THE QUILTED WOLF 🐺

Why is it that when you want something to be just perfect that's when everything goes wrong?

My great niece is also my Godbaby and she has been in love with horses and wolves for years.  For her Confirmation I wanted to make her a wolf quilt.  Patterns for wolf quilts are few and far between but I finally found one and ordered it from equilter.com They had a widget on there where you could see the pattern and change out the fabrics into the ones you liked.  I picked a gorgeous teal, lavender and purple batik swirl that would highlight the Northern Lights in the wolf panel.  It was so pretty that I also ordered it for the backing.  When it came, however, the fabric was almost all white with just a hint, if even that, of the teal, lavender and purple colors that had been so vibrant onscreen.  I went ahead and used it on the pieced top but ordered something called Grape Jam for the backing.  On the top I used a 100 weight silver thread so that it would blend into all the different colors.  Originally, I would have used silver on the bottom also but now that it was a vivid purple I ordered a matching purple thread.  Big mistake!  On the whitish fabric on the top the bobbin thread came through as little purple points whenever I started my thread.  I quilted the whole top section across the quilt in ruler work and then stippled the circles. Then I decided I hated the purple showing through and ripped it all out.  I won't even tell you how long that took. I should have just stopped after stitching the first circle, but I didn't.  So, then I decided to use the purple thread on the top and didn't like that either.  Do you think I learned my lesson the first time?  No. I should have stopped after I stitched the first purple circle and didn't like it but instead I did the whole top strip again hoping I would change my mind and like it ... and then spent another entire day ripping, ripping and ripping. And then ripping some more.  I finally used white thread in 40 weight on the top and the purple thread on the bottom and it turned out the best of the three options. 

Do YOU see vibrant teal, lavender and purple in that white.
Yeah, me neither!

No matter what I did with this quilt I ran into problems. Everything just seemed to go wrong. This is the first quilt I've had difficulties with and it bothered me because I wanted this to be perfect for my Godbaby.  About two thirds of the way through I decided I was just going to make this a practice quilt and a learning experience and I would simply reorder the panel and start over from scratch.  But when I was finished I sat down to reorder the panel and they no longer had it. Aaaaaggggghhhhhhh!  

The wolf is looking at me!

Here is what I learned ... 

Not everything can or will be perfect. And, sometimes, because I'm old I think I can skip the practice part and jump straight to perfect.  But life doesn't work that way.  It doesn't care if you're young or old you've got to put in the practice.  And, most importantly, I learned that there are actually four layers to a quilt ... not three.

There is, of course, the pieced top, the batting and the backing; those are the three layers that everyone knows about, but there is also a fourth layer.  The fourth layer is where it's all quilted together with love❣️ That fourth layer doesn't care about perfection at all.  While I worked on this quilt I remembered my Godbaby as a baby, as a toddler, as a little girl and now as a beautiful young woman.  All my love for her was stitched into this quilt.  Quite honestly, that's all that's important, right?

Your mistakes in life, and in art, and in all things, make you learn and grow and become stronger, which enables you to make the things you're passionate about turn into things of beauty.  Just remember to always add that "fourth layer" into everything you do ... the one where you add in the love❣️

Here is a video taken in dim lighting in order for the quilting to show up better.  Enjoy!  And make sure and stitch some love into your world!

THE QUILTED MERMAID 🧜‍♀️

I am in love!   I am in love with a 68" mermaid!  Who knew quilting could be this fun! 

When I purchased my longarm it was with the intent that I would probably do only ruler work on my quilts.  I had seen all the free motion quilters on the internet and thought I'd never be able to do that. It really is an art form in itself. But after doing my first three quilts on the longarm using rulers I thought to myself, "Why not give free motion quilting a try? Worst case ... it'll look awful and I'll never do it again." So, I ordered a mermaid panel with lots of negative space in it to quilt in.  I got the panel from Hawthorne Supply Company. This is now my favorite place to shop for material. They sell their material in cotton, poplin, knits, jersey and rayon.  Want to quilt a mermaid? They've got quilting cotton.  Want to make a dress to match the quilt? They've got matching material for dress making.  And you can even order knit fabric and make matching mermaid leggings.  See why I love this place! 
Also, they do digital printing.  My little mermaid and her backing fabric were digitally printed.  How cool is that?  They never run out of fabric because they don't buy it by the bolt, they just print it themselves using a digital pattern.  Digital panels are the wave of the future.  And speaking of waves let's get back to this gorgeous little mermaid ....

The Quilted Mermaid 🧜‍♀️

The backing fabric

Every kind of stitching in this quilt, except for the stippling was a first for me.  Doing outlining, pebbles, matchstick quilting, feathers, flowers, free form stitching and concentric circles were all something I hadn't tried yet on a quilt.  So, basically, this entire quilt was a new experience for me.

Stippling the Octopus

The VERY first thing I stitched I hated and ripped out.  It took forever.  I finally rolled it to the back of the take up bar and ripped it from the back using a magnifying glass and a bright light.  Ripping things out on the longarm is a whole different level of rippppping!  Yikes! So, I had a serious conversation with myself.  (S'kay, I talk to myself all the time.) Basically, I gave myself permission to let go of "perfect mode" and just do my best.  This actually made the process really fun.

Ripping out stitches

The mermaid on the longarm

First I outlined everything with monofilament thread. Working with monofilament is such a treat. Not. It looks and feels a lot like fishing line and quite often I'd pick it up only to realize it was a strand of my hair that had fallen on the quilt top and not the thread. That's how thin it is. So, I loosened my tension, used a smaller needle, bigger stitches and half way through the outlining it occurred to me that I could slow down the stitching on the longarm. I hadn't used this function yet. You have to concentrate like mad to stay on the lines to do the outlining and the slower speed really seemed to help with that.  I also used the monofilament for her tail and hair.  It took me ten hours just to do the outlining and the mermaid. As I progressed down the quilt to do the outlining I added lines of basting at intervals because I had left so much open space unstitched that would later be free motion quilted and I wasn't sure how it would do with all the rolling back and forth.

The Mermaid's hair is my favorite part!

Once I started doing the free motion quilting I decided I wanted to try concentric circles around the mermaid's hands and tail to create movement in the quilt.  I was nervous about doing the concentric circles for the first time and getting them round so I zipped off the quilt and put on a piece of fabric. I'm glad I did.  My concentric circles were at first concentric squares and then concentric oblongs and finally concentric wobbles.  When the wobbles started getting a wee bit better I put the quilt back on.

Concentric circles 

Panic time!  I had outlined the quilt from top to bottom so the quilt would no longer zip back on to all three rails.  I had a moment or two, okay, maybe three or more, of complete panic.  Then I remembered the quilt clips I had bought at the BERNINA Creative Center when I went up there for their longarm class.  These are used when you float a quilt, which I've never done yet. I clamped them onto the backing rail but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to roll the quilt onto the bottom rail or just let it hang.  I ended up letting it hang.  (If there is a correct way I'd love for you to leave a comment letting me know how you do it.) And that's where I'm glad that I did all of that basting along the way because everything stayed in place and came out square despite not being rolled onto the rails.  

The Mermaid's tail

This is my fourth quilt on my new longarm and this was the first time that I timed myself.  I ended up at a little over 30 hours from loading until binding.  (I left out the ripping time.)

I put "Mermaid Seaweed" in all four corners.

I really had fun doing the free motion quilting!  It was like doodling on fabric. The hard part is that you don't see the whole panel while you're stitching, only the 24 inches that is currently rolled up in front of you, so you have to plan ahead. I've already ordered another panel to make a mermaid for myself. The one I just made went to a friend of mine with two little girls. I quilted their names onto the quilt. I hope they enjoy it!  

It's not easy to get a photo of the entire quilt that shows the quilting, so I took a video to better see it.  I took the video with the lights dimmed but the quilting showed up that way ...

So, did my FMQ come out perfect? No way!  But, guess what?  I'm gonna get better each and every time!  My Face Book page says that I'm a "Longarm Quilt Artist Wannabe".  Maybe some day I can drop the "wannabe" and realize my dream!  I hope you enjoyed my quilted mermaid 🧜‍♀️  Make sure to pick up a needle and thread and stitch some love into your world today!