Paisley Parade!
Sheila Van Der Linden
This bargello came to me from a lovely lady named Ronni. She pieced it with fabrics that are from my favourite fabric line Fairy Frost! It is a simple colour scheme but so very striking.
I knew I wanted to do something different on this quilt, so I pulled out my doodle pad. I learned a while ago that your doodle pad is a very important tool for long arm quilters. Your needle on your long arm is the same as a pen in your hand. 10 minutes a day drawing on your pad helps you transfer designs from your head to your quilt.
One of my first edge to edge designs was the simple paisley. When you are proficient at a design, it is embedded in your brain, and you don't have to think about it when you move across your quilt. So take these simple designs and think about how you can "fancy" them up. Keep in mind the stops and starts that are required to complete the design.
The more I drew paiselys, the more "fancy" they became, yet at the same time they were simple to execute. The more I drew them, the more embedded they became in my head, and the design became perfected. When the time comes to stitch out your design on your customers quilt, you can approach it with confidence.
I also love doing swirls, anyone who knows me, knows this too! So a quick little consult with my studio mates resulted in me choosing these 2 designs, paisleys and swirls as my quilting design for Ronni's bargello. I decide I would alternate the designs, one colour way would be swirls, the next paisleys.
This plan worked out well as I moved down the quilt. Because the colour "rows" undulate along the width of the quilt , there was a lot of moving the quilt forward, then reverse it on the frame. I also paid attention to what design fell where. I really wanted the paisley rows to be on the cream fabric.
I positioned the paisleys randomly and C C'd the back ground around the paisleys. This created a beautiful contrast to the swirls.
One of my most memorable reveals was this quilt. Taking it off the frame was a pretty emotional moment. It was fun to share that moment with Joanne and Matt. They were very encouraging the whole time I worked on this quilt. Ronni was very happy when she saw it, which of course is the best outcome I could wish for!
There are more pictures in my gallery, have a lookey loo! Thanks for sharing my quilting journey with me!