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Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Metro Medallion Quilt

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This is Yvonne’s Metro Medallion quilt and it is a pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful.    She requested custom quilting and it took me a bit of time to figure out a plan but once I had that in place it came together well.    I had a lot of inspiration for the designs from the Sew Kind of Wonderful blog and Jenny’s quilting of their cover quilt which you can see here.   Yvonne didn’t add the diamond pieces in the center of the white background so that gave me a space to play.  I added my favorite pedal feather motif and surrounded it with pebbles and then did a similar flowing feather motif Jenny used on hers.  It filled the space beautifully!  I then did the two curved lines in the grey fabric and the U-turn design on both sides of that to make the curved line pop! 
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For the border I used a pumpkin seed design and added the U-turn quilting on both sides to make them pop as well. I originally started to quilt my favourite curved echo border design but stopped and changed it to this. I think it has a more modern feel that the quilt wants.
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One thing I try very hard to do when I’m quilted a dense design is to make sure the quilting designs are even in size and spacing so it will lay flat in the end.   It really helped that Yvonne’s piecing was excellent so I wanted to make sure that the heavy quilting designs didn’t warp it.   I was very happy when I took it off the machine and laid it on the floor to see it perfectly flat!
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I used quite a few rulers on this quilt so thought I would share those with you.    First is my most used ruler, the Little Girl ruler from Gadget Girls. I use this one for all my stitch in the ditch, just love it!  It is getting a bit dinged from a few close calls hitting the hopping foot but it has survived my abuse well.  This was the first ruler I bought and would recommend it to all beginner quilters.
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The next ruler is a new purchase, it’s the QCR Sidekick made by Sew Kind of Wonderful and it has the same curve as their Quick Curve Ruler.   I used it to stitch in the ditch around the medallion designs and to add the curves in the grey fabric.  It worked very well and even though you have to switch between two rulers as you go around the design I didn’t mind that as having the right curve that matched the piecing made that worth while. I know I will get good use out of this one as I love making their patterns!
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Then for the diagonal lines in the Medallions I used the Crossing Hatching Ruler from Topper Tools.  This ruler attaches to your leveller bar and they make a few styles for different machines.   This was the second ruler I bought during my first year of longarm quilting and it has paid for itself may times over!
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Last but not least is my newest purchase, The Quilted Pineapples Curved Templates.  I used her 8” template to make the border design and I was very impressed with the quality and marks on this ruler.  Think this might be my new go to curved ruler as it fits nicely in my hand and easy to use.  I will have all the sizes soon so look forward to trying them all out!
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So that was a lot of rulers for one quilt but it is nice to get the opportunity to use them.  This quilt took me 4 days to quilt and it is a lap size.  Quilting this intensely is great for the brain and the creative spirit but I think I’m ready for a panto next!   Wish I could have gotten outdoor pictures of this quilt but it has been snowing on and off for days now and haven’t seen the sunshine in awhile!
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*Edited on Feb 11 to added a few snow pictures!

27 comments:

  1. You made that one sing even more with your wonderful quilting!

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  2. Beautiful Kathy! This quilt is really striking, and I love the ruler work!

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  3. Gorgeous! I'm hoping that someday in the near future, I will find myself attending a "Ruler How To" class taught by the amazing Kathy of Tamarack Shack fame;)

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  4. Gorgeous quilting, Kathy. Fantastic quilt, Yvonne. Jenny and Helen's designs scream for custom quilting. It was great to see all the rulers you use, Kathy. I have looked at the Quilted Pineapple templates to help with marking but can't decide which size would be the best to test out. Suggestions?

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  5. Wow. Fantastic job!! I love everything you did. Thanks so much for sharing the rulers you used and where you used them. I also have the crosshatching rulers from Topper Quilts. They're fabulous to use. I just love your work!

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  6. Thanks so much for taking us along on your quilting expedition! As one who uses a fixed/sit-down long/mid arm, it is a tad more of a challenge to use some rulers easily but the ones you used do seem "user friendly" for me, too! Your stitching brought out the perfect inner beauty of this one for sure!!!!!! A fab finish!!!!!!

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  7. I really like the treatment in the grey. Cool.

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  8. Your quilting is perfect for this quilt. Well done you

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  9. Wow! Spectacular quilt - the piecing is wonderful, but the quilting REALLY brings the whole thing to life!!!!! Awesome work!!!

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  10. Beautiful Kathy! Love everything about it. You always manage to bring our quilts to life. 😍

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  11. Its a work of art Kathy!!! OMG. Just amazing quilting and designs. Thank you for the kind words. :-)

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  12. OH my word, Kathy! This is just stunning! Your work is perfect for this quilt and brings it up to a spectacular level. Thanks for sharing all the rulers - I still hope one day to get a longarm machine, and carefully collect all these tidbits. (oh, and hey - did I get my mail thing fixed so that blog comments actually do send you notification that I've been here?)

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  13. It's fabulous - I'm speechless! Thank you also for the information about all the different rulers you used :)

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  14. The quilt design is lovely but your quilting truly takes it over the top. Honestly, your quilting is just fabulous! Thanks for posting all these photos...I'll be drooling for awhile now...

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  15. I have been eagerly awaiting your next post and was delighted to find this quilt. the detail in this quilt is amazing. I am only new to quilting and did not know you could use rulers. Can you only use rulers with a long arm machine or can you use them to free motion quilt on a standard sewing machine?

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    1. Yes you can use rulers on a domestic machine if you have the right foot! Check out Patsy Thompson's video, she has been trying out ruler work on her domestic machines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDwH8ChGOTA#t=46
      Also check out Amy Johnson's YouTube videos. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAla5TFridJfG2Dki-GQr_M9hYpG-IY7V

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  16. It is totally spectacular, Kathy! I think this may be some of your best work, what do you think?

    I am glad I was late reading, because the snow pictures are my favourites!

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  17. Wonderful quilting...and as always a great display. Question about the Quilted Pineapple rulers. Are they a different curve than Deloa's boomerangs?? I saw the new rulers on the QP blog.

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    1. The lines on QP rulers are all evenly spaced 1/4" across the whole arc while some of the Boomerang rulers have a narrowing of the lines the closer you get to the outside edge. I prefer my lines even across the whole arc for the work I do, I'm not sure the reasoning for the narrowing of the lines on most of the Boomerangs.

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  18. Wow Beautiful work Kathy.... I love how the quilt now "pops". You are such a fantastic quilter.

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  19. Your work is truly an inspiration to us newbie longarmer. I hope to be able to do that one day. And thank you for the info on the rulers. I want to try some but with so many options available it is hard to know which ones are the best ones to get.

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  20. This is such a beautiful quilt. The quilting - WOW!

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  21. Outstanding!!!! Thank you for showing the process and telling us about the rulers you used. Now I can't stop myself from sewing at least some blocks of this pattern and try some fancy quilting on it.

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