Today I am thrilled to share the finished Rockabilly Baby Quilt! It might be a bit hard to tell, but the photos below are of the quilt pre- and post-wash. After quilting, binding, and wash, the quilt finished at 55-inches wide by 65-inches long (~8% shrinkage from the flimsy finish of 60 x 70).
As this was a quilt for a customer, I didn’t get too creative on photographing the quilt (even though I was tempted to take it out into our snow earlier this week). Instead, I focused on trying to de-lint the quilt as much as possible (black backing fabric shows all kinds of lint!) and trying to get a few photographs of the texture I added to the quilt with the various quilting motifs.
One of the features of the quilt that I was curious about was the appliqued letters. I was very pleased with how they came through the wash, though!
I organically quilted around the outer circles free-hand with 3-4 passes around each circle. I also free hand outlined the large wonky rectangle blocks at the bottom of the quilt. I like how simple stitch in the ditch can disappear as a detail on the front of a quilt but really give the design a pop and clarity on the backing. I was pleasantly surprised at my general ability to do the large angles and circles relatively smoothly without a ruler. I saw that Leanne @she can quilt called this style of quilting “industrial”, and I think it worked well for this quilt. Over most of the quilt I used a large swirl pattern. The swirl made me think of both the Treble and Base clef symbols, but also made me think of music growing and swelling.
Rockabilly Baby Quilt – Quilting Detail
I used 50 wt Aurifil 4030 (Plum) for the top of the quilt and Aurifil 2692 (black) in my bobbin. I usually prefer to match my bobbin to my top thread, but in this case I really wanted the quilting to blend well on both sides. Overall I am pleased with the results. There are a few places where the top of bobbin thread can be seen through on the opposite sides, but in general it gave the effect I was going for for this quilt top.
Rockabilly Baby Quilt – Quilting Detail
I really had fun adding organic clam shells or “scales” on top of the Little Tinies Scales in Lilac print inside the wonky rectangles. I densely matchstick quilted the horizontal and vertical lines with large circles (whole notes) for the spaces in between.
Rockabilly Baby Quilt – Quilting Detail
Overall, the quilt took 17 hours to design, piece, quilt and bind.
Linking up with Finish it Friday, TGIFF (hosted this week by Devoted Quilter), Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, and Lessons Learned Linky.
Whoop whoop . Well done . A successful finish and the back texture of the quilting is great
Great finish! Thanks for describing your quilting decisions. I like learning how other people think through the process. I’m sure the client will love this quilt!
It turned out beautiful and the quilting on it superb. Well done Yvonne.
I can see little girl Maggie setting up “houses” for all her stuffed animals/dolls/Legos in those wonky rectangles. Or using them as stepping stones to cross the hot lava on her bed. A very fun quilt!
Great quilt! I love the clam shell quilting in the wonky squares, it was the perfect fill. And as soon as you mentioned treble and base clef, were the five lines intentional? I know this quilt will be well loved!
This quilt totally rocks! When I read “17 hours”, I was stunned!!! How creative!!!
I missed your post where you shared the flimsy. I love this quilt! I like the balance and that it’s different at the top and bottom. Those shapes are great and well done and I love the big letters for the name. Wonderful job Yvonne.
Perfect finish! I love the funkyness of the design, and as always you nailed the quilting! Maggie is going to rock it, no doubt about it! Those circles are amazing!
Good Morning Yvonne! What a spectacular quilting design you accomplished for this quilt! The new owners of this masterpiece are going to be extremely happy with the outcome and may never let the baby touch it. LOL. I know I would display it on a wall as a piece of art, flipping it from front to back to display both sides. Thank you for sharing and inspiring me once again! Have a fantastic creative day!
Beautiful quilting – the texture shows in the photos and the letter look great!
Great finish. Beautiful quilting.
Gosh, that is a cracker! I really love the wonky rectangles and the way the quilting emphasises different areas of the quilt – I’m taking notes! 😀 (Also, lint is the _worst_ thing to try and get off black fabric, ugh!)
Yvonne, you really outdid yourself. This quilt is amazing and your customer is going to flip with joy when they get it. The amount of love and detail that you put into this one is over the top.
Well, first of all you mentioned snow. WooHoo for you! What a treat. I love the contrast between the perfect circles at the top and the wonky rectangles at the bottom of the quilt. And I always enjoy reading about your reasoning for how you quilt each section–do you make the decisions as you go, or do you have an idea of each detail before you begin?
This is fantastic!
Just gorgeous – this is going to be treasured for years to come. Lovely to see your thought processes and the different aspects of the quilting.
It turned out awesome! The quilting fits the design perfectly, awesome job! Maggie is definitely a lucky baby getting such a rockin’ quilt! 🙂
A beautiful finish! I love all the texture from the quilting, especially how well it shows up on the back. I quite liked the largest close-up picture of the back of the quilt that shows the letters…is the quilt draped over your longarm frame? Also, I know what you mean about black fabric showing every speck of lint. It really is amazing how much it accumulates!
You really do quilt at the speed of sound! Nice work. 🙂
I really like this quilt, Yvonne, especially the lettering, the wonky rectangles and your fantastic ‘industrial’ quilting.
I absolutely love this quilt. I love the colours and the shapes and the quilting. Inspirational!
I love this quilt! The wonky rectangles at the bottom are what drew me in – they are just awesome. Great finish! 🙂
Yes, black shows all kinds of lint and fluff. I rarely use black, but I found this problem with my little black sewing kit. I am glad you got it off. I am sure your client is thrilled with the quilt!
It turned out so well – love it
Stand-up job on the quilting! That’s quite a bit of shrinkage. I have really measured pre and post wash, but it makes me wonder how much mine shrink. I had the same lint problem when I used a black backing. I’m not sure if I’ll do that again very soon, but it did make quilting with black thread go smoothly. I’d love if you joined the party: http://quiltingmod.blogspot.com/2016/02/lessons-learned-linky-2.html.
Your quilting is lovely, all the elements in this quilt work together so nicely.
Wow. Amazing finish. Such creativity.
Beautiful finish, your quilting looks amazing all over but I do especially love those clamshells. I have a feeling your friend is going to love this even more now, what an amazing present for Maggie.
Such a creative finish. I’ve loved seeing your process from your inspiration down to how you quilted it. The recipient is going to love it.
Your quilting kept with the feel of this quilt so well. It definitely looks snuggle worthy.
Wow, that is awesome!
I’m impressed with your clamshell quilting, my attempts are so frustrating and wonky! I love the mixture of quilting patterns you used, I bet the quilt has great texture. Before mailing out my black triangle quilt I think I used a lint roller like 5 times–the dog hair, lint and dust was always there! Ugh! When you’re making a commissioned quilt do you ever get frustrated or bored with the process and think to yourself, “I should be getting paid more for this”?