Camping with the girls - fancy quilting on busy fabrics

Some quilters say that it doesn't make sense to put fancy quilting on busy fabrics in scrappy quilts because the quilting doesn't show very well.  That is one approach.  Another alternative is to use fancy quilting to add even more texture to the quilt.  It all depends on how much time you want to put into the quilting.  I am growing fond of Camping With the Girls.  I plan to keep it for myself.  I want it to be special so I don't care how much time I spend on the quilting. 

I collect good quilting stencils in assorted sizes.  (Why would I collect bad ones?)  Then I wait for opportunities to use them.  For this quilt, I was able to select 4 different stencils to fill space.  This is one of the spaces to be filled.

This is the stencil I selected for the space.

It would be difficult to mark a fancy shape like this well enough to see on the fabrics in the space to be filled .  In addition it would need to be done for each of the 12 blocks in the quilt.  In the end this visually-challenged quilter would have trouble seeing the markings well enough to quilt.  An alternative is to use Golden Threads paper.  This involves cutting the necessary size squares from Golden Threads paper, marking the quilting design on one of the squares, pinning up to 15 layers of the paper together, and then stitching through the layers with your sewing machine (no thread in needle).  The end result is that you have up to 15 pieces of the paper with the design marked on it.  You'd want to use a heavy needle such as a jeans needle to make the perforations more visible.  These are the papers with the perforations showing the quilting design:

Notice the beautiful fabric in the background.  That is the upholstered seat of my relatively new dining room chairs.  A little Christmas gift to myself.  Back to the subject at hand.  Notice that the layers of Golden Thread papers were pinned together so they wouldn't move during stitching.  I used to do the perforation step free-motion which was quick and did not involve turning the paper.  Now I use the walking foot with the stitch length set on 1.5.  This results in greater accuracy and perforations that are closer together, which makes it easier to remove the paper after quilting.

The Golden Threads paper is not cheap and is only available in pale yellow.  Someone told me you could just buy regular tissue paper in whatever color is best for the current project.  I tried that and will never do it again!  Regular tissue paper is not as durable as Golden Threads paper so it made a terrible mess.  It was awful.  Really.

When ready to start quilting, peel off one of the papers and attach it to the area to be quilted.  If you look at both sides of the paper, you will notice that one side is smooth and the other side has bumps.  Place the paper on the quilt with the bumps up.  That side is easier to see.  Pin the paper along the edges to hold it in place.

Determine a good place to start quilting to have the minimum number of starts and ends.  This stencil was a continuous line design with one start and one end.  I make it a habit to quilt the right half of the design first because it is usually necessary to roll the quilt on the right in order to quilt the left half of the design.  Be sure to replace the jeans needle with a normal needle prior to quilting.  Don't try to pin all of the papers before rolling the quilt.  The papers will get torn due to the rolling and handling.  Pin each paper when you are ready to quilt that block.

Next comes everyone's least favorite step - removing the paper after stitching the design.  Some quilters wait until all quilting is finished and then remove paper while watching TV.  I prefer to deal with it one block at a time.  If left until the end the papers get torn and little scraps get distributed all over the room.  I am not a fan of cleaning so I try to keep things neat as I go.  This also allows me to examine my quilting stitches to make sure tension is good before moving on to the next block.  I find it helpful to have good tweezers to remove little bits of paper that are stuck under the stitching.  After I think all of the paper is out of the stitching, I use a pet hair pickup brush to get the tiny pieces. 

Then I admire the block that I just quilted.  I get up, move around, have a drink of water or some beverage of choice, and then move on to the next block.  It's good to have breaks when doing very precise work.

After I have quilted all the fancy shapes in the entire quilt, I will probably add some stippling which will make the quilted designs stand out more.

I love quilting fancy shapes!