A couple of weeks ago I showed you the beginning of a quilt I was working on, and it’s come together very quickly and easily (I love it when that happens!). The pattern really is just a bunch of rectangles made into blocks, and then squared them up at wonky angles. I’m glad I broke down and bought the book for $4.99 because as simple as this quilt looks, I never would have figured out the correct angles without it. It was definitely money well spent!
I still have to put together the back (it’s not going to be fancy, but I have an extra block and I do want to personalize the quilt with the bride and groom’s names) but that doesn’t worry me much. I am, however, a little stumped on the quilting.
This isn’t a full view of the quilt – it's actually longer and wider. But it definitely has the "dancing bars" effect that I was going for because my friend loves dancing, so I now want the quilting to also capture that vitality.
I’m really undecided on how to quilt it, though. I could go with something simple and easy, like an allover meandering stipple, but I feel like I’m moving past that a little bit. Swirls, maybe? Or possibly interlocking blocks? Whatever I choose, I want it to exude movement.
When I don’t know how I want to approach a project like this, there are a few resources that I like to turn to:
“First Steps to Free-motion Quilitng” by Christina Cameli is a great book even if you’re not a beginner. The section of hand-drawn free-motion designers is super-valuable and it has plenty of inspiration for how to pair projects and quilting designs.
Quilting Goddess Angela Walters has written many books and all of them are great. I really like “Shape by Shape” though because she approaches quilting as a task of filling in defined shapes, rather than tackling one big quilt at once. There are so many possibilities!
I’ve purchased two great classes from Craftsy which are full of great ideas and practical strategies. The first one is “Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot” by Jacquie Gering and it teaches tons of techniques you might never have imagined you could do with your walking foot. She also now has a follow-up class on quilting with a walking foot, though I haven’t taken it (though I imagine it’s fabulous as well).
The second class I took though Craftsy is by Christina Cameli, author of the book above and it’s called “The Secrets of Free-motion Quilting.” It’s absolutely mesmerizing watching Christina at work and she’s such a warm, engaging teacher you can’t help but feel you can tackle the quilting world after taking her class. She also has a follow-up class offering to this one, but I haven’t taken it.
Surely between all of those sources I’ll come up with something, right?!? Let’s hope!