Decisions for Deco Quilting + Stonefields Quilt "Shirtings"

Hello, quilting friends!  Another page has been ripped off the calendar and we find ourselves in the month of June, in the year 2025, which -- by the way -- remember when that was like a science fiction "way in the future" year?  (Alas, no Jetsons rocket ship cars or, my absolute favorite, the automated conveyor belt closet that gets you showered and dressed for your day while you are still sleeping...)

Okay, so my Tuesday To Do is going to be super light this week.  Mom has declined significantly since we moved her to Austin a month ago.  Her lung cancer has spread to her brain and she is barely eating anything.  Home hospice began May 27th and I'm flying out to see her tomorrow.  If I get any hand stitching prepped today, I'll bring it with me, but it's already 2:30 PM and here I am yet again, writing a blog post instead of actually handling fabric.  Why?  Because I've made some design decisions that I want to record while they are fresh in my mind.

Next On My Long Arm: Deco Quilt for Custom Quilting

Now that I've finished custom quilting that vintage sampler for my friend Marybeth, my long arm frame is open and available for the Deco quilt top I finished in March.  While I'm not in a huge rush to dive into another custom quilting project, I've wasted invested a lot of time over the past week thinking about how I want to quilt it once I'm ready.  

My Deco Quilt Top With My Anna Maria Floral Print Backing Fabric

My Deco needs to be custom quilted because the whole reason I was drawn to the pattern in the first place was that I thought it had great possibilities for custom quilting.  That's what drew me to the Building Blocks Sampler quilt that I (typically) overcomplicated and dragged out over too many years, too.  Once I finally got the Building Blocks/Nanu! Nanu! quilt top finished, I quilted it with an allover meander to just get it done and on the bed already, and now I kind of regret that I didn't set it aside until I had the time and "bandwidth" necessary to see my original vision through to the custom-quilted conclusion.  So, Custom Quilting will happen for Deco, or else no quilting will happen at all.  The quilting will combine digital computerized designs with hand guided ruler work and SID (stitch in the ditch) quilting.

I looked through hundreds of different digital designs before settling on this Jeweled Feathers "Little Sister" design set from Anne Bright.  What I love about Anne Bright's Little Sister sets is that she always has an assortment of related designs for the different shapes and sizes in a real quilt top.  

Anne Bright's Jeweled Feathers Little Sister Design Set

I'll be using the Jeweled Feathers 8W block in all of my full 8" alternate blocks, with Jeweled Feathers Quad in all the side setting triangles and Jeweled Feathers Double for my corner triangles.  

Here's a reminder of what the full quilt looks like:

102 x 102 Deco Quilt Top Rendering

Once I'd chosen my fancy quilting design for the plain navy blocks and the setting triangles, I had to think about how I'd quilt those blue squares in the quarter log cabin blocks.  I could have chosen Jeweled Feathers 2 Block or Jeweled Feathers 4 Block, but that would be an awful lot of that design.  Instead, I sourced these block designs from Karlee Porter that have enough in common with Jeweled Feathers to look like they "go together" on the same quilt, but with some variety and interest to them.  I think I will alternate these two block designs across each horizontal row of log cabin blocks:

Karlee Porter Glam Block Flame

Karlee Porter Glam Block Sunflower

To me, these blocks play nicely with that Art Deco vibe that the Deco Quilt pattern is trying to channel.  The string of pearls on Glam Block Flame and the echoed circular lines of both blocs are elements that repeat from the Jeweled Feathers blocks and I'm hoping (fingers crossed!) that when all of these designs are scaled to fit the spaces on my quilt top, the result will be fairly even quilt density throughout the quilt.  

The final challenge was what to do about those orange and red patches in my deco quilt, the ones that are squares with two opposite corners missing, making them look like wrapped hard candies.  That is not a common shape when you're looking through digital quilt block design offerings.  I finally settled on using a single repeat of this Karlee Porter Retro Daisy design that is digitized to sew out as an edge to edge, allover quilting design:

Karlee Porter Retro Daisy E2E Single Motif

Again, fingers crossed that the scale works out.

Only after I had selected my quilting designs did I think about quilting thread.  All of these digital designs have backtracking, where the quilting machine will travel previous lines of stitching to get to the next part of the design.  The backtracking in the quilting design is much less obvious in lighweight quilting thread, and I didn't want shiny thread for this quilt, so those decisions led to me my stash of So Fine 50 weight matte polyester quilting threads.

So Fine Thread Matched to Blue Fabric

To my utter amazement, I do not own any dark navy thread that would blend into my Kona Solids Indigo background fabric in this quilt.  Instead of ordering more thread (I already own a lot of thread.  And that is an understatement on par with saying that there are a lot of diapers in a land fill), I decided to go with a contrasting thread color to show off those gorgeous Jeweled Feathers designs that will be quilted against the navy blue.

So Fine Thread in Glacier (Bottom Cone) for the Plain Blocks and Setting Triangles

That teal shade of the bottom cone, So Fine in Glacier, is not a color in my quilt top, but it's a predominant color in my background fabric print.  I think it will be interesting.  The other thread I know I'll be using is my Aurifil invisible monofilament thread in color Smoke, for all of the stitching in the ditch between blocks.  If I'd had the right shade of navy in So Fine, Bottom Line or Microquilter thread I might have used one of those for SID, but I don't and it feels good to just use what's in my massive stash instead of shopping for a change!

Stonefields Quilt Preparations

...And in the same vein, after much consternation over my Stonefields Quilt pattern supply list calling for "assorted shirting fabric" for some of the blocks, I finally broke open my project box containing fabrics I'd purchased and stashed for my Star Upon Stars quilt (not yet started).  I decided that some of the fat eighths in this Laundry Basket Quilts Scrappy Bundle, particularly the ones to the left, will work just fine for my "shirting" prints in Stonefields, and I will still have enough fabric in that tub to make six Star Upon Star quilts if I wanted to.  (Everyone who knows me is laughing hysterically at the idea that I would make and finish six of the exact same quilt).

"Shirting Fabrics" for Stonefields, from Star Upon Stars Designated Stash

Other preparations I've made for Stonefields Quilt:

• Opening up all ten packets of Blocks of the Month style instructions, hole punching the pages and organizing them in a binder so it's easier to flip back and forth through the entire quilt as I'm making decisions for the quilt
• Background fabric prewashed and ironed, border lengths removed and set aside in a labeled box
• Consulted with my expert applique peeps, the internet, and my favorite applique reference books about methods and best practices
• Decided to cut my applique block backgrounds an inch larger (7 1/2" squares instead of 6 1/2" per pattern instructions) so I can trim them to exact size after hand stitching -- but haven't actually cut any squares at all
• Printed foundation paper piecing patterns for the four sawtooth star blocks in Month One, but no fabrics chosen or cut for those yet
• Reviewed Esther Aliu's and Erin Russek's prepared edge applique tutorials and Becky Goldsmith's tutorials in my Piece O Cake books, but have not decided whether I'll use freezer paper, washaway leave-in stabilizer, or heat resistant template plastic.  Maybe a combination of these, depending on the complexity of the appliqué shapes in each block?

So, goals for the week of June 3-9 and then overall goal for June?  I will be gone the entire rest of this week, so my big goal is really that I stop typing in time to pack my suitcase (it's now 3:37 PM.  How time flies).  Not sure what I'm in for when I get to my mom's in Austin, to be honest.  So my June goals are light for the moment.  I hope that, by the end of June, I get Deco loaded for quilting even if I don't put a single stitch in it.  And I hope that I will make some progress with Stonefields Month One, even if I don't complete all of the blocks: I plan to at least get those appliqué background blocks cut out, edges overcast, and make up my mind about how I want to do the applique so I can start prepping those blocks for stitching!

I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties, and then I am getting OFF the computer and getting ready for my trip!

ONE MONTHLY GOAL

Anne-Marie at Stories From the Sewing Room

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

FRIDAY

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework