Sunflower-Bee Block Quilt
With Debbie at Jewell's Custom Quilting
This was a fun quilt that I long-arm quilted for a customer.
Top Fabric: The blocks are a simple square with a side and bottom strip. It is a busy quilt pattern because the fabric collection has a lot going on. The Quilt Piecing was done is a fun way by rotating each square to move the strip-edges to different positions that adds interest to the over-all design. I love a quilt that has borders because it brings a framing to the quilt. This border has a detailed top and bottom border with a tough of "flying geese" triangles and a diamond center point. This pattern can be done with really any fabric collection. The body would be a great design for a quicker assembly and stitching. Any border can be added to add interest and framing.
My customer chose the bulk of her fabric from the Missouri Star Quilt Company collection, "Show me the Honey" and this is the search site:
https://www.missouriquiltco.com/products/show-me-the-honey-floral-yellow-yardage
My customer was able to find "Show me the Honey" layer cake from Etsy. She only used one layer cake and added more fabric of choice that complimented this fabric set.
Tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company:
Printed Directions:
Digital Directions:
Backing Fabric: The backing was a wide-width yellow with variegated swirling yellows.
The fabric is:
Wide Back Painter's Watercolor Swirl Gold by Riley Blake Designs
Here is a picture of the backing with Sunflower Simple Stitching. When I take pictures of my quilting, I often like the light to shine from an angle to show the texturing that the stitching gives to the fabric. This quilt had the right amount of texture from the layering, batting, and stitching combined. I was very pleased.
Thread: I use Texas Specialties for my long-arming. I have used T.S. since 2007 and have been so happy with their color selection and quality.
I order and use their: Tex 30 PERMA CORE
Here is their web site for thread options
Here is their color palette web site for thread choices.
I keep a good variety of their color choices. But if I have someone who wants a special order, they can choose a thread color and I will order it or something that is close to the customer's color choice. There is an additional fee for that but it only takes about 7-10 days for delivery.
For this quilt project, I looked at thread color options for this quilt. Natural, yellow, and Antique-Gold (dark tan). In considering which thread would compliment the quilt top and show up on the backing fabric, we chose the Antique-Gold. The best way to evaluate your thread choice, it is important to look at a single thread strand across the topping fabric to see which thread color best compliments the quilt piecing. The thread choice should compliment the fabric and not over-power the quilt design. At the same time, the thread should not blend in so well that the stitching and stitch design are not seen. When a quilter stitches a quilt together, if the stitch design blends in so well that the stitch design can not be seen, it is disappointing to loose the stitch and how it was suppose to compliment the pieced work.
Here is MSQC's web site for this batting:
If a customer does not have their own batting, I offer 100% cotton and bamboo batting which is 50-50 cotton-bamboo. Along with 80-20% batting, the 50-50% cotton-bamboo offers strength and durability along with the great benefits of bamboo.
Stitching Design: Like I have said before, I think it is important to "shout out" others when you have had a great experience with them. I mainly used Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio by Kim Diamond since 2007. For this project we chose Sun Flower Complex for the over-all panograph stitch design for this quilt.
Because of the many fabric designs that were used in this quilt, we could have gone with bees, bees with honey jars, or a variety of several stitch options. We chose SDQS's Sun Flower Simple. When ever you piece a quilt top that has squared angles to the pieced quilt blocks, it is usually best complimented by a stitch design that has curves, waves, or flowing movements to the stitching. This combination of curves and straight lines, bring a balance to the entire project as a whole and the finish project blends together well and is easy on the eye, to capture the project in it's entirety. Please go through the catalogue of design stitching at Sweet Dreams, you will not be disappointed!
Now that the quilt is stitched, it's time to take it off the quilt frame and take a look. I am pleased with the results. Here are a few more pictures before the quilt goes back to the customer for trimming and binding.
Thank you L.B. for bringing in a great quilt project and for letting me be a part of the process.
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