Thursday, March 21, 2013

Texture Quilting

As a longarm quilter, I am always asked if I do a ton of extraordinary quilting on my personal quilts.  And my response is usually "Oh, heck no!".  I answer that way partly because my quilts are usually used to wipe popcorn butter from my hands but mainly because I just really love the look of a simple repeating texture on a quilt.

Thought I would share with you some of my favorites...


For quilts that are linear either horizontally or vertically, I love straight line quilting.  And spacing the lines at slightly different widths really adds a huge amount of interest.

Even though this quilt was made from my scrap bin, the simple quilting gives it a very contemporary look.  You can see more pictures here.







I also like the look of straight line quilting spiraling into itself.

The blocks on this quilt were free form so the straight line quilting created its own pattern that had nothing to do with the block placement.








If the quilt has curved piecing, sometimes simple curved quilting is all you need.  I used a high contrast red thread on this one to add whimsy.

This quilt is one of mine and can be found here for sale.It really needs a home!






Here is a quilt I just finished for a customer where I just spiraled in and slightly rounded the corners.  I quilted rectangles with one going up/down, the next going side to side.  Then each row slightly overlapped.

This quilting has a mid-century modern look to it.  Love it!



Maybe because it is spring, but I have been enjoying quilting in big "messy" flowers across the more modern quilts lately.

This quilt is also one of mine and I made each of these flowers about 8" across.








This piece I quilted for a customer (who has since moved to Canada) and it ended up on the front page of the Modern Quilt Guild website.

The quilt really only needed simple quilting and these loops worked perfectly.






And nothing beats a swirl.  There are so many variations to this quilting...I will have to post a separate thread to show them all.

And I love how this quilting launders.  The quilts get a lovely crinkly look but with the even quilting, there are no saggy areas.








On this quilt I did a mixture of straight line quilting and a double loop texture.

This customer quilt inspired me to make one of these quilts myself.  It is the Ballerina Quilt pattern by Jaybird Quilts.





And for really dense texture, pebbling is fun.


Here is a crazy new pattern I just did for a very happy customer.  I loved how it turned out and will be working on coming up with some additional variations.

I keep thinking I need to make a quilt top just so I can quilt something of my own with this pattern....






What are your favorite quilting patterns or styles?  I would love to hear about them.


And now for a little bit of techy stuff.

With Google Reader going away, I thought I better let you know other places you can find me and stay updated.  I have been trying out Bloglovin' and have been fairly pleased with it.  If you would like to follow me there, you can do so here. Or you can just click the follow button over on the right.

If you like to see examples of my quilting on a very regular basis, I post pictures of my quilting on my Facebook Page so to keep up, you might want to like my page.

And I am on Pinterest if you want to follow what I am exploring there.


I will be joining in on the fun at TGIFF, Really Random Thursday at Live a Colorful Life, Free Motion Quilting Friday.




11 comments:

Kitchener Quilter said...

Cynthia, love all your all your quilting designs. You've given me some great ideas. Maybe simple IS better!

Deborah said...

What fun to see such a lovely variety of quilt designs!

Marit said...

Those are some wonderful quilting ideas. Hard to pick a favorite, but those flowers are adorable and the loops on the grey and yellow quilt look like something even I could venture to try on my home machine some time... Thanks for sharing at TGIFF!

Selfsewn said...

Hi Cynthia thansk for stopping by, you know I'm never sure how to quilt my quilts, can you recommend any good books?

audrey said...

Wow! This is a really cool post! I do like those big loops! And I've never seen anything like that last pattern. Fun!

Anonymous said...

I love seeing all the different ways to quilt. What a neat post, and great ideas. I love the last one and the double loop.

Live a Colorful Life said...

Great to see your quilting. your comment about wiping off popcorn butter made me laugh out loud...

thebutterflyquilter said...

Love them all Cynthia! Beautiful Pics!

Muv said...

Hello Cynthia,

I particularly like the square spirals - exactly the pattern when I test the tension when sorting out a machine. I must try it as FMQ!

Love from England,
Muv

Pamelyn's Postings said...

Such great work. I am a blooming long-arm'r. I can't to use it more. Love your spirals and double loops!

pamelynspostings.blogspot.com

Nancy said...

Thank you for sharing the simple quilting ideas you do. They really do work well on the quilts. I like your thoughts that quilting patterns do not have to be so detailed.

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