Ideas for Custom Quilting

Custom quilting is specific quilting designs made and arranged for an individual quilt. As opposed to edge-to-edge or all-over quilting which is a design that is repeated across the entire quilt without regard to the piecing or applique. Custom quilting is a great way to express your creativity and make a quilt that is truly unique. With careful planning and execution, custom quilting can transform a quilt into a work of art.

But where do you start? How do you come up with ideas for the quilting plan?

Start with the basics

Tone

Try to get a feel for the quilt.  What kind of vibes does it give? Who is it for? How will it be used? Masculine vs feminine? Traditional vs modern?

I’m going to use an example of a quilt that I recently finished for a client.

Sorry, it’s not the greatest picture but it’s the only one I took of (almost) the whole quilt top.

Kathie made the top from hand embroidered table clothes, dresser scarves and handkerchiefs made by her family members in the 1950’s and 60’s. The quilt is destined to be a family heirloom for years to come. The tone of the quilt is very much traditional and very feminine. Kathie liked the idea of feathers and wanted to make the edges scalloped. That was my starting off point: feathers and scalloped edges.

Emphasis

What do you want to stand out?

Of course on this quilt the embroideries are the star of the show. I outlined all the embroideries and did not quilt through them.

I did quilt through some of the laces only because leaving that much un-quilted area would not be wise. It might result in batting bunching, if the quilt is washed or fabric sag due to gravity, if the quilt is used as a wall hanging. Kathie was not sure exactly how the quilt would be used yet.

Where will the quilting show?

Quilting shows on white and light solid color fabrics the most. So the outer border and any of the white negative space called for the most elaborate quilting. Starting with Kathie’s request for a scalloped edge, I came up with a feather design that would make that happen.

Those two points of emphasis, the embroideries and the scalloped edges, informed the quilting. After that it was a matter of filling in negative space and using the principle of repetition.

Repetition

Look for elements in the quilt top that you can repeat. Those could be the motifs in the fabric, the shapes in the piecing, the shapes of the applique or embroidery.

There was open space at the top and bottom between the embroidery and the blocks. I choose to repeat the shapes of the embroidered leaves and flowers.  This is sometimes referred to as ghost quilting.

Of course the feathers were repeated to fill the larger open spaces and the center doily.