Infrastructure Week 11 - Quilting

Let the fun begin, quilting!  Almost two years ago now I bought a Gammill Statler Stitcher longarm and never looked back.  I use to quilt using my domestic machine and walking foot, for more details regarding domestic machine quilting check out Christa's corresponding blog post, and when I got my Gammill I jumped right into custom digital designs.  While there is a perception out there that you draw your quilt design and walk away this is not the case.  I like to call my quilting hand aided computer quilting.  I keep a careful watch on my longarm as it stitches and will even manipulate the quilt top while stitches are being laid down.

Infrastructure Quilting

 After some trial and error I found that my machine, loves, I mean loves, Aurufil Thread.  For this, and for most of my quilts, I used Aurifil Forty3, a 40 wt 3 ply thread made for longarms.  It makes the most amazing stitches and handles the extra stress of long straight lines.  I chose a medium grey for for most of the quilt and in the white, greens and yellows I used Aurifil 28 wt white.

Infrastructure Row 1 Quilting

My strategy for this quilt was to add geometric designs to the Benartex Superior Solids to better match the original Geo Pop version.  In row 1 I used a circle in square design.  This did a great job of mimicking the fussy cut circles.

Infrastructure Row 2 Quilting

Row 2 was all about echoing.  I wanted to echo the shape of the geese to keep the movement form top to bottom of the row.  I used the same color in the background as I did in the geese and because it is a warm grey it blended nicely with the reds and oranges.

Infrastructure Row 3 Quilting

Row 3 is a resting row so I kept the quilting simple.  The straight lines in the top and bottom stripes maintain the horizontal line and the ribbon candy between is a soft flowing gentle curve that works perfect after so many points in the rows above.

Infrastructure Row 4 Quilting

Here comes row 4.  It is one of the two larges rows and offered plenty of space for quilting.  To keep the green squares from become dead spaces on the quilt I added a spiraling squares in a contrasting thread.  In the diamonds I used a point to point technique to add dimension and the background was done with a horizontal line.

Infrastructure Row 5 Quilting

Row 5 is another resting row and instead of adding horizontal quilting to the blues, like in row 3, I extended the background quilting for row 4 to the white stripe and quilted the other two stripes with circles or pearls.  This was a great way to add interest without making the stripes to busy.  It aslo keeps the horizontal line of the row.

Infrastructure Row 6 Quilting

This is the first of two rows that I missed taking a picture of while quilting.  This row was all about playing with negative and positive space so I did the same with the quilting.  I kept the diamonds in the background by using the same horizontal lines as above and add diagonal lines to the anvils slanted from left to right.

Infrastructure Row 7 Quilting

Row 7 is the most structural of the quilt and I wanted the quilting to add to the support.  The yellow pickets were quilted with a Greek key motif to mimic columns.  I also tied the top and bottom together by quilting the same circle in square design from row 1 in the yellow squares.  For the background I changed the strips to from horizontal to vertical to add to presence to the yellow columns.

Infrastructure Row 8 Quilting

I think it's interesting that the second row I forgot to photograph is the kissing cousin of the first I forgot, row 8.  This row also features diamonds and anvils.  Again, for this row I quilted horizontal lines in the diamonds to help them recede into the background and added diagonal lines in the anvils but this time they are facing right to left.  By switching the direction of the diagonal lines it added movement to both row 6 and row 8.

infrastructure Row 9 Quilting

Finally, row 9.  Row 9 is the base of the quilt.  The row which all other rows are built on.  I didn't want to add quilting that would fracture this look.  All quilting lines maintain the horizontal feel of the stripes and I brought both the ribbon candy and pearls from above down to the bottom row to tie it all together.  The gentle wave adds interest to the grape stripe without disturbing the look of the row.

When I was finished I had a custom digitally quilted quilt that was done row by row.  All the rows relate to each other because I reused elements through out the quilt and I chose quilting that didn't fight the original design of the quilt.  Even if you don't have a longarm or digital design software I hope you will try to custom quilt your top.

GIVEAWAY TIME!  This week Aurifil Thread is donating an entire Christa Watson variegated thread collection for our giveaway. Christa selected the threads in the collection and use them on her own quilts. 

Leaving a comment below is the only way to be eligible to win. This will be the same for each week's giveaway. Comments made Monday through Friday will be entered into a random drawing so please be sure to leave your name and email address where you can be contact if you win. Comments without contact information will not be eligible for prize(s). The winner will be announced the following Monday in our weekly quilt along post.

 

 

 

 

**CONGRATULATIONS** to Daniela for being our week 10 winner!! 

Don't forget to subscribe to this blog (Quiltachusetts) and Christa's blog (ChristaQuilts) to stay updated on the quilt along, giveaways and all our quilty adventures.  You can find both of us on Instagram, @quiltachusetts and @christaquilts .  Thank you!