What happens with your quilt, part 3

**This is the final post in a three part series about what exactly happens to your quilt once I take it home for quilting. Part Three will cover the different styles of machine quilting that are available. Please remember, every machine quilter has different ways of doing things. Just because I do things this way doesn't mean your machine quilter doesn't have a different way of doing things. Be sure to check with your personal quilter before assuming anything! ** 


Before we get started I want all of you to remember this: There are NO QUILT POLICE & NO RULES IN QUILTING!!! No one should be able to tell you what to do with your quilt! They can make suggestions but you do not have to let them talk you into them!  If you want modern quilting on a tradition looking quilt then go for it! If you want tradition quilting on a more modern looking quilt then have at it! Its your quilt and should ed up looking the way that YOU want it to look!

Machine quilting has a number of different styles, from basic simple all over freehand quilting (like a stipple that can be finished in just a few hours, to full blown Heirloom custom quilting that can take weeks to complete. Each and every style has a place in the quilting world, don't let anyone tell you it doesn't! 

Let me say right up front I don't know much about Modern quilting! The modern movement has not hit my area they way it has in others, with only a handful of modern quilters around me I haven't had the chance to do much of that style of quilting just yet. I have done a little modern quilting for a handful of clients and a bit on a couple of my own personal quilts but that's about it! I will talk about it, however briefly after we discus what I would call Show Quilting.  

The most common form of machine quilting my area of Southern Illinois is freehand allover designs such as Stippling, Stars and Loops, Ribbon Meander and so on. These types of designs can be quilted out relatively  quickly even on large King sized quilts so the cost for quilting is the lowest. Why do they quilt out fast? Fewer stops and starts, no set pattern that you have to follow, and no backtracking on a stitching line that the quilter would have to slow down for! Here are a few examples of allover freehand designs for you to take a look at but please remember, i can quilt these designs out on my machine way better than i can sketch them on my iPad! :

Stipple & Twisted Ribbon Stipple

Stars and  Loops & Just Loops

Windy & Swirls

Another common style of machine quilting in my area is Pantograh quilting, or as a lot of the ladies like to call it Row Quilting. Pantograph quilting is a style that is quilted out in rows across the quilt top and can be done by manually moving the machine following a paper pattern with a stylus or a laser light as well as by using a computerized machine that moves for you. Please remember that a computerized machine does not mean faster, as a matter of fact I have seen computerized pantograph patterns that can take over a hour to stitch just on row across a quilt. Pantograph patterns come in many styles and density of quilting, can contain backtracking on a single stitching line, but are always stitched out in rows.

A internet quilting friend of mine, Leisha Farnsworth has designed some amazing Pantograph patterns and if I was a Paragraph quilter I would own pretty much every single one of them! Really I am not exaggerating on this one, they are perfect for today's quilts both traditional and more modern quilts! If you would like to take a better look at what Leisha is doing and to see some more of her designs you can find her on Facebook at Quilting It ~ Machine quilting by Leisha Farnsworth. Here are a few of Leisha's favorite designs for you to have a look at! 

Meadowlark 

Morocco 

Veranda 

Pricing for Pantograph quilting varies a lot in my area. Some machine quilters have a set price for any and all designs that they offer. For instance one area quilter offers to quilt baby quilts up to 40"x60" for only $35.00 no matter what pantograph or allover freehand design is chosen. Other machine quilters in our area have different prices for each photograph offered, based on the time it takes to stitch out the design &/or the density of the design. Others charge by the square inch, once again basting the pricing on time &/or density of the quilted design. 

Next up would be custom quilting, which also has many different styles within itself. When it comes to trying to define Custom Machine Quilting each and every machine quilter tends to have his or her own version of the definition! I'm going to give you my own personal definitions on exactly what i call custom and my versions of the different styles. Remember your machine quilter will more than likely have his or her own definitions so be sure to ask before assuming anything! 

To me custom quilting is anything that involves using more than one design over the entire body of a single quilt. For instance to me Simple Custom would be a a single design (like a allover freehand) in the main body of the quilt and a different but coordinating design for the border. Simple custom is great for bed quilts of all kinds. It would look something like this: 

close up of  very simple custom quilting

Then I have what I like to call Second Level Custom, this would be the type of quilting I do the most of!) This would contain different border designs as well as multiple quilting design for the blocks in the body of the quilt but contains little or no Stitch In The Ditch Quilting. Pricing for this type of quilting can vary, but I do charge by the inch based on how long it will take me to quilt the designs you have chosen. I have a couple of different prices that fall into this type of quilting which is why I always like to suggest to let me sketch up a few different options (in different price ranges) for you to look at and pick from. That way you will know upfront exactly what you will get for your money. This type of quilting is very suitable for bed quits that you just want something with a bit more than just basic pantograph quilting or simple custom quilting on. Here are a few different options for custom quilting design on a single quilt:

close up of what i like to call Level 2 two custom quilting.

Another example of level 2. This may look more complected but i can quilt a entire row of the
main body of the quilt with only one stop and start, also with no S.I.D quilting or marking needed, the
amount of time to quilt the entire quit is reduced dramatically. 

The next up of course, would be Third Level Custom Quilting. This type of quilting would offer much more Stitch In The Ditch quilting. One wouldn't think this would change the price of the quilting all that much but it does. Stitching in the ditch involves Ruler Work, a type of quilting that can (at least for me!) take a lot longer to do as I must slow down to get a good quality finished quilt! S.I.D. (stitch in the ditch) really allows for the piecing to "pop" out a bit more. This type of quilting is also suitable for bed quilts but it will tend to be a tiny bit more "stiff" than the Second Level quilting would be. Here is a example of a quilt that I quilted with this level of quilting: 

a example of what i call 3rd level Custom. This quilt has ruler work straight line quilting
approximately 1/8" inside the seem lines instead of S.I.D. quilting.
Be sure to click on the photo for a larger better view!

Last but certainly not least would be Custom Heirloom Quilting &/or Show quilting. Just so you know I do not normally offer this type of quilting without being begged and even then I will more than likely give you the contact information of another machine quilter that I know will give you better results than I could ever think about giving you! This is the type of quilting that can be used on a bed quilt but is more suitable for just looking at and oohing and ahhing over. You know, the kind of quilting that you see at large National Quilt Shows like the AQS Paducah show. This type of quilting takes not hours but days, weeks, and possibly even months to finish correctly. All stops and starts must be properly finished in other words the loses threads must be tied and then using a needle and thread, worked to the inside of the quilt so no thread ends show. It is also common that these quilts will need to be blocked by soaking in water then stretching across & pinning onto a pin-able surface (such as foam insulation board) and left to dry completely. Why? Because we need these show quilts to end up being perfectly straight and blocking will help with that if done correctly. If you would like more info on blocking a quilt search YouTube, there are many videos there that can help you out. 

Example of what i would consider Heirloom Quilting,  with both S.I.D. quilting and the added 1/4 inch line
 inside of the seams this quilt has a lot of ruler work, and therefor took a good deal of time. to complete.

Modern quilting. were does modern quilting land on the chart? Well it can end up pretty much anywhere! Some modern quilting designs are fast and simple, containing only lines across the body of the quilt, some are more detailed and time consuming.  If you want modern I suggest talking to your quilter face to face and disusing your options. I haven't done much modern quilting myself as its not that big of a movement in my are (darn it!) Here is a example of some of the more modern quilting that I have done:

example of my mid level modern quilting

Is it moderns? Well I'm not to sure myself! I would say this is a mix of modern & traditional
 quilting. The time involved in quilting this quilt would put it into the Heirloom Quilting range. 

OK, so this post has ended up being much longer than I thought it would! I am thinking I had best stop here for now and continue with a fourth post on just the questions that I am asked most often so not to bore you all to death before I get to the end! Hope you have ll enjoyed things so far, and feel free to ask any questions you might have and I will do my best to answer them for you!