All Lined Up with Studio E

One of the best parts of working in New York City is all of the different industry insiders I get to meet. Megan from Studio E Fabrics is a delightful member of Quilt Lab at Gotham Quilts. I enjoy discussing our creative challenges each month. Last month, she had a hexie quilt challenge for me!

Judy Guathier has designed a very cool, modern line for Studio E, called All Lined Up. They printed up panels of her free pattern, and had me quilt and bind one. I was given a free hand, and I went a little bit crazy. Sometimes it is fun to just relax and play with free motion quilting.

What do you think?

I really love this panel, and I hope they release it for sale, as part of their fabric collection. If not, there is a free pattern for this quilt available on the Studio E website.

I did stitch in the ditch around the whole thing, to give the illusion that it is actually a pieced quilt. Then I played. I used Microquilter thread by Superior in color 7003. It is 100 weight, and really blends nicely. It also doesn’t lead to a lot of thread buildup, which is great when you need to double back over your previous stitch lines.

With some of the blocks, I kept it simple and just echoed some of the lines. I used the Slim ruler from Angela Walters on this quilt. A lot!

When there was a tonal print, I used more elaborate quilting. Wishbones are one of my favorite motifs.

Free form lines are fun.

I did a little bit of pebbling. I always regret it once I start – it takes so long, and is impossible to take out!

My patterns became more complicated as I moved further down the quilt.

I love this background fabric. Just Color is a fun swirly, curly print. They sell it in a 108″, and I think it would be fun to use it to quilt from the back.

This one I tried something different – I did a spiraling echo of the shape of the piece. I think this was one of my favorite hexies.

I forgot to take a photo of the back! What a travesty. It is backed with Peppered Cotton in this plum color, and bound in it, too. You know the client is special when I am willing to do a crazy binding like this.

I was sad to give this quilt back to Megan. It is so nice! Now I want one for myself. By the time I finished this one, I had a whole bunch of new ideas.

Thanks to Studio E for allowing me to play with your sample! I hope it helps sell all of the fabric!

Have you ever used a panel to make a quick project? I remember when I started quilting, we called them cheaters, and turned up our noses. Now that I’m a longarmer, I consider them to be pretty valuable as practice pieces. I learn more when I practice on a piece with blocks than when I practice on a plain piece of fabric. Plus, when I am finished, my practice piece is a lovely, useable quilt!