Welcome to Mountain Top Quilting Studio

"Oh, just do whatever, Kay. You know I always like what you do. Just surprise me," said Darlene, and that was the start of an adventure.

How would you quilt this quilt for Darlene?

These are the things we know:

She wants to use her 20% off cupon for an edge to edge quilting design. (Whew, that really helps narrow the possibilities doesn't it. VBG)

The piecing is definitely the star of this project and the quilting needs to play a supporting role.

A pattern that has lots of rounded shapes in the design will help soften the sharp pointiness of the piecing design.

She will be giving this quilt as a gift to her brother who lives in Hawaii.

Darlene fussed and fiddled with this difficult stretchy multi-bias-edged patchwork and did a very nice job ... but ... there are areas that need a little nudge here and there.

We will be using Warm Bond for the batting and a King Tut varigated thread for the top.

As the quilt hung on the design wall "talking" to me each time I walked by I kept thinking about the rich saturation of color in Darlene's fabric choices. The pattern is very exotic by nature in the piecing, the name (Hawaiian Star), and with the many batiks used in the patchwork.  The quilting design needs to be simple and not too dense to complement the piecing and overall patchwork design. The quilting pattern needs to be subtle ... just a hint of a recognizable elemnt here and there ... more texture than design.

I have an idea ... I remember my Jungle Fever Collection I had drawn out last summer. I remember that I was unhappy with the collection because the blocks seemed to march across the quilt top in neat static rows no matter how much I played with concatenation and putting them in different ordering in the repeats.

"Go back and take a second look, Kay," I said to myself. "Maybe the regulated marching rows isn't as bad as you thought ... expecially when mixed in across all this detailed piecing." So I decided to give it a try.

The quilt sandwich is loaded; the computer is on with Creative Studio all booted up ... but wait. Oh no! When was the last time I used the concatenation function? I don't know about you, but I don't use it often enough to remember all of the set up steps. Now what am I going to do? I can plan it out in AutoSketch, but that still won't help me when it is time to hit the button to QUILT on my Statler. It's too late to call my friend Al and beg for help. Oh woe is me, how ever do I get myself into these messes? But wait ... there is joy in Mudville after all!

I don't have to call Al after midnight his time (he - or Barb - would shoot me) because I have his DVD Understanding Creative Studio. My lifesaver Al comes to my rescue right there on my computer screen reminding me how to set up the concatenating function step by step.

And so I put all my patterns up on the screen, and unfortunately, they were still marching in nice straight rows up and down over and across the quilt top. Drat! But wait, what about that alternating function. Let's see what that looks like.

By Jove, Myrtle, I think we've got it. We've hit pay dirt!!!!

 Take a peek and see what you think ...

You can find the JUNGLE FEVER COLLECTION newly added to the store, and to help you get started I've included a freebie for you to add to your quilting pattern library. Just click on the on the link for your machine type to be connected to the file dowload.

Click HERE for the Statler QLI.

Click HERE for the IntelliQuilter IQP.

Enjoy your free pattern. I would love to hear your ideas about how you would have quilted Darlene's quilt and I would love to have pictures of your quilts using this great collection to add to the gallery. Just drop me an email with a jpeg attached. TIA

LO credits: Scrap Girls

Comments

• Kay, sorry to be slow, but it is not clear to me what you did. Did you use the condatinating function or simply the alternating function? Would love to know. I'm using your Gossamer E22 right now with alternating function. It is stitching out well, would love to do other functions with it.
  by Linda Morris on 23 April 2009 at 4:05 p.m.
• Kay, This is just what I needed to read about. I want to do concatinating but can't remember how to set it up. I watched Al's DVD, but still need additional information. I've never done a whole cloth before. Do I stitch out a border first or sew out the designs, then stitch a border? Any help with this would be much appreciated. Thanks, Callie
  by Callie on 16 April 2009 at 9:28 a.m.
• Kay, what an amazing artist you are! I love your quilts!
  by kerryveale on 15 April 2009 at 11:25 a.m.
• Well Kay as always you have done a great job. Hope I can finish my Hawaiian Star so you can quilt something beautiful on it.
  by Cheryl Jackson on 07 April 2009 at 10:05 a.m.

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