Quilt Finishes for Ramona and Steffanie: PacMan and Pussy Cats!

Good morning, quilter friends!  I have TWO fabulous clients' quilts to share with you today, both of them stitched in yummy variegated cotton quilting threads.  Since I babbled on and on for way too long about my Kaffe Fassett Skirt Squirrel in my last post, I'll try to be more concise today.  (Famous last words...)

Ramona's PacMan Quilt

Ramona's PacMan Quilt

I finished quilting this for Ramona of Doodlebugs and Rosebuds several weeks ago and I have been dying to share it with you.  Ramona's quilt is a strikingly modern reimagining of the classic Drunkard's Path quilt pattern, and although "PacMan" wasn't the kit name, that's what she and her husband nicknamed the quilt while she was working on it.  

PacMan Detail, Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut Quilting Design

Ramona used Moda Grunge fabrics for her quilt (this post contains affiliate links), and she used this AccuQuilt Drunkard's Path die to quickly and accurately cut out all of those curved pieces.  

If you've been wanting to try a Drunkard's Path quilt and you have an AccuQuilt die cutter (or are looking for an excuse to buy one), I highly recommend it -- I love how the curved die shapes from AccuQuilt include notches on both shapes.  That makes it so much easier to get the concave and convex curves lined up correctly when you're piecing them.

YLI 40 wt Variegated Machine Quilting Cotton Thread, Color V77 Alaskan Twilight

Ramona let me use one of my favorite variegated threads on her quilt, YLI 40 wt Machine Quilting Cotton in color V77 Alaskan Twilight.  Although YLI isn't as widely available in quilt shops as some other brands, their thread is top quality and their customer service is amazing.  Definitely check them out if you see their booth at a quilt show.  Compared to Superior's King Tut 40 wt cotton variegated thread, which I also love, YLI has longer spacing between color changes than King Tut and some really nice, subtle variegated options that don’t have that overtly "rainbow thread" look.  Rainbow Thread Quilting looks amazing on SOME quilts, don't get me wrong -- but many other quilts, like Ramona's PacMan quilt, look better when the color changes are a surprise detail noticed upon close inspection rather than something that jumps out at you from across the room.  I LOVE having so many thread options for quilting!

YLI Alaskan Twilight Variegated Cotton Thread

The effect of this particular variegated thread is SO subtle, I really struggled to get photos that would show you what it looks like!  This is a matte cotton thread, but cotton takes dye so vividly that the stitching appears to glow against the jewel-toned Grunge fabrics.

Can You See the Color Changes?

If Ramona hadn’t liked this variegated thread option, I probably would have suggested a silvery gray thread on this quilt.  It would have still been a beautiful quilt when it was finished, but there's just an extra-special energy injected into the quilt from the variegated thread.  The quilting stitches appear to come closer to the viewer in spots where the thread is lighter than the fabric it's stitched on, whereas the stitching visually recedes in spots where the thread is darker than the fabric behind it.  So, looking at this Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut quilting design on the quilt, the variegated thread really enhances the illusion of movement.

73 x 85 PacMan Quilt, Diagonal Plaid Bias Quilting and Variegated Thread

I finished quilting this for Ramona in the evening, which is why it's kind of dark in my photo.  This quilt is even more beautiful in real life.  Here's what Ramona's PacMan quilt top looked like before quilting:

PacMan Quilt Top Prior to Quilting

Steffanie's Pins & Paws Quilt

This next quilt is extra-special and exciting because this is Steffanie's VERY FIRST QUILT!  Yay -- another new quilter is born!!!  She did an awesome job and I would never have known it was her first quilt if she hadn't told me so.

Steffanie's Pins and Paws Quilt with Variegated Strudel Quilting

Pins & Paws is a layer cake friendly pattern available here from Missouri Star Quilt Co.  Steffanie enlarged her quilt by adding a border in a fun Laurel Burch cat print fabric, personalized the blocks with special fabrics like a bubblegum pink Pittsburgh Steelers fabric, and she even hand-embroidered her label info and the names of her own pet cats onto her quilt.  I love that idea!

Strudel Quilting in Variegated 40 wt Cotton King Tut, Color Cleopatra

Steffanie chose Anne Bright's Strudel B2B quilting design because the angular swirls remind her of a ball of yarn or string that her cats might be playing with.  She wanted the quilting to be a dramatic design element rather than blending into her fabrics, so we went with King Tut variegated 40 wt cotton thread in Cleopatra.  

Detail of Strudel Quilting in King Tut Cleopatra Variegated Thread

Remember what I said before about how some variegated threads produce "rainbow thread quilting?"  Scroll back up to the close up photo of the YLI variegated thread I used on Ramona's quilt so you can compare the difference.  Whereas the YLI thread for Ramona's quilt was a blend of teal shades with a little pale purple in the mix and several inches of each color before blending softly into the next color, King Tut Cleopatra incorporates literally every color of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet) with shorter and more abrupt 1" color changes for a much bolder effect.  The Cleopatra thread ensured that the quilting would stand out against all of the fabrics in Steffanie's quilt and also helped to marry her softer pink and aqua cat blocks with the multi-on-black print border and backing fabric.  Although they are both 100% cotton 40 weight variegated threads, YLI and King Tut produce very different effects when stitched into a quilt.  That's why I stock both of them.  (My name is Rebecca, and I can’t stop buying thread…😂)

Although I neglected to get a "before quilting" photo of Steffanie's quilt, I took one photo at night when I finished quilting and then I took a second photo the next morning.  It's interesting how much of a difference the lighting makes, isn't it?

Steffanie's 64 x 75 Pins and Paws Quilt, Night Time Photo

You can really see the quilting texture in the night time photo, with bright LED lighting shining down from above my quilt frame.  I used Quilters Dream 80/20 Select Loft batting for both Ramona's and Steffanie's quilts.

Same Quilt, Natural Morning Light

The colors are truer and cleaner in the second photo, taken the following morning with just the natural light coming in from the windows, but because of where my quilting frame is situated in relation to the windows, the shadows get washed out in the morning light and you can't really see quilting texture at all.

Steffanie and Ramona, thank you SO MUCH for choosing me to quilt for you!  I'm linking up today's post with my favorite linky parties, listed on the left hand sidebar of my blog.

PSST!!  I'd Love to Quilt for YOU!

By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you!  I am currently scheduling quilts for completion in August/September.  Click here to learn how easy it is to book a quilt with me!