Edge-to-Edge Quilting is What I Do!

There is a misconception about independent longarm quilters.

Edge-to-Edge

'Independent' I define as 'individual longarm professionals who work separately from local quilt shops'.  The shops I'm speaking about have one or more industrial quilting machines commercially cranking off anywhere between 75-100 client quilts a month and guarantee a quick turnaround of 1-2 weeks with factory-manufactured speed. If it's custom quilting that's wanted, the client is referred to their custom quilters, who work for the quilt shop for a finder's fee. 

Edge-to-Edge

The misconception:  'Independents' (defined again as longarmers that do not work for quilt shops) are erroneously made to seem that custom is all they offer to clients. But in truth there are very few of my independent quilting colleagues that specialize only in custom quilting. They are driven toward customizing because (mis)information given and accepted as truth in the quilting world is difficult to unravel, no pun intended.

Digitized Edge-to-Edge

My intent is not to defame quilt shops.  It is to clarify my training and expertise to the quilting world as an independent longarm quilter - and to snuff out misconceptions.  Pictured in this post are a few quilts I've quilted professionally over eleven years with the edge-to-edge, allover, overall, pantographed, whatever-you-want-to-call-it technique :):

Freehand Edge-to-Edge in Feathers

My brief bio:  purchasing my Gammill Classic in 2005, my goal was to learn all styles of quilting so I could offer a wide range of techniques to my clients. I attended Machine Quilters Showcase in Overland Park, Kansas three summers in a row. I learned personally from classes taught by Karen McTavish, Sue Patten, Linda Taylor, Pam Clarke, Cathy Franks, Cindy Roth, Renee Haddadin, Sue Schmeiden, Donita Reeves, Dawn Cavanaugh, Judy Woodworth, Linda Thielfoldt and Claudia Pfeil just to name a few!  It was intensive training that I felt my customers deserved.

Freehand Edge-to-Edge in Curly Feathers

Besides custom quilting, I've learned edge-to-edge techniques and trouble-shooting tips to get a perfect product with classes such as "Free Motion Edge-to-Edge and All Over Designs", "This Quilt is Trouble!", "Intro to Longarm Quilting", "Thread Facts & Fiction" and "Refining Technical Skills".  There's more to quilting than simply putting the thread down into a design the client chooses.

Edge-to-Edge

After the initial three years of training, I continued attending local longarm classes on maintenance, business, finance, and more longarm techniques...and I still continue to be "Board Certified" in the longarm quilting arena by attending as many classes as I can.

Edge-to-Edge, front and back of same quilt

And then, after seven years of perfecting techniques, I retrofitted my Gammill to a Statler computerized system.  I can now tweak whatever pattern is chosen into whatever size needed into whatever shape wanted and get the quilt to the client in whatever time desired.  

Freehand Overall in Curls, above and below

The computerized, or digitized technique, can be sewn as edge-to-edge or custom.  Very cool!  But the coolest part is I was originally trained freehand, so I can still offer the freehanded, non-digitized style to my clients if that technique is the best fit.  

Edge-to-Edge, above and below

A vintage 30s with an Edge-to-Edge treatment

Do some people choose an edge-to-edge over a custom treatment when the custom is typical?  Sure, and it's not always because of budget restraints.  Look at the Vintage 30s pictured above that has been entirely sewn edge-to-edge.  It's perfectly lovely, perfectly appropriate, and perfectly budget-wise.  It's all up to the client since it is, after all, their project.  I respect that.

A couple more edge-to-edge quilts:

Edge-to-Edge with the backside flipped to the front to show detail

Edge-to-Edge with the backside flipped to the front to show detail

Freehand overall in Feathers, above and below

Misconception starts with perception, and perception is real from anyone's standpoint. But I hope from my point of view I've clarified what an independent longarm quilter is all about through this post.  Know that this independent is committed to listening to you, the client, in finding the best fit from pattern to budgetary needs to thread color.  I'll take the time that your project deserves, because by the time you bring it to me, it's taken quite a bit of your time and finances, already.  But if it's speed you need, I can do that too with a guaranteed turnaround of one week, and a guarantee to complete it with professional, personalized results...

...every time.

A Sweet Anniversary Quilt

Recently a friend of mine celebrated a milestone anniversary.  Part of the celebration was making this super-sized king quilt top and shams...and getting them to me to finish so they could enjoy it for their big day.  She even had me bind the quilt so all she had to do was present her labor of love.  Keep in mind this was her second try at quilting. Amazing!

It's been sewn entirely in batiks except the very center block she cross-stitched.  She wanted custom quilting only in this block to highlight its sentiment.  I chose to SID (stitch in the ditch) around the 'frame' and to quilt the entire block in scallops or clam shells...a nice design choice considering it's a sea theme :).

She chose a very simple edge-to-edge pattern to mirror the fabric: swirls and hearts.  Can you see this design in the fabric as well as the quilting pattern?

Not everything that may be worthy of custom quilting needs it.  This project proves that.

2016 CCQ Show - It's a Wrap!

Concluding my series on those quilts entered at the 2016 CCQ Quilt Show are these five quilts I either pieced and quilted myself or quilted professionally for others.  First in the line-up is Fall Diamonds and Arrowheads.

My client's words:  Inspired by an alternate class offered in July 2014 in Redmond, Oregon by Peggy Gilbrich, I used my class refund to purchase all the fabrics needed at a nearby quilt shop.  Peggy's class was my second choice when M'Liss Rae Hawley's class was cancelled.  I adore the glowing autumn colors.

Second in line is Autumn Kaleidoscope:

 Inspired by a pattern in one of M'Liss Rae Hawley's book and a class offered in July 2014 in Redmond, Oregon, I pre-cut strips of fabrics I had in my stash at home only to learn the day before that the class was cancelled.  I made it anyway!

Third, Blooming Sunset:

I attended both of Maggie Ball's CCQ workshops and finished the 'faux' bargello pattern with pleasing Fibonacci proportions.  I love the bright colors in the floral border and inside some of the blocks.  As soon as I saw the computerized hummingbird pattern, I simply had to have it.

Circle Sampler:

The quilting humor in this printed cartoon panel inspired me to make a just-for-fun wall hanging to play with printed stripes in Drunkard's Path blocks.  The colorful circles and larger semi-circles resulted in a complimentary outer border to the graphic inner borders.

(Note: my apologies for not zooming in on the cartoon humor for your enjoyment)!

I left my Chore Continuum for last. It has already been featured in my January 29th post entitled Vintage T-Towel Remake. I decided to give it a fancy moniker for the show! My comments for the placard: Women's domestic duties continue throughout the generations, but have perceptively changed over time. Remaining constant is a seemingly unending cycle of chores, as depicted through these vintage appliquéd and embroidered t-towel motifs. Emphasizing this day-in-day-out domestic cycle is a continuous quilted circle of feathers in the border.

It's wonderful to have these quilts hang in a show, but just as much a highlight for me was meeting Janet Fogg. I missed meeting Janet face-to-face when she spoke at our quilt guild last month. I made a special effort to tell her at the show how much I admire her incredible designs and quilts. When driving to Overland Park, Kansas to MQS three years in a row to learn longarm quilting, Janet's quilts were there and always had a high-ranking ribbon ... or two. And now I've met the woman behind the talent! Click on the hyperlink janetfoggquilts.com and you'll see what I mean. She's absolutely famous and tremendously gifted. A very brief bio: the background behind her quilting career began as a professional draftsperson, so when you look at what she's created you'll know it would take the mind of a mathematician and the patience of a saint to create what she does. In this season of her life she has decided not to enter her quilts in shows, but to refocus her energy toward creating kits and - from what I gathered at her guild presentation - spending more time with family. Janet personifies where we, as women, all arrive at redefining ourselves. What do I have energy to do? What should my energies go toward? To me, it's all about what matters most. Way to go Janet! 

Where have you arrived? I hope it's where you want to be :).

Come to the CCQ Spring 2016 Stash Bazaar!

Saturday, April 30; 9-2pm 

Salmon Creek Methodist Church

12217 NE HWY 99, Vancouver, WA

Get your free fat quarter at my booth (lobby table #1 - look for my business sign) when you mention this post. Come early for my quilt kits, vintage quilt blocks and tops, King Tut quilting thread, rulers, stencils, wideback yard goods, fat quarters, quilt patterns, and more priced to go. (The picture in this post was taken of my booth at the NW Quilting Portland Expo and is representative of what you'll see).  Free admission & parking.  Project Linus will offer lunch for sale: chili, corn bread and a cookie or soup, crackers and apple slices.

See you there!

Connie Potter

Pacific Patchworks

"Circles in Space and Time"

In March this very unusual quilt top came to me at a request for custom quilting.  I was told it would be an entry at the Clark County Quilt Show the following month.  

I love challenges like this!

From the onset I loved the colors. They are dusty and earthy.  My client's choice to use circles - in keeping with the show theme, Circle of Life - speaks of the constant change in seasons, the weather and the elements of nature.  She designed blocks around a panel, with the panel being off-set to one side, which to me, translates the random, asymmetrical quality of nature. Though a one-dimensional form, movement is suggested in the fabrics themselves and through pattern design. When quilted, art form takes a two - and if you're successful - a three-dimensional quality. At our first consult I asked myself: how could I contribute to the energy already there?  

My client's perspective (in bolded italics throughout this post): "Circles in Space and Time" was inspired by the colors and shapes in this purchased printed panel and a class that I took in Sisters, Oregon called "Circle Dance". Although the idea of using a panel was my idea, using two sizes of Drunkard's Path blocks in nontraditional ways was the purpose and intent of the class.  Originally, I envisioned quilting this in six smaller sections on my home sewing machine before assembling it. But after patiently waiting for a couple years for me to finish, I relented and decided to sew it all together and have it professionally quilted by a longarm quilter whom I met last year in September at the Portland Expo Center Quilt Show.

After 'marinating' quilting design for some time, I decided to convey a nature cycle with sunny skies feeding blowing grasses. A watery koi pond evaporating to the skies, which in turn rained down to earth. The sun comes out and starts the process all over again. Follow with me as I show you what I've tried to bring to life with the needle. 

"Sunny Skies" begin at the upper right of the quilt. All quilting is mixed technique, some freehand and some digitized to get the best effect.

  

Next is the quilt back showing the 'wind' and things tossed about by it on the ground or in the air.  Also depicted are those things fed by the sun.  

The "Blowing Grasses":

Over a year ago, I doodled some ideas on paper for quilting a variety of designs that I thought I could do free motion before purchasing a mid-arm sit-down quilting machine. But the deadline for this year's quilt registrations came quickly and I was running out of time to do everything I wanted to do all by myself. Connie was the only longarm quilter I could find in Vancouver who was willing to do custom quilting. This is the third quilt she has done for me and her quilting ability is far better than mine. Her ideas for quilting motifs surpassed my expectations and brought extra life and imagination to my treasured patchwork project.

The quilt back, showing quilting detail on the "Blowing Grasses" section:

The "Koi Pond":

What, other than koi, would you find swimming or wriggling in a koi pond? What would you find growing in or near one?

 

To me the two dimensional circles represent the building blocks of life: atoms, molecules, blood cells, suns, moons, planets, etc. and even air bubbles in water.  Some of the stylized circles represent lily pads (plant life) and mimic those found in the panel.

The "Chance of Rain"section:

The pumpkin seed pattern gave a sense of raindrops to me.  I tried to quilt on each circle whatever would be found floating/flying in the sky; clouds, butterflies, swirling plant life, etc.

Connie found a variety of digital sashiko patterns to use representing flora and fauna. These are featured on the circle surfaces. Although we collaborated on the selection of quilting thread colors and background quilting designs, it took Connie's passion and vision to make my basic ideas become a reality.

"Hidden Critters"

The quilt back

I took this snapshot at the show before the final ribbon was given to my client in its category: Viewer's Choice. (The purple ribbon shown is a vendor award). As I've said before, it's not all about awards and ribbons. But when you get one, it's thrilling someone else could see what you tried so hard to convey.

It's just another one of those reasons why I quilt.