Maggie's Quilt, Part II

It's been happily received, and I can now share Part II of creating Maggie's quilt. For background on the fabric and pattern for this quilt, see Part I.

The quilting:

I love meander quilting! It added an antique look and soft feel that really made the quilt. Since it was my first free-motion quilting attempt, I practiced one day on 2x2 ft. scraps, this mini doll quilt I made to match the bed quilt and another lap-size scrap quilt (to be posted soon).

Meandering and stipples are much easier than I imagined, even though my lines are sometimes jagged, occasionally cross one another and the stitch length is not always consistent. Feeling braver but with some trepidation, I began to work on Maggie's quilt.

I quilted straight echo lines about 1" inside the center star and outer "wheel" with my walking foot attached. Then I stippled the star and surrounding background. The tight stipple made the center of the quilt pretty, but also gave it a densely structured drape I had not expected. I decided to quilt a looser meander pattern on the remainder of the design to accomplish two things:

1. a softer drape, particularly where it will be near someone's upper body

2. a 3-D effect where the center star is dense and the outer borders are puffy and more pronounced

In the end, I liked how the outer "wheel" and pink border drew attention to the fabric with minimal quilting, so I chose not to fill them in with additional quilting. Click on the left-side picture to see up close detail of the quilting.

[All but this picture are before the final 'wash and dry' that added even more texture as you can see, but since Maggie's mom is allergic to pet dander, I wanted to keep it free of the 'Two Dogs' aspect of our home.]

The ruffles:

Every little girl deserves a bunch of ruffles, yet these required a little extra planning. In fact, I'm considering posting a tutorial because I had a hard time finding information about how to add a ruffle on a quilt. I tried a couple different methods between the mini quilt and large quilt.

The 2.5" finished ruffle is one strip of 6"w x 21"l rectangles of alternating fabrics sewn together end-to-end. I folded the strip in half, so that it was 3"wide and set my ruffle foot attachment to pleat every 12 stitches. It took about 3 yards of fabric to make all the ruffles, estimated at 1.5 times the circumference of the quilt and pillows. (If you make a more gathered ruffle, you may need to allow for up to 3 times the circumference of your quilt.) After adding the ruffle, I finished the last 6 inches of border quilting and handstiched the underturned backing to secure it in place.

The pillow covers match the quilt backing and ruffles, and are backed in white Kona cotton with envelope enclosures. They were really fun to make, and I dare say, made me want some for my bed if I were only 10 years old again.

After adding a label and washing it, the quilt and it's companions were packed for a 1600 mile trip to their new home. It was a fun learning experience, and I'm so honored to be asked to make it for one of my dearest friends! And even happier that she loves it too! My friend has promised some pictures in a few months once the antique bed and Maggie's "big girl" room is arranged. I will be sure to share them.