each of the four corners. The rest of the borders just get better and better, as they go out to the edge. In the 2nd inner border I used my 4” Circle²™ ruler, I did make sure that the corner was going to be angled like so. So that is looks complete. My favorite way to quilt flying geese is with four simple lines, crisscrossing and spaced 1/2” apart. Which adds some fun details…and straight lines…to all those beautiful curves. I love mixing the lines with the curves. They harmonize so well together. I used Linda’s 8” Edge ruler, linked above, for those lines too. Next, the orange peel petals link the background of the flying geese to the solid background. If I remember right I quilted the scallops first with my 4” Circle²™ ruler, then went back and used my 3” Circle²™ ruler for all the orange peel petals. I used a water soluble pen to mark a dot inside each curve, so that I had a reference point. Then I quilted the peels continuously, by quilting the top petals, and then coming back and quilting the bottom. When I custom quilt and move the machine from right to left, it helps to quilt down or up to help avoid the thread from breaking. Yes, I have my needle turned to 5:30. Quilting right to left just puts a lot of stress on the thread, and it can break sometimes. That’s all the details about the borders.

For the “chain block”…the only repeated quilt block in the center of the quilt, I used my 2”, 3”, and 4” Circle²™ rulers. Which are the same three Circle²™ rulers that I used to quilt all the curves throughout the quilt. I used the 2” ruler to quilt all the small orange peel petals, which create the beautiful diagonal links. I used the 4” ruler on the inside of the center square, and the 3” Circle²™ ruler to quilt the curves in the rectangular blocks. I also used Linda’s Edge ruler to quilt a couple of elongated X’s in the bigger background that is rectangular. You can see a couple of these blocks pictured above.

Here are the three rulers that I used. 2”, 3”, and 4”. As you can see, the 2” ruler also has an 8” circle on the outside. The 3” has 9” on the outside, and the 4” has 10”. Each of my Circle²™ rulers have two different circles per ruler, which means that there are twelve difference sizes of circles. Ranging in size from 2” to 13”. It’s such a versatile set of rulers. My Circle²™ rulers are made in America with high quality 1/4” acrylic. The 1/4” lines help with measuring while quilting, and I even used those straight ends sometimes to quilt a short line or in the ditch while I’m using the circle ruler. I also created these with the 1/4” hopping foot in mind. When means when you quilt out a 2” circle with the 2” ruler, your circle will actually be 2”. Other rulers that I’ve seen or used in the passed always gave me circles a 1/2” too big or too small. For more info check out this blog post.

- Design Patent D875,574 -

My Circle²™ rulers come in clear or green (as pictured). The green set is a little easier to see on lighter fabrics. If you’ve used clear rulers, they would work great for you as well. I used them both equally, it truly a matter of preference.

- Design Patent D875,574 -