Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Swirling

My very favorite free motion quilt design is a loopy swirl.  Or as my friend has named it, my "signature" design ... Ha ha!  

Free motion is my favorite type of quilting and when I'm quilting just to give a quilt texture, I want something easy flowing, fairly speedy and simple.  I really love a basic stipple, fairly close together. 

If you look at antique or older quilts, they are not filled with detail quilting.  The quilting usually fairly simple.  I think that's why I love a stipple because it just reminds me of simpler times.  It also could be because I spent lots and lots of time learning to stipple and getting it right.  That is by far the hardest quilting design ever ... It is hard to get the flow and the curl right ... Mine always used to look so jerky.  I finally got it right when I started thinking of them as puzzle pieces ... That's what I imagine when I'm quilting ... As if I am trying to lay each curve as if it could fit into the curve below or beside it.

Anyway, my loopy swirl is my go to quilting design for many reasons.  It looks simple, but not too simple ... And in the case of this quilt which was for a child, the stitching keeps the quilt together and will hold up well to wear and tear.

It took me a little while to pick a color.  I likes all four of these thread colors ... 

Hot pink, turquoise blue, bright yellow and a bright red.    The pink was not the right color ... I liked the blue and the yellow, but didn't think they really did much for the quilt.  The red was a different kind of red, and not much goes with it ... But when I laid the color on the quilt, that was it!
 
I'm really happy with the way the color shows, and my customer loved it too.  It was really a fun quilt to quilt because all those little cats kept peeking at me ..  Look at that fabric!  Who couldn't smile when you see that?
There are some quilts that are just a pure joy to quilt, and this was one of them!

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