Another One Quilted — Janet Szabo

I finished quilting the square-in-a-square top yesterday. This one was a learning experience in several ways.

Custom quilting, either free-motion or rulerwork, takes a lot longer than a free-motion edge-to-edge design. That’s why custom quilting costs more. I said to the husband that I probably wouldn’t quilt a top like this with rulerwork again in the future if it’s destined to be donated, although I might custom quilt a top if it were to be donated to the quilt auction in Ritzville and I wanted to ensure it brought top dollar. This is not that kind of a top. This is a humble, scrappy, square-in-a-square quilt whose main purpose will be to keep someone warm. Because it is a heavily geometric design, though, it lent itself well to practicing rulerwork. I could practice rulerwork on quilt sandwiches made just for that purpose, but I’ve found that the learning process is more likely to stick—and I am more likely to put forth my best effort—if I practice on an actual quilt top.
Custom quilting requires that one think about the design as well as how to quilt it and in what order to quilt it. There is all sorts of advice floating around out there about how to quilt a top: Start in the middle and quilt out. Start at one side and quilt to the other side. Quilt in one direction and then in the opposite direction. Divide the top into quadrants and quilt one section at a time. I think the answer really depends on the top. I do like Amanda Murphy’s advice to “quilt the bones” first. That helps to stabilize the design and provide a foundation for additional quilting.
I have learned that there are different kinds of rulerwork. This top wanted rulerwork that complemented the geometric nature of the piecing. Some designs want rulerwork that emphasizes a motif or motifs within the top, perhaps motifs that are appliquéd on or printed on the fabric. I suspect I am going to do more of the former, but I’m learning some of the latter, too, because we’re working on a motif-printed top in Ruler Club. Also, it’s not an either-or situation. Some tops feature both kinds of rulerwork and free motion quilting. Robin pointed out such a quilt to me on Friday. It was hanging in the hallway at The Confident Stitch in Missoula and featured a top comprised of 6” equilateral triangles, each of which had been quilted a different way. The end result was very striking.

Overall, I am happy with the rulerwork I did on this top and I think it complements the piecing well. The center has curved “orange peels” around the large squares and within the small squares. I quilted 1” round circles within the white border, and finished up with simple piano key quilting in the outer border:

I thought about doing another rulerwork design in the outer border—I have lots of good rulers for border designs—but I was tired and wanted to cross this top off the list. Sometimes, enough is as good as it gets. This top is ready to be trimmed and bound and added to the “to be donated” pile. I am going to move the O’s wallhanging back to the front of the queue and finish that one next.

Or maybe I’ll take a break and just serge makeup pads for a while. T-shirt class is this Wednesday and I need to do a bit of prep work for that, too.

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Lettuce seeds sprout quickly in that new growing system:

I must have missed putting seeds into that rooting plug in the back. Oops.

I’ll get another tray started today, I think, so we have a rolling supply.