Sometime last Spring/Summer our Bernina store hosted a class with Jacquie Gering on improv quilting. I wasn't able to take the class because I was actually working in the store, but I could not help myself from sneaking pieces of her stash away and sewing them up in between calls and customers. I made some quick progress, speed sewing is a skill of mine, and actually ended up with a decent size quilt top at the end of the day. I went home and added a couple long strips: the solid brown and the geogrand, to make a nice "baby" size quilt. I even started to quilt it the next day. I was going to be done in time to show it at the next guild meeting. The meeting day rapidly approached and I was not finished. Iwent ahead and showed the "work in progress".
Then it sat and waited...for the better part of a year. It is a sad tale that happens often in my house. I decided this past weekend that I should finish it, plus I have a new Bernina 580 that needed a quilting test run. It was awesome! I thought that my first Bernina was my one true love, but it's not true. You can fall in love with a Bernina more than once!
I have been looking at lots of quilt books and trying to master some free motion techniques. I am still green, but I can do pretty nice looking pebbles and some okay swirls. I added lots of straight line quilting using the walking foot and I even brought out the leather roller foot #55 and did some organic line quilting with it. I did my best to take clues from the quilt itself. I enjoyed continuing a line from one piece of fabric into the next piece and adding x's and wavy lines to others. It is improv from the piecing to the quilting and a true sampler of style.
A fun coincidence, on Wednesday Bernina's facebook page linked to a post on Jacquie's blog about how to organize your stash. Jacquie's stash really is the best stash. Every piece I pulled, she would say, "Oh that's my favorite fabric". I have to agree, they were all pretty fabulous and I am pretty smitten with the final quilt. The animals agree.
What a great quilt. Beautiful
ReplyDeleteoh my gosh, it's even more beautiful than i imagined! improv genius!! how much would it cost me to bring it to my house? i could take out a loan!
ReplyDeletefun quilt. I'd like to swipe a few of Jacquie's scraps too!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely fantastic! Love it!
ReplyDeletei like it! your quilting is great - i am still trying to master straight lines but i dream about doing those pebbles some day!
ReplyDeleteVery impressive! I love everything about this - from the colors to the design to the quilting.
ReplyDeleteThings Jaime will teach me: how to do pebbles. (This is an ongoing list. Look out.)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this quilt so much! The quilting is genius!
ReplyDeleteGreat quilt, I love it!!
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is beautiful! I can piece but I am so afraid of quilting it myself. You did such a wonderful job. You should be very proud of yourself. Jacque is a very talented artist I wish I could get scraps from her, she really inspires people like yourself to do their best. You did just awesome quilting, soooo jealous
ReplyDeleteagree with teaginny above.... the quilting is genius. thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteLove all the varying quilting designs! Improv is the best. I like the little furries, too!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and Inspiring. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletePretty Quilt love the cats too.
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It's Marvelous, Jaime! You have a terrific eye to pull all those random fabrics together in such an appealing quilt...and of course, the quilting IS genius!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun way to try out a variety of quilting techniques! It turned out beautiful!
ReplyDeleteGreat quilt. And isnt fmqing fun?!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, really beautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's fabulous!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful choice of colors!
ReplyDeleteIt's gorgeous. Great job! And doesn't it feel SO NICE to finish?!
ReplyDeleteOh, that is wonderful, and to think it is all from scraps!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Love your quilting, not sure it's something i could do. Love it!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! And I love the idea of using the roller foot for organic straight line quilting - I would never have thought of that!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous work! I'm going to come by the store to have you show me how to use that roller foot.
ReplyDeleteHow smart are you to use the leather foot! I want one of those for my Berninas too. I didn't even know there was such a thing. Brilliant! I do love the quilt, you did a fantastic job with it for sure.
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