Spinning 4-Patch Quilted by Jen Eskridge

on Feb 24, 2018 in Blog, Featured, Longarm Quilting Gallery |

Custom Quilted Spinning 4-Patch Pattern

In early October 2017, I had the honor of quilting Spinning 4-Patch Quilts for Nancy Zieman. I work as the free-lance blog and social media person for Nancy Zieman Productions, LLC. (NZP) As a fantastic bonus, the team selected me to custom quilt new patterns NZP would be releasing which feature the Farmhouse Florals collection for Penny Rose Fabrics, a division of Riley Blake Designs.

NZP is releasing three patterns for this fabric collection. The first one, Shiplap Ahoy was the focus last month. Read more here. Today, the second pattern, Spinning 4-Patch is showcased.

The quilt is constructed using simple strip-pieced sewing techniques which are on the NZP blog today.

All the quilting shown here is created with longarm quilting rulers and free-motion quilting designs. I work on a HandiQuilter Avante 18 and generally use Glide Thread in the needle and Superior Pre-wound Bobs in the bobbin. Read more about my set-up and style at ReannaLilyQuilts.com.

Planning to Quilt

Each block has exactly the same seam lines. The color palette is soft so picking a quilting thread color wasn’t too tricky. I opted for Bone color glide 40wt thread. Before I started quilting, though, I really needed a design! I started with a piece of Plexiglas laid over the quilt, which was already loaded on the longarm frame.

With a dry erase marker, I am able to audition different design lines to see if they fit, if I could stitch them, and if they looked fantastic. This first concept did not look fantastic to me. The spineless feathers wrapping around the block would be interesting, but it wasn’t enough.

I ended up stitching in the ditch around all the block shapes first.

On the advice of my artsy daughter, (@meepsketch on Instagram), I created diagonal lines with a ruler, to connect opposite corner rectangles. The spineless feathers would still be in the space that didn’t feature ruler work.

The pale yellow sashing is quilted with a simple wishbone design. Also know as, my solid go-to design.

The quilting is hard to see on a few of the beautiful floral prints, but the consistent texture is very neat.

By quilting diagonal lines, alternating direction in each block, the quilting creates a secondary visual design. (Turns out, the solid white backing was a bit tricky to photograph indoors.)