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hand guided quilting

Longarm Quilting

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A book cover with different designs on it.

by kustomkwilts

Free-Motion Framework book - Giveaway!

I am delighted to announce that I had the honor of contributing to Jen Eskridge's new book from CT Publishing called Free-Motion Framework. It's an amazing book that offers tips and tricks for really building your free motion quilting skills. There are so many amazing contributors (17, in fact!) in Jen's book, you've really gotta check it out! Keep on reading to the bottom for two separate chances to win![caption id="attachment_934" align="aligncenter" width="240"] Free-Motion Framework Book[/caption]Head over HERE to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway! Jen will be announcing the winner on June 19th (entry closes June 18). Prizes include: Clover marking tools, Clover Wonderclips, HandiQuilter machine quilting rulers, and a couple of copies of the book! AND...For a second chance to win, I'm giving away a copy as well, courtesy of C&T Publishing! Head over to Instagram @kustomkwilts and enter for your chance to win a copy of the book by: Following my instagram account @kustomkwilts Liking the giveaway post Tag a friend! You must do all three to be entered to win! My giveaway will close Sunday, July 10 and I'll announce the winner Monday July 11, 2018. The giveaway hosted by me is closed. Congratulations to Marnie Anderson on winning a copy of the book!Free-Motion Framework launched at Spring Quilt Market this past May, and is available on Amazon now. Check it out here! The book includes ten designs that can be transferred to a whole cloth or a single piece of fabric as your quilting guide. I quilted two of the samples included in the book, and really loved how simple the process was for transferring the design to the fabric and then starting to plan your quilting ideas.[caption id="attachment_935" align="aligncenter" width="300"] One of my samples in Free-Motion Framework[/caption]Jen gives lovely suggestions for how to create your own designs and fill the area creatively. This book is a wonderful exercise in working out your quilting muscles and trying something new. The skills to be gained from this are limitless, but I found that it really helped me plan block based quilting designs much more efficiently and gave me some new ideas I hadn't tried before. I really like the idea of using hand guided free motion quilting in conjunction with some simple ruler work and straight lines.[caption id="attachment_939" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A peek at the corner of my other sample in the book[/caption]The picture above is the corner of another of my samples in the book. The designs provided in the book are so simple to use and provide a great study on symmetry in your whole cloth work. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy so I can quilt up some more of these quilts. Don't forget to follow the link in the second paragraph to comment for a chance to win some great prizes in this blog tour of Free-Motion Framework!Stop by each blog this week for a possible chance to win a copy ofFree-Motion Framework. (International winners, outside the USA, will receive a digital copy.) Monday | June 4 ReannaLily Designs (here!) C & T Publishing Tuesday | June 5 Joey's Quilting Co Helen Ernst Longarm Quilting Nancy Zieman Productions, LLC The Blog Thursday | June 7 Wise Craft Handmade Friday | June 8 Kustom Kwilts Living Water Quilter Seamingly Slawson Quilts – Susan Lawson

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A colorful wall hanging with an abstract design.

by kustomkwilts

Graffiti Quilting my Karlee Porter Panel

I know I already posted about attending the Karlee Porter workshop that SAMQG hosted a few months ago--but I really need to post about this as well!  Karlee has some really awesome panels that she designed, and if you haven't felt them in person, they are buttery soft.  This one is called "Explosion" (picture is from Karlee Porter's website), and if you want one, click HERE to order your own!  And FYI, this one is ginormous!   "Explosion" printed tapestry designed by Karlee Porter (picture from Karlee's website) I love sewing and piecing and constructing quilt tops as much as the next person, but seriously...it is so awesome to load a quilt top and not worry about the hours, days, weeks it took to piece it.  Especially when you get to skip that part entirely.  There's nothing better that just mindlessly losing yourself in a quilt while quilting.  This is my ultimate stress reliever. The back of the quilt (Tula Pink wide back) I haven't hung this one yet, as I haven't bound the edges, but I will update this blog post once it's finally finished.  

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A cake stand with cupcakes on it and a microphone

by kustomkwilts

Ice Cream, You Scream Quilt FREE PATTERN

Who wants a free Ice Cream, You Scream Quilt Pattern? Well today is your lucky day!!!You have to check out this adorable fabric line Michael Miller Fabrics just released. The line is called Ice Cream, You Scream and the colors are everything! Also, there's this border print that is just dying to be put in a quilt (or made into a little girl's skirt!!), and nearly makes me swoon! I got a chance to get my hands on this fabric to design a quilt for the release, and I'm not gonna lie...I spent a few hours just playing with the fabric and coordinating Cotton Couture. It features sweet ice cream cones, sundaes, and the best stripes. It reminded me of the 4th of July and ice cream socials and everything pure in the world. The best part is, Michael Miller Fabrics is offering this pattern as a freebie--you can get your own PDF pattern download from their website.[caption id="attachment_944" align="aligncenter" width="881"] Ice Cream, You Scream Quilt - Picture from Michael Miller Fabrics website[/caption]The pattern is for "confident beginners", which just means you need a general knowledge of foundation paper piecing and fussy cutting. I fussy cut the border pieces so the ice cream sundaes were centered along the center of the borders, and the cornerstones in the border were fussy cut to showcase the cute little ice cream phrases on the fabric.I had a blast designing and piecing the quilt. I had even more fun quilting it! I used Glide thread (from Hab+Dash) and Quilter's Dream batting in the quilt. I used a few different colors of thread and matched them to the different fabrics. Most of the quilting was handguided free motion quilting, with the assistance of straight rulers for the grids.[caption id="attachment_946" align="aligncenter" width="348"] Ice Cream Cone Quilting[/caption][caption id="attachment_952" align="aligncenter" width="669"] Cornerstone block quilting[/caption]I'd love to see what you do with the pattern--the foundation paper piecing blocks are pretty quick to sew up. Just remember to shorten your stitch length (I like to use 1.5) so the paper is perforated enough to tear away easily and print your paper piecing templates at 100%. Then add your sashing and borders and voila! Don't forget to grab your free copy, and check out the pattern (pictured below). Happy sewing!!![caption id="attachment_953" align="aligncenter" width="232"] Ice Cream, You Scream Quilt[/caption]

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A book cover with a picture of a quilt.

by kustomkwilts

Quilting Leslie's Kaffe Fassett Quilt

Man, oh man! I had the honor of quilting this awesome Kaffe Fassett quilt by Leslie Tucker Jenison. Leslie pieced her quilt based on Kaffe Fassett's quilt pattern from the book Quilts in Sweden (pictured below-photo from amazon.com), using his fabric. Leslie also pieced the backing using some awesome linen and polka dots.Leslie had requested some straight line quilting to follow the lines of the fabric pattern--I loved that idea. Quilting a quilt like this using a concentric design can be a challenge on the longarm, and you sometimes end up advancing and rolling back the quilt on the frame back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, (did I say back and forth already?) etc. To avoid doing that ONE MILLION times, I connected some of the lines, and I really liked the outcome of the quilting look.[caption id="attachment_926" align="aligncenter" width="469"] Quilting close up[/caption]The lines of this fabric are so amazingly deceptive and provide the illusion that this was painstakingly pieced. I love the wonky look of the finished quilt and really found the design brilliant! I have been wanting to do a stripe study (kind of like how some people do color or quilt block studies) for so long, and this made me move that up my priority list. Someday soon I'll start that project.The thread used was Magnifico in black and batting was Quilter's Dream Orient with Quilter's Dream Wool layered beneath the quilt top. This was quilted usingelectric channel locks on my Innova longarm (hand guided), and those electric channel locks make all the difference. I recently upgraded and had those installed from the basic manual channel locks that come on the machine.The difference is this:Manual channel locks: walk to the back of the machine and engage the channel lock quilt a straight line stop the machine walk to the back of the machine and disengage the channel lock walk to the front of the machine and move to new point repeat 1-5 over and again Electric channel locks: Push remote button from front of machine to engage channel lock Quilt a straight line stop the machine push remote button from front of machine to disengage channel lock move needle to new point repeat 1-5 as needed (and your legs are breathing a huge sigh of relief from all that walking you just saved yourself) I digress. Here's some more amazing eye candy from Leslie's quilt.[caption id="attachment_923" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Leslie's Kaffe Quilt[/caption][caption id="attachment_928" align="aligncenter" width="293"] Angled close up[/caption]If you're interested in purchasing the book, you can check it out here on Amazon. 

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Quilt with colorful animal silhouettes

by kustomkwilts

Quilting applique and some modern maples

I just love some good free motion quilting! Last month, I quilted some amazing client quilts. One quilt was a BOM from a local quilt shop - Sew Special in San Antonio, TX, and another was pieced by Kasandra Lee from the SAMQG. The first quilt I mentioned was a quilt pieced by Katelen Postert that started as a traditional BOM using Moda's Grunge line. Katelen added her own special touch and added some amazing animal appliques to really make this quilt special. Katelen is so talented, and that mini-parade of wildlife strolling down the center of the quilt is just perfection![caption id="attachment_1035" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Katelen's Quilt[/caption]When I met with Katelen for her quilting consultation, we decided on some clean straight line quilting (not too dense), and outline the appliques with some stitch in the ditch and surround them with medium-sized swirls. I used Glide thread in a 50 wt. light teal color that matched the duck (along with a lighter cream color for the swirls), and used a single layer of Quilter's Dream Wool batting.[caption id="attachment_1034" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Duck Applique[/caption][caption id="attachment_1032" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Longarm View[/caption]I was so in love with Katelen's color choices and her addition of the applique was such an awesome touch. Here's a portion of the finished quilt with the applique. Bravo Katelen!!![caption id="attachment_1033" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Katelen's quilt[/caption]Kasandra's quilt was just as exciting for me to quilt. She did a great modern maple quilt with lots of negative space in a cool color palette.[caption id="attachment_1038" align="aligncenter" width="251"] Kasandra's Quilt[/caption]I did some diagonal straight line quilting within the maple leaves to follow the lines of the piecing, and then added some free flowing swirls to the background. The batting used was Quilter's Dream Orient for a functional, soft, and drapey quilt that will be useful in a hot climate.[caption id="attachment_1037" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Longarm View[/caption]And these are the free-flowing swirls I did in the negative space. This is truly one of my favorite fills to do, and so relaxing to get lost in![caption id="attachment_1036" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Swirls![/caption]I'm so happy I can share these quilts made by some very talented women. I love mixing a little free motion quilting with ruler work and I think it makes the quilt really stand out without being overly done. Hope you're getting to do some lovely sewing this week!

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