Here we go, after doing some stand-and-stare, I had made the decision to custom quilt this quilt. Settle in for a long and picture heavy post, with lots of detail for other quilters. The only thing I knew from the outset was that I wanted feathers in the strips. I loaded it on the longarm on a rainy day, and got started. Because I was going to quilt from top to bottom, then come back from bottom to top, I needed to stitch all the edges down first. This always makes me nervous, that I won’t get the tension consistent across the quilt top.
But, I did that, then went back to the top to begin the first feather row. I used the seam line between the first two jelly roll strips as the spine.
At the bottom, I stitched across to the next set of strips and stitched feathers in the opposite direction up to the top. Then, I stitched across to the next set to begin going down again.
Stitch a row of feathers, move across, go back the other way.
Each row is opposite the ones next to it. When I got to the frames, I stitched in the ditch around the frame, ending at the same seam line and continued the feathers to the edge.
This is what worries me about stitching the entire edge first. Rolling the quilt back and forth seems to push the top toward one end or the other resulting in wrinkles in the middle.
It seems to get to be more of a problem as I quilt across. I have to loosen the take-up bars on both sides and roll the quilt back and forth a bit to get this to distribute evenly. Then I smoothed it with my hands before starting the next row.
I did this next boo-boo twice, not correctly estimating where the limit of the movement of the sewing head would be. I picked out this mistake.
Then restitched it, and continued on.
Next was to stitch in the ditch between feather strips that were not spines. This will make the quilting consistent across the quilt.
For the bird panels, I have been inspired by Sam Alberts from Quilting Curve Studio, watching her Frames and Fillers videos on youtube. So, I decided on a frame to minimize the fact that the birds are not square.
Then, I did a straight line fill inside the frame on all four sides using my Good Measure ruler. I have that three piece ruler set and it is great for shorter straight lines and a variety of curves. I used the ruler to help do the stitch in the ditch around the outside of the yellow frame and the inside next to the bird motifs.
In the corners, I put a freehand curlicue design.
The last stitching on the panel birds was to outline the birds, leaves and tree limbs.
Next, move to the next one and repeat.
On the embroidered birds, I did a bare minimum of stitching through the motif, just to hold it together, then echo quilted in the background.
When I removed the quilt from the frame, I found two pleats on the back. They are not huge, but will be points off in judging. I thought I was being so careful with the backing, but I must have missed it a couple of times.
Auditioning the binding color, the green was my choice.
I made the binding and stitched it onto the quilt, then took it to the den for the handwork.
Watching sports over the weekend, I finished the handwork. Now, I need to make a label and a sleeve, and attach those by hand as well. I think I’ll make it, there are still 20 days left until the fair. I have to think of a name for it for the label.
Overall, I am really happy with the quilting in the yellow frames. I could have done better with the birds, but will see what the judges say.
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From My Carolina Home 
Absolutely exquisite. You inspire me
I love how you framed the birds with your quilting, Carole!
Beautiful quilting!!
It turned out great and the added detail to the bird blocks is fantastic. Wish you all the best at the fair this year. I don’t long arm my own quilts but I do appreciate those that enjoy this part of the quilting process.
Nice quilting, especially like how you framed the bird blocks.
The florals in your quilt make the birds appear to be in the midst of a beautiful garden. Such creative quilting!
Carole, the quilt looks amazing. You put so much thought, time, effort and love into that piece, and it shows. I know you’re disappointed about the pleats in the back; however, visitors to the show are looking at the front. Not being able to tell where the pleats are in relation to the top or bottom of the quilt by looking at the picture, is it possible to add some sort of a descriptive label and attach it over the pleat? Only consider possibilities if the pleat really bothers you. Otherwise, I would leave it as is; I think it’s perfect.
What a wonderful quilting job you did! I love the way you quilted the frames/birds. I am sorry about the pleats. I never had it happen and now it has on two quilts and I am not so happy about it. I did find one almost disappeared when washed but the others I just lived with. Not a great solution.
Beautiful job with the quilting. Your free motion and ruler work are amazing.
Now here is a silly question….why did you load it with the strips running vertically? My sister in law (Carolyn-aka oneblockwonderwoman) has done quilting for me on her Gammil long arm and I am always amazed at the outcome.
I was wondering the same thing. All those seams make bumps on the bars so that is probably why she got the problem on the back. Also with the seams going along the bars she could have did the feathers in a single stitching., no starting and stopping. We all learn something on each quilt. End results were good though. Pretty quilt.
Yes, I did load it with the strips running vertically, perpendicular to the leaders. I did it this way because my machine does not like to stitch right to left. Loading it with the bars horizontal to the leaders would have resulted in multiple thread breaks with each pass that went backwards, and I thought it would be OK. Next time I might try it with the strips parallel to the bars and not stitch it down all around. Might work better overall, if the thread breaks don’t drive me nuts.
Lovely quilting!! I have found that the only way for me to avoid pleats on the back if I want to do the whole border first is to treat the quilt like I am preparing it for hand quilting first and baste the whole quilt using waving lines with 5 stitches per inch and keeping the edges square as I move down the quilt. Yes, I have to pick out those basting stitches, but it keeps the pleats away and I get to use up thread I don’t ever seem to use. Can you applique birds over the pleats to hide them and continue the theme on the backing?
Thank you for the great suggestion! I’ve never basted a quilt on the longarm, but that may be the way to go if I ever have to do this again.
The combination of ruler work and curlicues in your yellow blocks is exquisite! The ruler work frames and draws the eye to the bird block perfectly.
Custom work comes with a high level of difficulty. The vison of what will complement the quilt, the planning, the rolling back and forth, the execution, etc. If this were Olympic gymnastics, custom quilting would be a 9.5/10 difficulty. It is a big deal to go through all the necessary steps and you’ve done a wonderful job! Gold medal for you!
Thanks for sharing the photos and narrating the details of how you quilted this!
Oh my goodness. Your quilting is exquisite. I am in awe of anyone who can plan the quilting patterns and then execute free motion quilt like this. Surely is inspirational for me just starting out and attempting to going beyond straight-line quilting. Thanks for the in-depth post of your process.
That’s such a pretty quilt! I love the combination of the birds and the floral strips. Your quilting always looks wonderful to me. Hope you get a ribbon for this one!
This is one reason I don’t quilt.My head is spinning just thinking about your work.You go girl…I’ll just enjoy watching you..
You’re right about the quilting in the yellow frames. It shows it off to best advantage.
So beautiful Carole. Definitely blue-ribbon worthy. I love feather quilting and wish my hands would do what my brain sees…ha ha.
You made this quilt so very special!
Your feathers & frames are exquisite. I like your echo stitching around the embroidered motifs. It makes a nice change from stippling. I rented time at a local shop that has 6 – 8 longarm machines available, different makes and models. I did 3 quilts over 3 days and used a different machine for each one. None of the machines would stitch right to left. I used to think it was just my fussy domestic that didn’t like going backwards. We need someone to develop a machine called “Leonardo” that works equally well in any direction in the same way he could write forwards & backwards.
“First Class – Blue Ribbon” – that’s the name of this quilt! Everything so well done.
Thanks for sharing this.
I LOVE the frames around the birds. The birds really stand out and it looks great. Thank you for all the instructions you included for the entire quilt.
I am extremely impressed by your custom quilting. I get hives just trying to do freehand loops. Lol! You didn’t mention what thread you used and I assume you used the same color throughout. Thank you so much for taking the time to take all the pictures and walk us through the process. It is fascinating. Best of luck in all your entries at the fair this year.
Thank you so much! And thanks for asking, usually I do tell you what thread I use. This time it is white Glide on top, and white Bottom Line in the bobbin. Yes it is the same throughout.
Carole, Your quilting is just lovely! Well done Best of luck with the judging! Suzan