Heart’s Delight Quilting

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Hi everyone,

Hope you are having a lovely fall!  I’ve been teaching a lot of quilting on the BERNINA Q Series quite a bit over the past couple of months and I usually bring a trunk show along with me.  One of the questions I get asked most is how I chose the different quilting motifs on Heart’s Delight, my block of the month for Carina. So I thought I’d take a minute to tell you more about the process.

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I do usually start out with a general quilting plan, but I frequently change things alone the way.  So, I knew that I, in this case, I wanted to use paisleys and petals and soft shapes, but contrast them with straight quilting lines as well.  Just like the piecing really.

The first thing I decided was the thread color.  I like quilting with Aurifil 50 wt. cotton but time was of the essence (after all, it was less than a week until Market) so I opted for Aurifil monofilament in the  top and Aurifil 50 wt. in the bobbin so that I wouldn’t have to change out colors.  I have a large spool of the monofilament that I use both on my BERNINA Q24 and on my 780.  When I use it on the 780 I like to use a thread stand to let it unwind, but it works well on both machines.  I really love the Aurifil monofilament – it is soft and pliable and not shiny at all – it just sinks into the design.

I started out by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks and elements on my first pass.  I stitched in the ditch and added some of the larger fills as I worked down the quilt, but I only added the smaller fills once that process was completed.  (For more information on fills see my Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book.)  If I had been quilting on a domestic machine, I would have chosen to stitch in the ditch between all the blocks and around the appliqué motifs, etc. and then added in the fills with my free-motion foot after.

So… block by block my quilting plan evolved a like this:

I decided to quilt the central bargello heart by stitching in the ditch on every seam.  This really emphasized all of the piecing plus it contrasted nicely with the curving shapes I knew that I going to be adding elsewhere in the piece.  Another consideration was that a more wavy design would have been hard to execute cleanly in this area, because even the slightest shifting in the seams would have been noticeable.  I used my BERNINA Q Series Ruler Attachment to quilt clean, straight lines.

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Moving from the center out I chose to quilt a sort of leafy vine in the green area.  I quilted a spine around the entire square and then went back and added leaves to the left side of the spine and then to the right.  I did not mark this since our eyes are very forgiving of leaf shapes in general – plus I knew it would be hard to see my mistakes on the print!  I left the dark teal frames unquilted so that they popped up a bit, and quilted wavy lines in the white areas, using my ruler foot and a ruler again to ensure uniformity. Quilting a white area will draw your eyes if you have lots of fun fabrics in other areas!  (Ask me how I know this!  Rip rip rip!)

Do you see the diamond border in the lower right hand corner of the above photograph?  I choose to bounce from corner to corner of each diamond with a petal shape and fill the interior area with pebbles.  Petal shapes are so useful. You can use them in their entirety to create a medallion or a four petal blossom, or you can use just half and bounce from corner to corner of a design.

036HeartsDelight_03I quilted around each shape in the yellow appliqué border above the bargello heart and then filled in the background small scale paisley design.  I love paisleys for the back of appliqués – they are really quick to execute and fit well in a variety of spaces.

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I divided up the hearts in the left border by connecting the two top points of each heart with the bottom point of each.  I then filled in the resulting shapes with pebbles.  (If you use a fill in one area of the quilt it is nice to repeat the same motif in other areas as well.)  I don’t think that quilting designs have to follow the piecing exactly – sometimes it is more fun to use the piecing as inspiration and add another layer of design during the quilting!

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You can see just a hint of the bottom central border in upper right of the above photo.  I quilted around each flower and filled in the background with simple ribbons.  For the cornerstones, like the pink one in the photo, I simply quilted around each motifs and then did a background fill.  I think I started with hearts, but I couldn’t see anything on the dark pink, so I ended up migrating to a medley of swirls, hearts, and pebbles – or whatever I felt like in the moment that would let the appliqué pop!  I figured if I couldn’t see while quilting neither could anyone else.

I quilted a medium scale paisleys in the yellow border.  What can I say?  I REALLY LIKE PAISLEYS!

On some of the above you can see a glimpse on the side border with the teal Carina medallion quilt.  For medallions I like to let the print do the work for me.  I quilted around each, and then traveled into the center and went around the circle, and then followed the petal shapes to quilt “feathers” all the way around before exiting the way I came in.  (I have some video of this down in my instagram feed that I took at the time. If interested you can check it out – my user name is AMANDAMURPHYDESIGN.)

The top and bottom inner heart borders were quilted much like the cornerstones.  I quilted around each heart shape and filled in the background.

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I stabilized the top and bottom outer border, pictured above, by quilting all the way across the top of the hearts and all the way across the bottom of the hearts.  I then quilted echoed lines within the hearts, leaving a smaller heart shape.  I filled these shapes with a fishbone motif.  And I could go right across the quilt without stopping because the motifs were connected and I was using monofilament thread!  Finally, I willed in the white floral print area with swirls.  Yes, I thought about paisleys because I REALLY LIKE PAISLEYS but I threw caution to the wind and went for swirls instead.

And that is how I quilted Heart’s Delight!  If you are quilting it send me a picture – I’d love to see!

Have a lovely weekend and happy quilting!

Amanda

 

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Sundance Sampler – revitalized

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A question on The Free-Motion Idea Book/Sampler Facebook Group yesterday that I had not posted that BERNINA is bringing back my Sundance Sampler that I designed exclusively for them.  They asked me ro revise the SKUs using Carina, which is in stores now, and these SKUs, as well as the directions, are available to U.S. BERNINA dealers.  And (hint, hint) there might just be something to go along with all of this when automation for the Q 24 comes out!

Anyway, I’ve planned out three color stories this time.

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I’m normally partial to aqua, but I think I’ll sew the pink this time for a change .  What do you think?

Thanks for letting me share!

Happy quilting!

Amanda

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New patterns for Spring 2015

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Hi everyone!

It seems like I have been waiting for this day – the day I can share new pattern information – forever!  They are back from the printer and all the distributor and Market orders have been sent.  They are also up over in my shop.

I hope you like these new designs!  Here they are…

First Crush is a fat-quarter friendly, twin-sized quilt that is actually a deceptively simple quilt made from just one block!

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The interlocking hearts form a secondary design so it is really fun to watch it come together!

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Of course, by choosing a different border fabric you can dramatically alter the look of the design…

First Crush aqua border
First Crush with the original aqua border
First Crush teal border
First Crush with a teal border
First Crush pink border
First Crush with a deep pink border
First Crush green border
First Crush with the green border

By the way, all these quits feature Carina, my first line for Benartex.  I couldn’t be more excited about it and I’ll be blogging more specifically about the fabric when it ships in August/September of this year.

Next up, Bouquet, which is a really graphic lap-sized piece.  Basically made up of squares, rectangles, and half-square triangles, it is super-easy to piece with just a touch of appliqué.

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This was actually my first quilt that I quilted on the BERNINA Q 24, so it was thrilling!  (Some of you might have seen sneak peeks over on Instagram.)

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Next up is Romance – a really quick but elegant 22” table runner…

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I couldn’t stop making this one – it was fun to play with the colors in the collection.  I used 28 wt. Aurifil thread for the appliqué – my favorite!

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And last, but not least, is Heart’s Delight.

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It is my new block-of-the-month style quilt.  The pattern itself is chock-full of full color diagrams to guide you.  You start in the center with a heart shaped bargello design and work outward, adding borders as you go.  This was also quilted on the Q 24, this time with Aurifil monofilament thread, which was trouble-free.  It worked so well and saved a ton of time not having to change colors since I started quilting this two days before Market!

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Do you like them?  I hope so!  Do you have a favorite?

So… if you are still reading (sorry for the amount of images – it is hard to choose) they are all over in my newly-revamped shop.  Speaking of which, I redid my shop so I can ship internationally.  I think the design is better too and hope you agree.  (I ship USPS everywhere.)

Also, a popular request has been a discount for a whole group of new patterns so I created something called “The Carina Collection” which includes all four patterns. You can get them at a discount here.

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Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful week with lots of sewing!

Amanda

 

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