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#11
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Quilting designs 101 (was Selecting a Quilting Design)
Pat's post reminded me that quilting designs (and quilting in general, as
opposed to piecing) often leave even experienced quilters scratching their heads. Since the interest seems to be out there, I got the idea to do a multipart post on how I approach quilting a quilt. First, the disclaimer. This is just *my* approach, developed over 10 years (aack, has it been that long?!??) of professional quilting. There are lots of other approaches -- the best approach is the one that works for YOU. And the only way you'll find what works for you is to try several different things out. So give yourself permission to have a bit of fun and experiment. Second disclaimer is that I'm strictly a machine quilter. I'm not sure I even own a hand quilting needle. But design is design, and 99% of what I'll say applies equally to hand quilting. Enough with the intro, and on to lesson number 1. Probably the biggest obstacle to choosing a quilting design, even for professionals, is that when you're staring at a quilt your mind goes completely blank. Every design you've even seen or thought of vanishes from your memory. So we're going to develop a design reference you can use to jog the brain cells. I use two different references, mostly because I'm too lazy to combine them into one. The first reference is a binder full of page protectors, divided into sections labeled "overall", "borders", "blocks", etc. Each page protector has either a photo I've taken or a page torn from a magazine that highlights some quilting design that fits into the section. And when I say highlights the quilting, I mean the quilting -- these aren't photos of complete quilts, but closeups where I can see every bit of the quilting design for that area. So if I need inspiration for a border, I can turn to that section of the binder and flip through just borders. How do you fill up this binder? The main way is photos. The next quilt show you take your digital camera to, make sure you also get a couple of dozen close ups of quilting. When you get home, print those out on plain paper. No need to use the good photo paper, and you don't even need to print in color. But get in the habit of collecting these ideas for future use. (I also note on the back of each printout where I took the photo and who did the quilting so I can give proper credit, but I've been called anal retentive, too. *grin*) And get into the habit of taking your camera everywhere you might find a design, even if it's just your cell phone camera. My second reference is a sketch book full of sketches and notes. For me, a 5" x 8" size is perfect -- big enough to really draw something out, but small enough that I will actually take it with me. I like to get real sketch books, the ones with heavy, slightly rough paper, and I use a soft mechanical pencil (mechanical because you won't find a pencil sharpener at a quilt show.) You can pick one of these sketch books up for about $5 at the office supply (or art supply) store, and it will last a long, long time. How do you fill up the sketch book? Take it with you to guild meetings, quilt shows, classes, any place where you have time to sit and doodle. When you first start filling up the sketch book, your instinct will be to try to make each doodle perfect. Guess what? It's the mistakes that are the most valuable. I try drawing a design like I'm quilting -- continuous line at a constant speed. If I goof up, I start another one right below the first. On all my goofs, I jot down notes to remind me where the trouble is, like "watch out coming out of this curve" or "make sure the petals are the same size". And sometimes the goofs give me inspiration for other, better designs down the road. And, I make notes on where and when I got the inspiration. (See anal retentive, above). At this spot a number of you are saying "But I can't draw!" I can't draw either. Doesn't matter. The main thing is to get those ideas down and make notes so your brain gets jogged. Your brain won't get jogged if you never put anything down on paper, so stop worrying about pretty and start doing. Making these two references aren't nearly as much work as they sound like, and they can sure be a lifesaver when you are faced with crippling mind fade when you are looking at that quilt top. Next installment: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? -- Kathy A. (Woodland, CA) Queen of Fabric Tramps remove the obvious to reply http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathyapplebaum/ |
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#12
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Quilting designs 101 (was Selecting a Quilting Design)
WOWIE!!! Thanks a million, Kathy. I can hardly wait for the next
installment. This is *exactly* what I needed and I'm sure others will say the same thing. I'm printing this out- for when things settle down and I can start my notebooks. Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. "Kathy Applebaum" wrote in message ... Pat's post reminded me that quilting designs (and quilting in general, as opposed to piecing) often leave even experienced quilters scratching their heads. Since the interest seems to be out there, I got the idea to do a multipart post on how I approach quilting a quilt. First, the disclaimer. This is just *my* approach, developed over 10 years (aack, has it been that long?!??) of professional quilting. There are lots of other approaches -- the best approach is the one that works for YOU. And the only way you'll find what works for you is to try several different things out. So give yourself permission to have a bit of fun and experiment. Second disclaimer is that I'm strictly a machine quilter. I'm not sure I even own a hand quilting needle. But design is design, and 99% of what I'll say applies equally to hand quilting. Enough with the intro, and on to lesson number 1. Probably the biggest obstacle to choosing a quilting design, even for professionals, is that when you're staring at a quilt your mind goes completely blank. Every design you've even seen or thought of vanishes from your memory. So we're going to develop a design reference you can use to jog the brain cells. I use two different references, mostly because I'm too lazy to combine them into one. The first reference is a binder full of page protectors, divided into sections labeled "overall", "borders", "blocks", etc. Each page protector has either a photo I've taken or a page torn from a magazine that highlights some quilting design that fits into the section. And when I say highlights the quilting, I mean the quilting -- these aren't photos of complete quilts, but closeups where I can see every bit of the quilting design for that area. So if I need inspiration for a border, I can turn to that section of the binder and flip through just borders. How do you fill up this binder? The main way is photos. The next quilt show you take your digital camera to, make sure you also get a couple of dozen close ups of quilting. When you get home, print those out on plain paper. No need to use the good photo paper, and you don't even need to print in color. But get in the habit of collecting these ideas for future use. (I also note on the back of each printout where I took the photo and who did the quilting so I can give proper credit, but I've been called anal retentive, too. *grin*) And get into the habit of taking your camera everywhere you might find a design, even if it's just your cell phone camera. My second reference is a sketch book full of sketches and notes. For me, a 5" x 8" size is perfect -- big enough to really draw something out, but small enough that I will actually take it with me. I like to get real sketch books, the ones with heavy, slightly rough paper, and I use a soft mechanical pencil (mechanical because you won't find a pencil sharpener at a quilt show.) You can pick one of these sketch books up for about $5 at the office supply (or art supply) store, and it will last a long, long time. How do you fill up the sketch book? Take it with you to guild meetings, quilt shows, classes, any place where you have time to sit and doodle. When you first start filling up the sketch book, your instinct will be to try to make each doodle perfect. Guess what? It's the mistakes that are the most valuable. I try drawing a design like I'm quilting -- continuous line at a constant speed. If I goof up, I start another one right below the first. On all my goofs, I jot down notes to remind me where the trouble is, like "watch out coming out of this curve" or "make sure the petals are the same size". And sometimes the goofs give me inspiration for other, better designs down the road. And, I make notes on where and when I got the inspiration. (See anal retentive, above). At this spot a number of you are saying "But I can't draw!" I can't draw either. Doesn't matter. The main thing is to get those ideas down and make notes so your brain gets jogged. Your brain won't get jogged if you never put anything down on paper, so stop worrying about pretty and start doing. Making these two references aren't nearly as much work as they sound like, and they can sure be a lifesaver when you are faced with crippling mind fade when you are looking at that quilt top. Next installment: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? -- Kathy A. (Woodland, CA) Queen of Fabric Tramps remove the obvious to reply http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathyapplebaum/ |
#13
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Selecting a Quilting Design
Good question -wish I knew the answer!
IMO a pieced design is often angular-looking and responds well to a bit of florid quilting. Feathers! Gotta love 'em! Samplers I sometimes do with a uniform wreath in the center of each block, to pull them together. Very scrappy quilts might ask for a random all-over design, like spirals or paisleys. Other times the quilt seems to want everything outlined. Who can tell, they are all different! Roberta in D On Mon, 9 Mar 2009 12:08:24 -0400, "Pat in Virginia" wrote: Okay, you've pieced or appliquéd a delightful quilt top. You are pleased and justifiably proud of it. You want to quilt it (or have it quilted) to enhance the style and design of the top. How do you decide what to do? Can you suggest a book that will help train and educate a quilter on this topic? Do you just give up and do all your quilts the same way? I really have trouble with this aspect of quilt making. So, I look forward to reading your opinions, advice, and recommendations. Thanks bunches. Pat in Virginia |
#14
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Selecting a Quilting Design
On Mon, 9 Mar 2009 12:08:24 -0400, "Pat in Virginia"
wrote: Okay, you've pieced or appliquéd a delightful quilt top. You are pleased and justifiably proud of it. You want to quilt it (or have it quilted) to enhance the style and design of the top. How do you decide what to do? Can you suggest a book that will help train and educate a quilter on this topic? Do you just give up and do all your quilts the same way? I really have trouble with this aspect of quilt making. So, I look forward to reading your opinions, advice, and recommendations. Thanks bunches. Pat in Virginia I forgot the obvious, when in need of ideas post a link to a photo of the top here and ask for quilting pattern ideas. You will have plenty of ideas really quickly! Debra My art for sale at: http://www.redbubble.com/people/DesignsByDeb |
#15
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Quilting designs 101 (was Selecting a Quilting Design)
On Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:54:01 -0700, "Kathy Applebaum" wrote some
really great quilting advice! Another source for quilting patterns is online. I have accumulated a lot of free to download patterns while surfing the net. I just print the ones that are detailed and keep them for inspiration. Some are continuous line for machine quilting, others are good for fancy hand quilting. Since I print the web page, the web address and designer's name are already on the page for me too. Very handy. Debra My art for sale at: http://www.redbubble.com/people/DesignsByDeb |
#16
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Selecting a Quilting Design
Pat in VA, I haven't read any responses yet, but when I read your post I
decided to make myself a nice hot cup of coffee, sit down and really study the answers. The quilting is not my favorite part. I tend to do straight line quilting or slightly wavy line stitching or SITD. I've done FM with my little quilting machine, but I don't currently have the proper table to set it up, so I can't use it at the moment. I would never spend the money to have them professionally quilted. I've done some hand quilting, but I don't have the patience for more than just a baby quilt. I have trouble visuallizing what pattern to do on most of my quilts. I do a lot of Trip around the World, Log Cabin, Scrappy, etc. I'm really looking forward to the answers, and I hope there are lots of 'em. I've been itching to quilt my 15 or so completed tops, but whenever I decide to quilt, I'm stymied and put tham away again. Denise |
#17
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Quilting designs 101 (was Selecting a Quilting Design)
In article ,
"Kathy Applebaum" wrote: Probably the biggest obstacle to choosing a quilting design, even for professionals, is that when you're staring at a quilt your mind goes completely blank. Oh boy, is *that* ever the truth! Thanks so much for doing this, Kathy! -- Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas sw.foster1 (at) gmail (dot) com (remove/change the obvious) http://www.sandymike.net |
#18
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Selecting a Quilting Design
Debra wrote:
On Mon, 9 Mar 2009 12:08:24 -0400, "Pat in Virginia" wrote: Okay, you've pieced or appliquéd a delightful quilt top. You are pleased and justifiably proud of it. You want to quilt it (or have it quilted) to enhance the style and design of the top. How do you decide what to do? Can you suggest a book that will help train and educate a quilter on this topic? Do you just give up and do all your quilts the same way? I really have trouble with this aspect of quilt making. So, I look forward to reading your opinions, advice, and recommendations. Thanks bunches. Pat in Virginia Pat, I can be no help to you. My quilting designs are based on what I think I can manage. I'm hoping to change that by practicing FM. Best regards, Michelle in NV http://community.webshots.com/users/desert_quilter |
#19
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Quilting designs 101 (was Selecting a Quilting Design)
Thanks for doing this!! I'm thrilled.
"Kathy Applebaum" wrote in message ... Pat's post reminded me that quilting designs (and quilting in general, as opposed to piecing) often leave even experienced quilters scratching their heads. Since the interest seems to be out there, I got the idea to do a multipart post on how I approach quilting a quilt. First, the disclaimer. This is just *my* approach, developed over 10 years (aack, has it been that long?!??) of professional quilting. There are lots of other approaches -- the best approach is the one that works for YOU. And the only way you'll find what works for you is to try several different things out. So give yourself permission to have a bit of fun and experiment. Second disclaimer is that I'm strictly a machine quilter. I'm not sure I even own a hand quilting needle. But design is design, and 99% of what I'll say applies equally to hand quilting. Enough with the intro, and on to lesson number 1. Probably the biggest obstacle to choosing a quilting design, even for professionals, is that when you're staring at a quilt your mind goes completely blank. Every design you've even seen or thought of vanishes from your memory. So we're going to develop a design reference you can use to jog the brain cells. I use two different references, mostly because I'm too lazy to combine them into one. The first reference is a binder full of page protectors, divided into sections labeled "overall", "borders", "blocks", etc. Each page protector has either a photo I've taken or a page torn from a magazine that highlights some quilting design that fits into the section. And when I say highlights the quilting, I mean the quilting -- these aren't photos of complete quilts, but closeups where I can see every bit of the quilting design for that area. So if I need inspiration for a border, I can turn to that section of the binder and flip through just borders. How do you fill up this binder? The main way is photos. The next quilt show you take your digital camera to, make sure you also get a couple of dozen close ups of quilting. When you get home, print those out on plain paper. No need to use the good photo paper, and you don't even need to print in color. But get in the habit of collecting these ideas for future use. (I also note on the back of each printout where I took the photo and who did the quilting so I can give proper credit, but I've been called anal retentive, too. *grin*) And get into the habit of taking your camera everywhere you might find a design, even if it's just your cell phone camera. My second reference is a sketch book full of sketches and notes. For me, a 5" x 8" size is perfect -- big enough to really draw something out, but small enough that I will actually take it with me. I like to get real sketch books, the ones with heavy, slightly rough paper, and I use a soft mechanical pencil (mechanical because you won't find a pencil sharpener at a quilt show.) You can pick one of these sketch books up for about $5 at the office supply (or art supply) store, and it will last a long, long time. How do you fill up the sketch book? Take it with you to guild meetings, quilt shows, classes, any place where you have time to sit and doodle. When you first start filling up the sketch book, your instinct will be to try to make each doodle perfect. Guess what? It's the mistakes that are the most valuable. I try drawing a design like I'm quilting -- continuous line at a constant speed. If I goof up, I start another one right below the first. On all my goofs, I jot down notes to remind me where the trouble is, like "watch out coming out of this curve" or "make sure the petals are the same size". And sometimes the goofs give me inspiration for other, better designs down the road. And, I make notes on where and when I got the inspiration. (See anal retentive, above). At this spot a number of you are saying "But I can't draw!" I can't draw either. Doesn't matter. The main thing is to get those ideas down and make notes so your brain gets jogged. Your brain won't get jogged if you never put anything down on paper, so stop worrying about pretty and start doing. Making these two references aren't nearly as much work as they sound like, and they can sure be a lifesaver when you are faced with crippling mind fade when you are looking at that quilt top. Next installment: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? -- Kathy A. (Woodland, CA) Queen of Fabric Tramps remove the obvious to reply http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathyapplebaum/ |
#20
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Quilting designs 101, part deux
Part deux of the quilting designs series is "How do you get to Carnegie
Hall?" You all know the answer to that one: practice, practice, practice. Except I'll modify this a bit, to "practice, practice, play" The first practice is when you're just starting with machine quilting. One great piece of advice I got was to spend 30 hours practicing before touching an actual quilt. To do that, I made 30 mini quilt sandwiches out of plain muslin that were 14" x 14" (because I could get three from a width of fabric). Each night when I got home from work, I'd set the timer for an hour and quilt as much as I could on one. (This was also DH's introduction to cooking dinner on a regular basis, which was definitely a long-term bonus! LOL) I started easy -- just trying to do any random squiggles without breaking the thread or sewing my fingers to the quilt. (Actually, when you're first starting, that's not all that easy! LOL) Then I worked on writing my name with thread (because your name is something you know how to "draw" without thinking), loops, and meanders. Next I drew a grid on the quiltlet and tried to follow the lines (that took a LOT of practice!). Once that was down, I drew a grid of just dots, no lines, and tried to go from dot to dot. Finally I was able to do things like leaves and stars. Yes, it takes some discipline to do this first practice. I know some of you are kicking your heels at the very thought -- I feel your pain; it's not my strong suit either. But getting the machine to go where you want reliably, with even stitches, is so fundamental to machine quilting that it's really, really worth the investment of time. If you're just starting out, don't skimp on this practice. Practice number two is for those who are still new-ish at machine quilting. You can make the machine more or less do what you want, but you aren't always comfortable. The key is to learn what your quilting style is, and the way you'll do that is to practice several styles until you find which ones click. For example, my style is loose and freeform. If you want a flower design where every petal is exactly the same and every leaf is exactly the same, I'll tell you right up front that it's not gonna happen. But if you want a flower design where there's lots of variation, the flowers fill the spaces they need to fill, and there's interesting stuff going on, I'm your gal. If I kept trying to do rigid, precise designs, I'd be a very unhappy, frustrated quilter. I know quilters who do a wonderful job on those designs, but aren't happy doing things with lots and lots of variation. I think it's great that we all have different styles -- let's get busy developing yours. If you're scratching your head over what I mean by different styles, I'll point you to a couple of examples. (All NAYY, except that I do own books or patterns by both of these designers). Keryn Emmerson ( http://www.kmquiltingsupply.com/Patt...ynEmmerson.asp) is a good example of a designer who does very controlled, precise designs. Take a look at her Celtic Border set -- these need to be very consistent in size and shape or they won't look good at all. Contrast this with Mary Eddy (http://www.kmquiltingsupply.com/Patterns/MaryEddy.asp) Take a look at the Jumbo Pansy design about half way down. While the pansies shown are the same as each other, you can easily imagine that it will look just as good if the pansies have lots of variation -- turn the flower a bit, change the petal sizes a bit, change the leaves a bit, etc. So how does this relate to practice number two? You're going to practice a number of different quilting styles until you know what clicks for you. Look online or at your reference binder and try to pick out a number of different styles. We're not worried about the exact design. Instead we want controlled vs. loose, tight vs. open, straight lines vs. curves. vs pointy, realistic vs. abstract. Spend a couple of hours working on each of these -- enough time so you get past the "I'm uncomfortable because this is new to me" stage. By the end of this practice you'll have a really good idea what YOUR quilting style is. Step number 3 for getting to Carnegie Hall is play. Whether you're a newbie or experienced, give yourself permission to play once in a while. Have some muslin quilt sandwiches made up, grab one, and try new things. (Or use your sketch book from the last lesson). What if you do a feathered wreath, but make the "feathers" long and skinny? What if you fill in some "feathers" with tiny loops? How about changing the "feathers" to leaves? How about square leaves? Hearts? Stars? Lightning bolts? What if you go back over each line of stitching 4 or 5 times? The point is to try something different and have fun doing it. Don't worry about perfect -- if you like what you came up with, you can perfect it later. This is play time, so tell your inner critic to go out for coffee and let loose a bit. Next time: eharmony for quilts -- Kathy A. (Woodland, CA) Queen of Fabric Tramps remove the obvious to reply http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathyapplebaum/ |
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