To quilt or not to quilt is always the question. I am not talking about whether or not to make a quilt for me the answer to that is always Yes. The question I am asking, and I think other quilter's do to, is how to do the final "quilting". Sometimes for me I know exactly how I am going to do the final quilting even before the top is done and other times I get the top done and have no idea how I am going to do the quilting so I let the quilt tell me. No I am not crazy, ok maybe a little, but it is a method I use and I want to share with you.
So how exactly do you let a quilt tell you how it wants to be quilted? Well for me I hang the quilt on my wall and look at it. Sometimes the pattern just emerges and it is so obvious how it wants to be quilted. Other times I hang it on the wall for days and get nothing so I take it down and put it away until the quilt tells me how it wants to be quilted.
I have a few examples I want to go over to give you an idea of what I am talking about. This first one is the Tumbling Blocks quilt I did. I knew from the beginning that with this pattern and the fabrics I had chosen that the quilt would want an all over stippling design and of course the quilt was right. The stippling on this quilt is beautiful and just what it needed to make it perfect.
Not all quilts want an all over stippling design. Some quilts like my Dino Quilt with the card trick design in the middle just want some straight line quilting. And in the case of this quilt straight line stitching was done on the diagonal to accent the diagonals in the card trick design.
Some quilts don't want to be quilted at all, scared of the needle or something...lol. In the case of the Stained Glass Window Quilt with the prairie points around the outside this quilt just screamed for being tied.
Another example would be the Christmas Table Runner I just finished. Since all of the sewing for the top was done on the diagonal then it only seemed right to do a stitch in the ditch on those same diagonals. This produced a chevron effect on the back of the runner that is picture perfect.
The last example I have is the quilt I am working on right now, sorry don't have a current picture of this one. The quilt top I made is actually made up of rectangles and when all sewn together produced small squares in the middle of the rows. When I did hang this quilt on my wall and saw those small squares emerge I knew that that would be where I would do my quilting. So I am doing a stippling effect in the small squares in rows which is giving me a very nice triangle effect on the back of the quilt.
So when I ask the question to quilt or not to quilt it is really up to you and your quilt. You can look in as many books as you like and they can teach you all the different quilting techniques but what it really comes down to is what do you and your quilt want. Don't do an all over quilting if the design call for the quilt to be tied and don't do straight stitch in the ditch if your quilt wants to have stippling. Just relax and do what comes natural for you and your quilt because at the end of the day that is what it really is all about.
As with all of my articles if you would like to see the pictures and examples of the quilts I am writing about please visit my blog at www.bedtimebabyquilts.com/annasblog
Amy Lloyd is the Owner and Operator of http://www.bedtimebabyquilts.com a website dedicated to the making of true patchwork baby quilts. Visit her website each month as she has different promotions ranging from free coupons to free quilted items.
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