Custom creating....get out your crayons!

As a longarmer and self confessed quilting addict - I often hear from customers or would be customers that they would prefer to quilt their own quilts.  When they don't quilt them on their own - they say it feels like they didn't create it!

Let me set you straight.  Without your quilt tops there would be no finished quilt!  I have never received two of the same quilts - and I calculate that I have quilted at least 1,000 quilts.  So of course the quilt has your touch, your influence and reflects your creativity.

In many cases when doing Edge to Edge (E2E) quilting, customers will request a certain pattern that they choose for me to use - and this adds their own creative touch to their quilts. (You can see some here or choose one from this site.)

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Some quilts however, NEED a custom touch.  Often a quilt has a lot of white space or is paper pieced or has a lot of applique - and these quilts really should be custom quilted.  (This is one of my favourite things to do!)  Many quilters will send a quilt top and ask for a custom job - but not know what they want. 

Here is where you CAN get creative.

Here is a quilt I created - just to practice my custom skills - and to my surprise with a little planning - I created a masterpiece.  (if you click on the picture you can see an expanded version)

AND YOU can design your own quiting pattern too - and then send it along with your quilt and request something similar.  Let me explain how.

Often whe we create a quilt, we work from a pattern and it is either digital that we can print or we can scan it. If you have designed your own quilt - you will likely already have a sketch.

Then do the following:

• Print a second picture of the finished top in black and white in draft mode - so it is lighter in colour. 
• Get out your coloured pencils ( or a regular pencil ) and start drawing on top of the picture.  Think about how you can highlight the blocks. 
• If there is white space - think about feathers - and scribble some in. 
• Borders can have scallops or you can just get linear!

​For the quilt I posted above - I will show you my process.

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1st step - print out the pattern and begin sketching over the pattern.

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2nd step: Isolate areas and scan them so they are larger and begin sketching on these.  This was a blank space - so I simply drew a blank square and started doodling

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Then I begin making measurements so that I have some idea of how to fit my drawing on the quilt.  Graph paper helps with this

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Then send it to the quilt frame (or your favourite quilter)  and - execute! 

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I know - it looks complicated - so let's start a little smaller! 

​Print off a block and play around with ideas about how you might like to see it quilted to highlight the block.  Bear in mind that your drawing will look heavier than any quilting line will look - so do not let that discourage you from doodling on your quilt block.

So go ahead - add some more personalization to your quilt by drawing out how you would like to see it quilted!  Get creative - you will be surprised with how much fun it is!
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