Showing posts with label pieced backing. Show all posts

Thursday, September 03, 2026

FMQ a Baby Quilt and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 I hope that September finds you well. I'm so grateful that the back-to-school rush is no longer a thing in my family - I don't miss those very stressful days! I've been quilting the first baby quilt of three for JJ's friends. Let's see how I'm doing.

Square Dance is getting quilted

This week I quilted-in-the-ditch the first baby quilt. The title of the pattern is Square Dance, so I'm sticking with that! I used a light grey for the top and a light blue thread for the bobbin. I'll be using a light blue in the bobbin when the top thread is pale, and a darker blue to match darker thread. That's the plan since my tension will cooperate 😀

First block quilted - ruler and FMQ

I started by using a ruler to quilt the top triangle of the block. I gave up after that section was done. It was easier, faster and more accurate to draw the lines and FMQ them. That's because I have a generic ruler foot that is not very good. One day I will buy the proper Janome ruler foot - hopefully that will help.

Here's Square Dance with all of the blocks stitched-in-the-ditch. The top light green block has been quilted, except for the rainbow centre block. I'll probably be FMQ it with rainbow shapes that I learned at the Free Motion Quilting Summit 2026.

Square Dance stitched-in-the-ditch

Back of the quilt with extra novelty squares

September's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

I would love to have Square Dance all quilted by the end of the month, but that may be too ambitious, so I'll aim to have half of it quilted 😉. Wish me luck!

What I learned

I enjoy sandwiching small quilts - it's just so much easier!
The back of the quilt came together easily. The pattern called for one extra row but I was done, so I added the 6" blocks to the back. It worked out perfectly 😊
I was disappointed with the ruler quilting. I guess I had forgotten had bad the generic ruler foot can be. I was not in a patient mood, so out came my FMQ foot. All was good 😍

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts FMQ this stunning panel following Angela Walter's challenge, Arcs, Curves and Points. This is the challenge I was going to use to do ruler quilting on the Square Dance quilt, but the rulers have been put away. Kat isn't a fan of the dark panel but it is a stunning finish. You'll want to expand her photo to get a better look at the FMQ.

Kat's FMQ on Angela Walter's Arcs, Curves and Points panel

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts quilted her last block and is now putting together her Quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) colourful Patchwork Hearts quilt.

Diann quilting her last colourful patchwork heart

Diann is ready to put the whole Patchwork Hearts quilt together!

Vicki of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting has finished many quilts this week. Here are a couple of them. You can check them all out on her post. The first one below is a lovely disappearing 9 patch. Those blues really play well together! My favourite is this colourful table topper. I just love the pieced border!

Vicki's blue disappearing 9 patch

Vicki's colourful fall topper

Margo Yang of MY Quilts and Crafts got her gorgeous denim quilt finished. It's called She's A Star. Let's hope it'll be hanging in the Quilt National 27!

Margo's She's A Star

Sandra of mmm quilts finished a quilt for her daughter, Holiday Star. It was quilted very simply but I love the little extra Sandra quilted in the secondary blocks.

Sandra's dramatic Holiday Star

Debbie of A Quilter's Table made this great improv quilt - Plethora. Debbie quilted this in an uneven grid with a number of coloured thread, for a plethora of fabric and thread. Check out her post for more details.

Debbie's Plethora of fabric and thread

It's now your turn 😍

Monday, July 20, 2015

Two Quilts Are Better Than One!

Charley Harper Quilt

My version of the Charley Harper Quilt

In the winter of 2014, after reading the International Quilt Festival Quilt Scene magazine (2013\2014), I fell in love with the Charley Harper Quilt by Melissa Lunden (it's featured on the cover of the magazine, at the bottom right).

I had bought many modern fabrics a couple of years earlier and wanted to make something with a lot of negative space for free motion quilting (FMQ). My fabrics were more in the brown, gold and red so I decided to use a darker brown fabric that would bring it all together. Although I'm not a huge fan of browns, it does make for a very rich looking quilt.

While I was at it, I thought that I would make my first pieced backing (as in intentionally pieced, not the "Oh my goodness, I ran out of fabric, how can I make this backing big enough?" version).

Street Art Quilt

My version of the Street Art Quilt

I looked around in my stash of books and magazines for something that would be modern but also not too time consuming to make (right!). I was intrigued by Mary Patterson's Street Art quilt which features fabric by Stephanie Brandenburg in the Quilt Trends magazine, Summer 2014. It had some funky fabrics, large blocks, some of them framed within the quilt. I knew that this pattern would translate well into what I wanted to make. It was also simple enough that I could adapt the size to the quilt top.

It's been a long time since I finished the quilt top and backing. I remember that the Charley Harper quilt went together fairly simply. I also remember that I had to adjust the Street Art quilt quite a bit because I had started by drawing it all out. When I started putting it together, I quickly realised that my pieces were too small and wouldn't have the same effect...and I really got tired of working with the same fabrics for so long (yup, my secret is out! I tried to plan it out but got bored!!!)

I think that both quilts would have made a fine front and back, but when I looked at both quilts a few weeks ago, I just couldn't bring myself to put them together to make one quilt. I had put too much effort into making both of them, and doing FMQ on the top would not have necessarily been the best quilting for the back.

I'm now in the process of FMQ the Charley Harper Quilt. I still haven't decided what to quilt in the negative space but I've started "sewing every stinking seam", as suggested by Cindy Needham.

I find that this is a great suggestion because when I look at the quilt, I am totally intimidated by all of that negative space to quilt. As I quilt almost every stinking seam, I am getting familiar with the quilt and slowly getting ideas for quilting it. As Cindy suggests, I will also divide and conquer the space so that it won't be such a huge task.

Right now, I'm thinking of quilting feathers in most of the negative space. My feathers aren't too bad, and I find that drawing them out at the beginning gets me in the grove. Eventually I can stop drawing them and I will be confidant enough to just sew them.

What I've learned:

I'm not sure that I'll ever be patient enough to piece a whole quilt back. I love the effect of a pieced back but that's a lot of work, when you've already put in so much time and effort into the front!
I took my unfinished quilt and quilt top to work with me this morning and had a "photo shoot" before work. It was a lot of fun. The light was good but it was quite windy. This didn't make much difference for the Charley Parker quilt, but the Street Art quilt top was flapping all over the place! I'm going to learn more about photographing quilts and I'll share what I learn.
I spent a lot of time looking at the Charley Harper quilt, which is made of fabrics from Charley Harper's wonderful drawings. After I finished the quilt, I went on Etsy.com and bought quite a bit of the fabric which is created by Birch Fabric. It is truly beautiful - but that will be for another project!

Charley Harper fabrics

I am linking this Work-in-progress (WIP) with MOP Monday, Monday Making, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

If you have time, check out everyone's links.

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