Sunday, March 26, 2017

Vintage Look Flying Geese Quilt Finish


A Friday Finish To Show On Sunday


Last week was very productive here. Keester up-- head down. Work hard, and try to keep from getting distracted. I had some long time WIP's, UFO's, etc., which I gritted my teeth and tackled. I'll show those later, but as a treat for cleaning off the shelf I also did some long arming.



 I had been watching an Angela Walter's class on Craftsy, Dot to Dot Quilting, and she demonstrated some techniques I was dying to try out. I've never been one to mark everything out on my quilt ahead of time, and her idea of eyeballing points worked out well for me. She had such enthusiasm along with positive attitude about not being a perfectionist, and it was downright contagious!

*By the way, this class is currently on sale for $14.99, and worth every penny. It boosted my confidence enough to take some big chances with this quilt.


The first of the flying geese I echoed in the cheddar strip fell short of hitting the next line. I could hear Angela's voice saying, "Oh well! Looks fine." That was not something I was going to rip out! The next ones came out better, but they weren't perfect either. If you look closely, some of my pieced geese are missing points, too. This was a scrappy quilt made from squares I was given, and I had not idea what I was doing with them when I first made them. So perfection wasn't high on my list. I was having fun with it like I supposed to.


An Original Border with NO Marking!

I used 3 thread colors to blend the thread with the background. The quilt is more of a reproduction of an antique, and would never have been machine quilted like this. I tried to imagine what designs might have been hand quilted into it, though, and mimicked those. A lattice had me little confused when I used it on four sides of the center. While the sides were okay, I wanted it to blend with the top and bottom. One of the interesting parts of longarming a quilt is the difficulty of not being able to view the whole quilt while quilting. Premarking some parts is crucial. I had to let the problem areas open until I could see it all.



Can you see both ends of the flying geese
were left unquilted? I can repin it into the long arm,
and finish it from this point. No problem!

So I quilted everything I could, and unpinned the quilt from the frame. Laying it out on my cutting table I could make a better connection with extending the lattice design properly.
One thing I was dismayed at were the ridges down the center of the quilt. Flipping back to the front side I could see this was from the rows of flying geese. Those seams had been pressed down--not open, and it was enough to cause a little rise on each row of seams. 


The borders, lattice, and geese were all done with a ruler, but the loops were free hand. Angela also demonstrated backtracking, and I used it with confidence.


I loaded this quilt on my long arm lengthwise parallel to the bars. That worked best with my quilting designs, but my original backing configuration no longer worked. I wanted to use some of the same vintage designs in the back, but they were odd sizes. Mixing them into these strips turned out far better than I originally anticipated, and I have to tell you I was tickled pink. Originally intended as a charity quilt, this turned into a keeper.

The cotton quilt is 65" x 85" finished with a cotton/bamboo batting, and made entirely of vintage fabrics (1980's and back) minus the cheddar. I would never have believed I love these old designs the way I do now. It's just amazing!

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.

Linking up with~
Love Laugh Quilt
Cooking Up Quilts
Quilts My Way

11 comments:

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

A lovely quilt, 'flying geese' are an all-time favourite of mine! And all your quilting is amazing Julie!

Angie in SoCal said...

Marvelous! Off to buy the class. THanks for the link.

Stitchin At Home said...

OH Julie I would keep it too! Your quilting looks perfect!

helenjean@midgetgemquilts said...

Now what is a keester? Is it safe to google this? I must discipline myself to watch my craftsy classes and improve my quilting skills which are so basic . It's all about time management

Lisa J. said...

It's a beautiful quilt Julie with great colours. You did a marvellous job on the quilting of course.

Pam @ Quilting Fun said...

Fabulous! Love it! You are so inspiring. I have wanted to try ruler work and your enthusiasm may be the tipping point. Thanks for sharing.

Barb N said...

Oh, dear! Vintage is 1980 or older? Oh, my. That makes me a truly vintage person, lol! Guess it sounds better than 'retro'. Seriously, your quilt looks great! And you had fun making it. Score!

Sharon - IN said...

That Dot to Dot Craftsy class is yet another one I have signed up for but not watched to the end. I'm sure I could learn a lot more about quilting if I would take the time to watch all the classes! And then of course - put into practice. Your quilt is lovely. I didn't notice the points of the geese. As Angela says, "Oh well, looks fine!"

Kate said...

Congrats on a very fun finish! The quilting looks great. Sounds like the class really payed off.

kupton52 said...

What a lovely quilt, front and back! That cheddar really sets it off and adds to the vintage look. Your quilting is very nice and really adds to the overall beauty of the quilt. As "charity begins at home" (lol)...I think it's only fair that you gift yourself with this quilt.

Gosia @ Quilts My Way said...

Beautiful quilting, Julie. Thank you for sharing !!!