Quilting in the border
Last summer I relocated my longarm quilting business from the United States to Europe. Since then, I’m not as busy as I used to be with longarming, but I hope that will change over time as I make new connections. That said, I have had enough business to notice some trends.
no. 1 - European quilters seem to make less quilts per year than American quilters. Obviously this is a generalization, but I get the feeling that most are conscious of the much higher price of fabrics here. Smaller and fewer quilts is a natural result.
no. 2 - There is more interest in custom quilting here than in the States. I’m quilting about two quilts per week these days, typically one with edge-to-edge quilting and one that is custom quilted.
no. 3 - I’m also seeing more borders lately!
Usually I come up with ideas for the border(s) after deciding with the customer on the quilting style for the main part of the quilt. Although a border is secondary in importance, a special border treatment can really add a lot to a quilt.
Take this quilt for example. Jessie Aller asked for a Baptist Fan border on this large bed quilt. Genius! It makes such an impression hanging over the side of the bed. The center of the quilt is quilted with an all-over pattern, for a simple, contrasting texture.
Last week I custom quilted a delightful diamond quilt for Heike. After basting the quilt on the machine, I began by quilting the outer border. On a longarm, quilting the borders first is the best way to ensure that they are as straight as possible.
This dahlia border is so showy! I love how it turned out.
After the large pink gingham border, the quilt has several small interior borders surrounding the diamond patchwork center. Heike wanted her quilt to remain as soft and cuddly as possible, so I knew it would not be ideal to quilt something different inside each of the small interior borders. The quilting would have been too dense.
Instead, I suggested this Whisper floral border design over all three interior borders. It’s soft and gentle, while providing enough quilting to reinforce those tiny triangles.
And even though this is a post about border quilting, I can’t resist showing off the center. Isn’t that sweet? And best of all - soft. I put the most quilting in the plain white diamonds, where it really shows.
With so many more borders in my life these days, I decided it was time to create a formal catalog of border designs. This will make it easier for my customers to see some options ahead of time, if they like. Here’s a screenshot of the section I added on my Quilting/Designs page:
Hopefully that will be helpful! If nothing else, it helps me keep more possibilities in mind.
The quilt on my longarm frame today is also getting a border treatment. I call this border “drapery” in my pattern catalog, but it really looks like the flourish at the top of a birthday cake to me. None of my family sees the resemblance, so I decided on a more traditional name, haha.
Ok, I should get back to longarm quilting. This double Irish Chain quilt will be a fun challenge! Have a great weekend, friends.
