Mary's Murmuration + Knockout Nene Quilts

Last night, I finished up quilting two gorgeous quilts for my client Mary.  😍. I keep pulling out my phone to look at and drool over the photos -- I am dying to share these quilts with you!  But it will take about a week for the big, brown UPS truck to get these quilts from my studio in North Carolina back to Mary in New Mexico, and then Mary will understandably want to bind both quilts and share them on her own blog, Quilting Is In My Blood, before I share the quilting photos here.    So you don't get to see those quilts today.

But then I realized that somehow I neglected to share two earlier projects that I quilted for Mary several months ago.  How did THAT happen?!  I know how it happened.  I loaded someone else's beautiful quilt on my frame and got totally engrossed and distracted!  

Without further ado...

Mary's Murmuration Quilt with Contour Cocoon E2E

Murmuration is an improvisation pieced quilt pattern from Bryan House Quilts, available for sale here.  The watery blues and greens of Mary's fabrics inspired the quilting design, Contour Cocoon by one of my favorite digital designers, Karlee Porter.

Mary's 62 x 72 Murmuration Quilt with Contour Cocoon E2E Quilting

In order to get that cascading waterfall effect with the quilting design, I loaded Murmuration sideways on my longarm frame -- like Landscape instead of Portrait mode, in photography terminology.  This is what Contour Cocoon looks like the way it's designed to stitch out:

Detail of Contour Cocoon E2E, Upright Orientation

Among quilters shopping for their first longarm quilting machines, a frequent discussion topic in social media forums is how big of a frame is needed.  Usually people think about this in terms of how many King size quilts they are likely to quilt for themselves, and how many King size quilts they think their potential customers might bring if they are wanting to start a business.  However, my 13' frame isn't only useful for King quilts.  

Having the biggest frame on the market means that not only can I quilt the biggest quilts out there, but I can load them sideways like I did for Mary's Murmuration in situations where a quilting design looks even better on the quilt when the design is oriented vertically rather than horizontally.

Detail of Contour Cocoon Stitched Vertically on Murmuration

This design would still have looked beautiful on Mary's quilt stitched horizontally on a smaller frame, but it would have evoked ocean waves rather than a waterfall and more importantly, the diagonal angles of the piecing and the quilting motifs would have been fighting each other if the quilting design had horizontal diamonds against the vertical diamonds in the piecing.  I like having options!  Some quilting designs look completely different when you turn them 90 degrees.

Murmuration with Contour Cocoon E2E, Vertical Orientation

This is the in-progress "before" photo Mary sent me of her Murmuration quilt taking shape on her design wall.

Mary's Murmuration In Progress

And here's what Mary's finished quilt top looked like right before she shipped it to me for quilting:

Mary's Murmuration Top Prior to Quilting

It's difficult to see the thread in the photos, I know, but it is a beautiful variegated trilobal polyester thread in shades of pastel blues and greens that complement Mary's fabrics, Fantastico in color Hanalei (this post contains affiliate links).  I used Quilters Dream 80/20 batting.

You can read more about Mary's Murmuration quilt and see what it looks like bound, finished, and on her bed over at Mary's blog, Quilting Is In My Blood.  

Mary's Nene Quilt with Starlight E2E

Mary's next quilt was made using the Nene quilt pattern from Eye Candy Quilts, available on Etsy here.  I quilted it for Mary using another of Karlee Porter's designs, Starlight E2E.  We had seen one of the quilt pattern designer's sample quilts quilted with this same digital design, but I scaled the quilting design a bit larger for Mary.  

Mary's 67 x 79 Nene Quilt with Starlight E2E

I used So Fine thread in Ferrari, a bold neon Lime, for this quilt and I love how it disappears into her brightly colored Giucy Giuce Quantum patchwork fabrics without disrupting the piecing lines, yet contrasts subtly with the gray solid background fabric and injects a little extra sparkle!

Detail of Starlight E2E in So Fine, Ferrari Thread

A gray thread would have been a more obvious "safer" choice, but I like the lime green so much better.  

I used Hobbs Heirloom Black 80/20 batting for Mary's Nene quilt.  I like the way that a black batting helps dark and bright colors stay saturated and true in the finished quilt.  Sometimes a white or off white batting can show through the fabric ever so slightly and dull the vivid colors, and dark batting makes needle holes less visible on dark colored quilts that won't be washed immediately.  

Here's what Mary's Nene quilt looked like prior to quilting:

Mary's Nene Quilt Prior to Quilting

You can see Mary's Nene quilt finished, bound and on her bed over at her blog, Quilting Is In My Blood right here.

Thank you so much for choosing me to quilt these for you, Mary!  I can't wait to get your feedback when the next two lovelies show up at your doorstep next week.

👀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 early December, so please let me know ASAP if you are working on quilts with holiday deadlines.  Click here to learn how easy it is to book a quilt with me!

Meanwhile...

In case you were wondering, I still make quilts, too!  My Retro '80s Building Blocks sampler has been quilted, the label is attached, and I am in Binding Mode.  I'm not gonna show it to you until it is TOTALLY finished, but getting that done is my weekly To-Do list goal.  I'm linking up today's post with To-Do Tuesday and with my other favorite linky parties, listed on the left sidebar of my blog.

Have a wonderful week, and Happy Quilting!