Ever done a whole cloth quilt? I thought this would be great fun, and a good sample of the work I can do on the wedding dress quilts that I make. And I finished it!
Before I show more pictures, let me describe the process for making the quilt.
Several months ago, The Quilt Show had a series of videos by Sharon Schamber. After watching them, I went to work and designed the pattern for this quilt. It's a fun creative process, you draw out 1/8 of the design, then copy to make 1/4 of the design (so everything is consistent). Then enlarge, and mark on each section of the quilt.
But the actual quilting was just not working .. not enough contrast. I just wasn't happy with it. so I stopped quilting it.
Then I took the Craftsy class Design It, Quilt It: Free-Form Techniques with Cindy Needham. This was a really good class, the first few lessons covered the basics, a good review for me, and I got a few new tips. Then the designing started! After this class, I was able to finish the quilt, and look how it turned out!
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| "front" side |
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| "back" side |
Cindy has a technique called "scribbling" that's a fill technique that really helped me with the shading. Before, the quilt was white, and the design had been sewn in white thread. When finishing it, I used an off white thread for all of the bobbin work, and off white and natural threads in sections on the front. The natural thread came out gold, which was a happy surprise!
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| "front" detail |
The quilt can be displayed on either side, the "back" side is the lighter bobbin side, and the "front" side has the two different thread colors. It's hard to tell the difference in photos, but in person they are quite different.
I can't decide which I like best - which do you like?
Mary
This is beautiful. Thanks for posting. I have a very plain wedding gown (all beaded bodice, but the shirt is just white satin), so this is exactly the kind of wedding gown quilt I am hoping to make. Can I ask what kind of machine you used? I just have a Brother se400 that does free arm quilting, which is fine for using on my normal projects. But I'm worried the slippy satin really needs a long arm machine.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I've made several wedding dress quilts with satin fabric, and it is really pretty with the quilting. I've found that iron on interfacing, or basting spray is helpful with the slipping, otherwise it can shift.
DeleteI have a Brother cs 6000 sewing machine that I use for piecing, and for quilting I use a stretched Juki on a Grace frame. It's considered a mid-arm.
I really don't know how the quilting would go on a smaller machine, I think you could do it, if the quilt wasn't very big and you use iron on interfacing, or basting spray.
Good luck! If you have any more questions, or want to talk more about it, let me know.
Here is a link to some other wedding dress quilts I've made if you haven't seen them, several are at least part satin. http://marymansonquilts.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_19.html