Quilting the high contrast version of my Moda Bake Shop design Garden Windows took forever. Or at least it seemed like it. I started by adding the borders, and then loading on the longarm. I stabilized it first by quilting in the ditch around the borders. I did a full custom job on it, each window got an individual feather wreath. I did all of these freehand, only marking a circle, and boy is there a lot of variation in those feathers! I do have a lot of potato chip shapes, and some hot dog shapes, but overall it works. Just don’t get to close, LOL!!
I started with the strip blocks, putting a row of ribbon candy in each strip, working down, then up then down again. I did one row at a time, alternating with the garden print squares.
Using a circle template, I marked a circle in each of the garden print squares. This is actually a longarm circle ruler, but I have never used it for that. I have a set of them in multiple sizes, and I don’t actually know how to use them with the longarm. I think I need to do some research on that, well, maybe someday when I really want to know, LOL! In the meantime, they are perfect for marking with a water soluble pen.
OK, so I marked the circles on each square in the row. I did each row as I advanced the quilt so I didn’t have to roll back and forth too much.
Then, I took a deep breath, and freehand quilted a feather wreath in each one. This one was one of the better efforts. Lots of them have wonky feathers, and potato chip feathers, some didn’t come out even at the start/stop point. Plus, I need to get better at the backtracking over a stitch line. Ah, practice and more practice. This one was near the end, of course.
As each feather wreath was done, I erased the water soluable marking pen with Sew Clean.
Moving on to the borders, the outer one was done in my favorite beadboard. This is ruler work of the easy kind.
I started marking the green border with an egg and dart design stencil. This was not as easy as they make it look at the shows! I got it too thick on the top border and the chalk bounced in little pills as I tried to figure out where to sew – on the outside of the line or in the middle? The middle won, but the marking was so uneven that the egg and dart came out uneven too. Plus the green fabric hid the thread! Ah, but it also hid the wonkiness.
One thing I figured out is at the show, the demonstrator is using a board under the stencil and has a hard surface to push the chalk against. Trying to mark while the quilt is on the longarm is not as easy. The surface gives with the pressure and the chalk just doesn’t come out as easily.
I did one green border at the top, and added ribbon candy in the black border.
My marking on the side didn’t show enough to quilt by, so I had to mark again. Lining the stencil back up precisely where I had it before was a challenge too.
Eventually, I was able to get an amount of chalk on the quilt dark enough to see, yet not so much that the chalk was bouncing on the fabric as I sewed.
Then, I realized that the traveling I did in the ditches was not enough to get all the sides of the squares, and I decided that I needed to stitch in the ditch around all of them. So, out came my really long ruler, and I did that. I am not good at this, but again, practice is needed and I have to start somewhere.
Trying to get close up pictures of the quilting was difficult. The thread I used was a tan polyester that added a little shine, but because the fabrics all have gold threads, it is difficult to see. The bobbin thread was Bottom Line. The batting is my favorite Warm and Natural all cotton.
Got mustard? There’s a big hot dog in this feather wreath.
You can barely make out the egg and dart in the green border on this pic, after the chalk was removed. The great part about this chalk is it brushes off easily, and any that doesn’t come off disappears with ironing.
I bound it in the green print, over a couple of evenings while watching TV. Here it is all finished.
One more important note, after my pattern for Garden Windows was published on Moda Bake Shop, I read with dismay that the pattern was done before. One of the comments said it was Warm Wishes, so I researched that name and found it. It was originally published in 2000 by Quiltmaker magazine for Project Linus. I had no idea, as I didn’t begin quilting until 2003. Moda didn’t catch it either. I had never seen the Warm Wishes pattern on any website or in a magazine. I didn’t know about this pattern at all. I came up with the idea completely independently using the jelly roll strips. Although I have now given proper credit on the Moda site in my response to the first comment that mentioned it, I still feel bad about it. How can I know if a design I come up with in my head is truly original now? Garden Windows is different as it uses a jelly roll in a scrappy version with a different method of construction, where the original Warm Wishes uses width-of-fabric strips of all the same fabric, but still it bothers me. I do not believe that there is any way I could have found out prior to the publication of Garden Windows. Still, my apologies to everyone, and see the Quiltmaker website for a free download of the Project Linus Warm Wishes quilt.
From My Carolina Home 
Your quilting turned out lovely! The quilt is beautiful. And whether you think so or not, it is your pattern. You see, this is why the history of a quilt block may have more than one name. You did copy it, straight from your brain! Congrats on your feature with moda bakeshop!
You know your mistakes and no one else will unless you tell us. It looks great. I love it.
Your wreaths are great…..no one will notice the odd plumes once it is washed 🙂 Love all your tips to use for your quilting and marking. Enjoy reading your thought process. As for the pattern, move past any guilt since you gave credit as best as you could to the prior published one. Your version came from your brain anyway.
The way I understand it, as long as your construction methods are different you are not copying someone else’s pattern. Anyway as many quilters as there have been through the years there are bound to be similar patterns. We just have more access these days and it is easier to compare patterns. I have seen published patterns for sale that are the same–at one quilt shop they had them hanging side by side. So you are not the first nor will you be the last, just go,forth and design!
First of all your artistry in your quilt making is breathtaking. I am in awe of your talent.
I understand your quandary about designs. I have run into a similar issue when designing my cards. I look at so many cards that it is hard to know if it is mine or something I have seen before.
Your quilting is beautiful. I am working on mastering that skill on my home machine. I want to try the ribbon candy next! In response to similar patterns, I am working my way through “The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt” book which uses classic blocks. Just today I was amazed at how many blocks there are with different names and yet they look the same! I think you need to ease up on yourself 🙂 But I know how hard that is to do, I beat myself up over things to.
Perhaps I do, but my integrity is very important to me, I cannot do anything that would make it hard to look myself in a mirror. The thought that people would believe I had plagiarized someone else’s design made me sick to my stomach. I have never copied from anyone else and never would. I needed to make that clear.
Carole
Fantastic job on freehand quilting…love your work, Carole, and thank you for the time you take to show us what goes wrong and how to fix it. I agree with Sandra, above. Many quilts and blocks look the same. You designed an original and there may be another one like it in the future. Who knows? Look how many churn dash “original designs” there are in the magazines. March onward and enjoy!
Thank you, Melanie, and everyone for your wonderful support, it means the world to me.
Your quilt turned out beautifully. Thanks for sharing all the pictures of the process. I’ve never long arm quilted so didn’t realize how much work was involved. Your quilting looks great.
Your quilt is beautiful….I have made Warm Wishes in the past and did not recognize it as being the same.
What a lot of planning, then every set of different stitches, it’s funny, I always thought that quilting on a long arm would be SOOO easy compared to a domestic machine. I like the water eraser nib, what a great idea .And those feathers look great to me. And your design is an original from you, with a different way to cut the fabrics. Well done to credit the previous pattern.
One of the local magazines published a “meet the quilter” article on me a few years ago. They photographed my work and despite me stating loud and clear that one of the quilts was not my design they published that as the lead photo. They didn’t credit the original designer, and I very soon got a call from the poor woman who was understandably very irate. The mag didn’t publish an apology and I had to grovel to the designer. I was so wild, but the deed was done, and in print too, so couldn’t be corrected like an on-line blooper.
Love the quilting you did on this. I too, can’t seem to get the chalk pounce to work. I have abandoned it, and now use markers with my stencils. Great quilting – we would never have noticed your “mistakes” if you hadn’t pointed them out.
There is nothing new under the sun, so my grandmother used to say. =) Your piecing seems easier, and the look is a little different. I don’t think you are expected to know about something that is before your time, Your quilting looks lovely, too. Great choices in design there.
Carole, that turned out great! Thanks for breaking down the quilting steps. I’m still learning and it helps to see how others do it. A tip I learned about using chalk and stencils is to use a foam paint brush instead of the pouncer. It worked great for me, just be sure to tap the excess off the brush before you rub it on the stencil. Don’t agonize over the pattern issue, I’m sure there are others that have set rail fence blocks with plain blocks before. Your technique makes it yours.
Carole it looks wonderful and I believe most patterns today are variations of other patterns sometimes previously published or known though can too be an original and unique creation depending on the origins (spark) from the maker.
I love the quilt regardless of any controversy and really appreciate your time in sharing your LA quilting marking and game plan. It’s nice to see you who makes so many gorgeous items break it down into manageable steps. Just lovely!!!
A lot of quilting pattern are similar. I like yours. You didn’t intentionally copy anyone elses. Your quilting is great. Thanks for showing the steps.
Thanks for sharing all your techniques for your long arm quilting. I have tried to use the pounce and stencils. I will mark an area, get it to my machine and by the time I have “wriggled” my big quilt on my domestic machine I have rubbed off all the chalk. I haven’t tried the method of using the marker as one of the comments suggested. I spent a lot of money on stencils/pounce pads (3) and extra chalk and found it also “bounces” as indicated. It is a “hot mess” in my way of thinking. So far I am having best luck with the water soluble blue pen. Will need to keep my eye out for that “Sew Clean” product. Currently use a spray bottle and mist lightly and that seems to work. Now; about that other quilt pattern…..I swear that there is “NOTHING NEW” in the quilting world in terms of patterns. What is NEW is the fabric choice; the METHOD for achieving the blocks, and that is where your DESIGN sparkles. Your design comes from both of these elements. And you did go back once you were aware. Now I have to go look for the “other” and see it too. Like you, I have only been quilting in this century; and I am sure we are each inspired by things we see along our journey. Yours is lovely!