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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

New York Beauty Quilt

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This is Ulrike’s stunning New York Beauty quilt and she said it took her 10 years to complete this top!  It is made with all batik fabrics and batik backing.    The blocks and border were all paper pieced and I love the blocks put on an angle creating stars in the sashing.   The whole quilt is stitched in the ditch which took the most work and then I rolled it back and added the quilting designs.  I did the same feather in the outer curve in all the blocks, added pebbles to some of the arcs and loops to others.  It took me a while to figure out what to quilt in the sashing but finally came up with the petal curl design the fit in the space nicely.  I have lots of pictures to share!

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The batting is Quilters Dream Blend and the threads are So Fine.

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When I posted a picture of the quilt top last week I had a lot of questions about stitch in the ditch and what threads so here is what I used.   So Fine #456 is the magic gray green that I used on all the blocks, it blended very well with all the colors.  I matched thread with the two purples in the sashing for that design element as I wanted the thread to blend in on the sashing.  I also used a light beige for SID around the outer border spikes.

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When I stitch in the ditch I don’t always stitch in the ditch side.  Depending on the thread I’m using and the final look I’m going for I sometimes will stitch on the high side of the ditch to keep the thread in the same color fabric as the thread.  I did this in the outer border in the light beige fabrics as I wanted the colour spikes to really pop!  

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But in the blocks themselves I just stitched on the low side of the ditch as I was quilting across so many colors it didn’t matter what color of fabric I was stitching in. 

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Here is a better look at the thread I used.

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There were a few spots on the blocks where I switched to the light beige thread as the blocks had a very light background.  And in these blocks I stitch on the high and low side so I stayed in the light fabric like I did in the outer border.  So for me there is no hard fast rule about stitching in the ditch, I do what looks right to my eye.  Also in this next picture you can see where I strayed from the side I was on and stitched in the darker colour, this happens and I don’t panic about it because when you look at the quilt as a whole you never see that!  There were only a few times on this quilt where I was not happy with my stitching and picked out a line or two.  So don’t stress too much when your stitching in the ditch, just take your time and don’t be over critical of it.

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25 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for sharing all the information regarding stitch in the ditch, thread choices, and the fabulous quilt. It is stunning!!!

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  2. Yes, thank you very much, I appreciate your experience on this. It looks fantastic -- time well spent for both you and Ulrike!

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  3. You did not disappoint! The quilting (as usual) is beautiful, I'm sure this will be a much treasured quilt!
    Thank you also for your pointers about SID - as a new longarmer, I appreciate the "forgiveness" that you allow yourself. I was really beginning to doubt myself about my own attempts.

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  4. I was reading Alycia Quilts and saw that gorgeous quilt on her side bar... had to come see it. Thanks for sharing your pictures. NYB is on my bucket list for a long time now.
    Hugs

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  5. Incredible! Both the quilt and the quilting.

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  6. No wonder the quilt has taken so long to finish, it is sooo complicated and just stunning! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on quilting - your last remark on straying to the darker side at places. I'm just learning to stitch with longarm and panic all the time with that issue :)

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  8. Vetween her piecing and your quilting, the two of you have created a masterpiece! I think this may be the most visually stunning quilt I have ever seen. There really are no words...

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  9. This has to be the most beautiful quilt I have ever seen! Her colors and piecing and your quilting....priceless. Thanks so much for letting us know what color of threads you used and also thank you, thank you for the closeup photos of your stitching in the ditch. That is something I'm not very good at but will keep working on.....after I get some gray green So Fine thread!

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  10. What a knockout quilt? The way you have quilted it is just perfect.. Thanks for the tip about the grey/green thread. I'll be adding that to my next thread order.

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  11. I used to be in a retail situation and I attended a few seminars on "color" as related to choosing paint colors for your house and rooms. The biggest rule came as a result of far too many people wanting a perfect match to the tiniest spec of a color in wallpaper or border when comparing color swatches. We were told to hold all the pertinent pieces out and then send the customer more than 6 feet from you, preferably up to 10 and then ask for there choice. When we got into selling quilting fabrics I borrowed that rule and did the same thing with fabrics. Bottom line: Quilts are an art form and you look at the whole.
    How true that is for this stunning beauty and how you treat your thread colors and choices.

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  12. The patience you both have to make such a beautiful quilt! I'm truly in awe. Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Oh wow. It is really stunning. Congrats to her for getting it finished. And thank you for your take on SID. As a longarm newbie I've wondered how people do it. I appreciate the insights.

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  14. What a stunning quilt, and your quilting sets it off beautifully. Thanks for showing it to us.

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  15. Finding a blog about the technical aspect of longarm quilting is hard to do. I'm glad I found yours. Thank you. Beautiful work.

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  16. I love this quilt. You did a beautiful job. What is the name of the Pattern?
    Thanks,
    Stephanie

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  17. most beautiful quilt I've ever seen

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  18. I want that so bad I can taste it! So beautiful!~

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  19. Это супер красивый квилт! Браво автору!

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  20. Thank you for sharing! Gorgeous quilt!

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  21. This is by far the most beautiful quilt I've had the pleasure to see. Is there a pattern avaliable or book. I would love to try something like this. Congrats to you both for a most beautiful collaboration...

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  22. Looks like Karen Stones paper pieced pattern down to separate border.

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