Longarm Quilt #62 - When variegated thread is perfect!

This is a really fun 1-piece (I guess that qualifies as a wholecloth) top that made up quickly into a super cute baby quilt. Just popped the 42x52 piece of fabric on the longarm with batting and backing and started quilting.

I used King Tut variegated in Cleopatra on top. See, isn't it perfect? It has all the bright colors of the quilt!:

I used So Fine Ferrari in the bobbin. Ferrari is this bright neon green that I seem to use a lot! I freehand quilted it with a design I call palm frondish - it kinda reminds me of palm branches and is sort of jungley (I'm sure that's a word) like the African animals. I get a lot of quilting ideas from books and this one is from Dawn Ramirez, Pajama Quilter. She has such a friendly, relaxed way of teaching that it just helps a nervous, new longarmer feel more confident. thanks Dawn!

Sometimes it's hard to tell where the quilting lines go, so here's a sketch on top of the photo to give you an idea:

It's such a great allover design cause it's so easy to meander around, fill in all the tiny places and change direction easily. In this pic, you can see how the thread color changes look on the quilt:

I tried to angle the light so you can see the texture of the quilting:

Of course, I had to use more brightness on the back - a blue with crazy green dots.

That's a lot of pictures, but it's such a fun, happy quilt; maybe it will bring a smile to your day.

Longarm quilt #88: Baby quilt finished just in time - my own design!

The baby wasn't due til February so I thought I had a little time. Then the ladies at work told me on 1/16 that the shower was 1/27 - aeeeeieiiiiiiii!  I kinda had an idea of what I wanted to do - random rectangles and squares and not symmetrical. So you know what I've been doing the last 2 weekends; and I was madly sewing on the label yesterday afternoon.

The focal fabric is from the Les Monsieurs collection by Tamara Kate kayajoydesigns.com (she has some great stuff!) that I bought a few months ago with no project in mind. I have a hard time finding boy fabric that I like so thought I'd better snap some of this up from hawthornethreads.com.  See, you never know when buying that random fabric that's calling to you is a good idea! I already had the other fabrics in my stash and all the little pieces are from my scrap baskets so I'm proud of reducing my stash.

Here are some closeups of the quilting. I used 3 different thread colors: white, black & teal.

I really like how this section turned out with the sky fabric above the rocketship and the little patchwork section beside it:

For some parts, I used the fabrics as an idea for how to quilt that section.

I used a snuggly flannel for the backing, hobbs 80/20 batting and a teal So Fine thread in the bobbin. I added the blue outside borders after sending a pic to my daughter. She's a wonderful artist and it definitely gave the quilt a warmer feeling for a baby.

Let me know if you have any questions. I learn something from every quilt I make. I'm happy with the quilting, but I'm still learning what thread colors are best. I don't know what color I would have used if I had to stick to just 1. I only used 3 bobbins, but switching the 3 different colors added a lot of extra time and I did stitch in the ditch around all the dark gray sashing before doing the fancy quilting. Could I have gotten away without SID first? Would a long wavy quilting line in the sashing been an okay substitute for SID? I may need to try this design again to see if no SID would work. I am super proud of my design and love how this turned out.