COLOR MY WORLD--THE QUILTING

This wraps up the 2021 Block of the Month quilt for The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. Designed exclusively for The Quilt Show by Australian designer Wendy Williams, the entire 12 month series is available FREE for Star Members until December 31, 2021. After that date, all rights return to the designer and the patterns can then be purchased from her. 

Let's talk about the quilting process. I quilted mine myself and found it an enjoyable task.

THREAD: 

First, I gathered a wide variety of threads for quilting--from Microquilter (100 wt) for Stitch in the Ditch,  to Quilters Select 80 and 60 wt for decorative quilting. Color was the most important thing to me in selection of thread:

While basting my quilts, I always make a small practice sample with some of the same top and back fabrics and the same batting. This allows me to be sure the tension of the various threads is correct before stitching on the quilt:

1. STITCH IN THE DITCH: 

Wendy Williams' top was quilted by Australian longarm quilter Katherine Jones. Wendy suggests outline quilting all the various components of the quilt--we call this Stitch in the Ditch. 

Here is my finished quilt:

The first thing I did was Stitch in the Ditch around all major components--the Mariner's Compass circle, the outside edges of the Roads, the outside seams of all the Small Houses and Tall Buildings and Skyscrapers. This created "Bones"--areas of the buildings which will ultimately get more quilting--in the windows and doors, for example.

I love to use rulers for straight line quilting and the Line Tamer by Four Paws quilting is my most favorite ruler for that purpose:

All straight lines were quilted with this ruler: 

Here you can see how I outlined the tree trunks and stitched between all the buildings: 

For Stitch in the Ditch, I used Microquilter thread, by Superior Threads, a 100 wt polyester thread. Color  #7025, a gray/green blended beautifully with the many colors in the quilt. In the bobbin for the entire quilting  process I used Microquilter, color #7026--a tan. I knew there would be many places I would "travel"--move from one place to another, stitching on top of previous stitching, so this fine thread would be perfect for that process. I spent two days doing all the Stitch in the Ditch with these two threads:

On the third day, I used Quilters Select #739, a dark charcoal 80 wt thread, to stitch along the middle of the Roads. I also used this dark thread to quilt the Eiffel Tower: 

Once all of the stitch in the ditch was done, it was time to play with the buildings. I matched thread colors as closely as I could and used Wendy's photos on each months' patterns as a guide for how to quilt the doors and windows. Designs I really liked, I used frequently. 

Here are a few closeups. The skinny lines on the long windows were a favorite and I did them a lot--free hand, no ruler. The X's in light blue windows were done with ruler: 

The various roofs got a variety of quilting--this crosshatch in the yellow roof of Little House in the City was a favorite. For the tree tops, I played with several designs before settling on simple swirly spirals--one color green thread worked for both tree tops: 

For the Mariner's Compass, I liked the feather design used on Wendy's quilt, free hand for the feathers, the ruler for all the straight lines around and through each point: 

As I was quilting the various buildings, it occurred to me, I could also quilt the straight lines I had decided to use in the outer border--before all the rest of  the quilting was done. All the "bones" were done, the stitch in the ditch was finished, so I went ahead and used the Line Tamer ruler to quilt the outer border. That allowed me to put the sleeve and binding on and use my night time hours to hand stitch the binding in place. As I was under deadline to get this done, it was good to use all the time I had for the entire process--quilt during the day, hand stitch the binding at night. Here is the simple outside straight line quilting on the border, using Microquilter color # 7025:

All in all, I spent 6 days quilting this and was very happy with the results. I was done ahead of schedule for the taping in Dallas, TX in August 2020. 

At the taping I got to see Wendy's quilt up close. Before that I had only seen a few photos. The longarm quilter added a great touch to the outer border--she quilted HOUSES in it. They are hard to see in the photos but were a very interesting touch in real life. Her lines are also much closer together than mine. I could have gone back and added more but it was done so, no more lines for mine:

UPDATE: I was asked for a few detailed photos of the back of mine so here they are:

And last, but certainly NOT least, please add a permanent label to your finished quilt. I have written about labels before: QUILT LABELS. Here i s mine for Color My World:

It is particularly important to note WOOL BATT--so the quilt is less likely to be thrown in a hot dryer--with potentially sad consequences.

I hope this gives you some ideas how to quilt your Color My World. And when it's done, please post a photo on the Forum: BOM 2021 Your Finish Here  It is so fun to see so many of these, many with special touches that really make this design the maker's own!

Looking forward to the 2022 Block of the Month quilt--a very different design, but a beautiful quilt. I hope you'll join us on the Journey.

Let's quilt.

Barbara