Winter Ice--Quilting Update

Some tiny stippling

I've been making progress on Winter Ice--which was the mystery quilt offered through the quilt guild last year. I decided to use the Ultimate Shape Stencil also for the corners of the star block. Bernie, my 1630 Bernina, provided the technology to quilt these as well as the tiny stippling! I also decided to quilt the setting triangle with tiny stippling. Cindy Needham says that it is important to have sunshine--large spaces and shadow--tight quilting to make a quilt sparkle.

Nine patches with the background completed

Bernie quilted the background squares of the nine patches too! I liked the secondary pattern this quilting produced!

Quilted side setting triangle

Then, it was on to quilting the side setting triangles and side setting squares.  I had planned to use my ruler and stitch straight lines; but, I couldn't use the ruler and ruler foot with Bernie so I free motioned all the lines. I liked the "sunshine" pattern that is visible after quilting.

Quilted side setting square

On purpose, I chose to quilt the sections of the square similarly; but not exactly the same. I quilted the corners the same way! My goal is that the differences would blend. For myself, quilting the same pattern over and over is tough for me to do. I need variety!

Quilted circles are the dominant
motif for the corner squares

These are similar, yet they are different. I found that drawing the circles helped me make the size more consistent.

Thanks to Aaron at Quilting Delights, Joie, my 790 Bernina is up and stitching again! (She needed a part replaced in her balance wheel.) So I had access to the rulers again!

We had our snow storm which kept the grandkids at their home and kept us in our home too! Ten inches of snow in an area that gets maybe an inch sure paralyzes our area. That snow has hung around for over a week! There isn't enough equipment to clear roads and spread gravel. A newspaper article stated that some snow clearing equipment  came from Seattle, Washington! Tomorrow, the forecast is to be in the upper 30s instead of the lower 20s! At any rate, the weather kept me inside quilting the borders.

Quilted lines

I started with quilting straight lines. The ruler worked okay here. I find that I have a hard time determining how much pressure I have against the ruler to the foot of the machine. Sometimes, I think I have contact only to discover the foot isn't close to the ruler after all!

I liked the regular and irregular spacing of the lines. I had thought that I would stitch on some of the open spaces; but, I decided I liked the plain lines best.

Cross hatched arcs

I stitched the swags. I had chalked a design earlier and I took a photo of it with my phone so it was a matter of producing the design!

First, I echo quilted a couple lines in the triangle area and then I cross hatched the center triangular share. The ruler helped me produce good results. I had planned to add a "shadow" in the outer section; but, I decided to quilt a squiggly line instead as I needed a more open quilting design there.

Squiggly line

When I finished the arcs, I stitched the squiggly line. I liked the organic nature of the squiggly line. I had thought about stitching lines here that were similar to some of those in the setting blocks; but, decided I needed something with curves instead.

Corner Design

In the corners, I stitched a similar design. The squiggly line worked well! It was exciting to finish quilting!

I put the quilt in the tub so that I could rinse out the blue marking pen lines. The lines disappeared like magic. I had prewashed all the fabrics; but, the tub water was still colored when I had finished. I didn't have any color migration though! WHEW!

Finished quilting on Winter Ice

I used the washer to spin out the excess water and then I laid it on the floor to dry. As I looked at this photo, the quilting is providing texture the way that I had envisioned. Those wavy edges are going to be a challenge to bind; but, that is a post for another day!