I really love free-motion quilting, and I also really enjoy the aspect of making all the decisions about how I want to finish my quilt. Since my husband really isn't so much interested in helping me bounce ideas around, I turned to my friends on Instagram and Facebook to help me make these fun decisions!
I pulled five spools of Auriful 50 wt out of my thread stash and asked my followers which thread they would choose. I got lots of great advice! One of the best pieces of advice was from Paula:
One thing I've learned as a longarmer is to pull out several feet of thread and "puddle" it on the quilt. This will give you a better idea because you don't see a big spool of color when it's quilted, you see a stand of thread. I like the one on the far right, but I think it will be too much on the larger center light square. My suggestion is to try your threads and if you still can't decide, get a lighter version of the thread on the far right. When we pull out 5 thread colors and can't decide, we usually don't have the right color. When you put the right color on your quilt, your heart will skip a beat and you'll let out a sigh of love and joy 😍🤣
One of these threads actually gave me that moment, but I thought it would be fun to see what other people might like to see on this quilt. Several people mentioned another option, which would be a variegated thread. That would have been a good choice, but I wanted to use what I had on hand, so I narrowed it down to two threads:
I decided to try something new for the quilting - hearts and swirls! I really like how this design looks, but it took me a while to get the hang of it. I kept quilting myself into corners, and having to figure out how to get out of them! I will definitely be using this idea again.
The hydrangea is a bit past it's prime now, but still a nice spot for a photo shoot. This is such a pretty quilt, with such fresh and brilliant colors. The pattern is my Lover's Kiss pattern. You can decide to make this with fat quarters, or with 2 1/2 inch strips, and it always looks great! I chose a Lavendula Strip pack by Island Batik for this quilt. You can even put a plain border on it for a faster finish - see how fun decisions can be?
I like to choose a back that has some texture to hide any little bobbles in my quilting - this one did the job nicely, and the colors look very nice with the front fabrics as well.
The binding was an easy choice, the same fabric as the inner border for a simple finish. I like to sew my binding by machine to the back of the quilt, then turn and topstitch on the front. I usually match the top thread to the binding and use the same thread in the bobbin as I use for the quilting. This makes a nice looking finish on both sides. (I've written a tutorial that you can see here...)
All those decisions ended up making one beautiful quilt! And a great finish for my One Monthly Goal this month, as well as my 2020 UFO challenge for August. That's 8 for 8 this year and I'm making good progress for my Quilting PHD in 2020 as well.
https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2020/08/one-monthly-goal-august-finishes-link-up.html
5 comments:
This is so pretty! I love the dark purple of the inner border and binding. And I think the heart-skipping jade looks lovely!
I love this quilt and the quilting that you did. I like picking thread that way, I think it works best.
Lovely quilt, and love the color thread you picked, and the design is really sweet on it. I also pool my thread to see what it would look like. On my red quilt, I had a lot of neutral spaces, but didn't like the cream thread on the red. Grey didn't look good, either, so I stuck with my original idea of red wine. It's a little bold on the cream sections, but looks great.
Love your quilting on this and that you chose the thread that made your heart sing. Kathryn Quilts
Beautiful. Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish!
Post a Comment