I recently revisited a design I had abandoned from nearly 10 years ago. Students had seen some of my work from this period which included a lot of couching with yarns. They asked if I would teach a class on this type of quilt so I decided to give it a go.
Keeping in mind several calls for entry I had seen, I decided to make something tall and skinny – how about another diptych? Vicki Welsh agreed to custom dye my two favorite gradients, Barrier Island and Sugar Maple, lengthwise at 6 feet.
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I set out to design my quilts on the Rapid Resizer website. This website does so much: resizes your images, tiles the pages so you can see how your printer will print them, vector conversion of your images, easy changes to line drawings or sketches to save ink, create stencils, etc.
Once I had the pages printed out and taped together I traced each section onto the shiny side of freezer paper. My original design had squares in the corners as you can see here, but I soon abandoned that idea since they simply did not fit the flow of the design.
Each piece of freezer paper is ironed onto the back of the fabric and cut out with a quarter inch seam allowance. I just eyeball this seam allowance and mark the stitching lines with a pencil for accuracy.
I pinned my original taped pattern to my design wall and then pinned the quilt to that as I constructed it.
Here is a series of small images showing you how I added, subtracted and changed my mind as I went through the process.
I chose to quilt some more circles just using thread in the areas which needed more due to the earlier abandoned corner squares.
I finally cut these two quilts apart and decided to do the couching of yarns on my domestic machine so that the sparkle of the Madeira Supertwist thread would show.
The couching also defined the circles much better and created a nice flow around the quilts.
I’m pretty pleased with final result. I did not use a stabilizer in this quilt so it was a little bit of a challenge to get it squared up. It’s all about putting the facing on correctly!
I’ll be teaching a Twists and Curves Virtual Live Class on Mar. 8 & 15. You may learn more and sign up here. If you are a repeat student, be sure to use your coupon code and also be sure to sign in before registering.
You may also join our Facebook Group to find other supportive people who love to quilt and sew.
This is a stunning piece!
Could you please elaborate on your step to cut the two pieces apart?
Thank you and sure, I’ll try to explain! They were two separate quilt tops from the beginning but I loaded them both on the longarm for quilting with one piece of batting and one backing. I tried couching them on the longarm but, alas, the longarm doesn’t zig-zag and the straight stitches just get buried in the yarn. I much prefer seeing the metallic thread zig-zaging over the yarn. It looks much more finished and I love the sparkle. When I knew I wanted to couch them on the domestic machine instead, I simply trimmed all the extra batting and backing off both pieces to proceed. Hope that clarifies things.
Hello, I would like to sign up for the “Twists and Curves quilt” on March 3 and 15. I’m reading the supply list instructions and my question is: Do I have to drawn my own quilt, but is ok to use circles and curves like yours. Or could be a different one?
Also, I already purchase rapidresizer . Will you teach in class how use my pattern or I need to be ready with everything done ( the drawing ,resized and printed out?)
I hope your understand my question. Thanks
Lidia
I’m so glad you are considering joining the class and it’s also good that you already have Rapid Resizer. I will be showing you how to use Rapid Resizer in class. You do not need to have your design printed out before class but you may if you wish. Please feel free to create one of your own but use curves and circles similar to the examples I’ve shown on the sales page. If you would like to email me your design before class you may do so at rachelderstine@artfulquiltingandsewing.com. I look forward to meeting you! Rachel
😊 Thanks.
I’m going to sign up for this great class. It my one question is their going to be a video available for us to access afterwards?
Thanks
Yes, absolutely! I will be recording the class then sending the link to students a few hours after class. Looking forward to meeting you!
Rachel