The Hummingbird quilt story
My Gammill Optimum Plus was delivered on November 12th 2004. Sometime in January 2005 I already started daydreaming about creating a quilt for show, but really, really I had no clue where to start and what to do first. After my first attempt had failed, I had the urge to try as soon as possible, but I had no clue where to start. Have you ever been stumped, not knowing what to do first or where to start when you decided to create an entire quilt from scratch?
Did you ever try staring at a blank piece of white fabric thinking that might help you with getting some ideas for a quilt design? I did. As a matter of fact, I did that off and on for few days before I decided to do something about it. Because I wanted to create a floral quilt design, I thought that starting with design layout perimeters would be the first thing to do in order to have the design base for my quilt. Before I could do that, I needed to know what design motifs I would use to create the entire floral quilt design. I had no patterns that I could use and even if I did, that was not an option for me because as soon as I realized, I would be able to stitch designs in a freehand motion; that was exactly what I wanted to do. Because I wanted to create a floral design, I needed to learn how to stitch some flowers, foliage etc.
The next step was loading a piece of muslin and trying to stitch something that would look as close to a flower as possible. As soon as I stitched a few different shaped flowers in a freehand motion, I stepped back and took a good look at my creations. I was very impressed with the shapes I had just created. Deep in my heart I knew immediately that I had something going for me in order of being able to continue with what I had in mind for that quilt, since I wanted it to be a show piece. Deep inside, I wanted to create a winning award quilt, but I could not tell that to anyone, as I knew what their reaction would be: yah, right! How long have you been a long arm quilter? What? Just three months? You are some daydreamer!
I love flowers and hummingbirds. Therefore, I made a decision to include both in my quilt design. Just a little over 3 months into long arm quilting I had no clue about how to create a great quilt design, but that fact did not stop me from trying anyway; because I thought if I don’t try, I may never be able to create anything. Once I determined that my main design elements were going to be flowers and foliage, I made a decision about using floral wreaths as my main design elements in my overall design. Once I knew what I wanted, the next question was: where do I start the design layout? Do I start it in the center, or do I start it from the edges? What is the right way? I had no clue!
I was aware of the fact that all quilts are supposed to fit on top of a bed, so at least I had something to go by! I took measurements of a full size bed so I had the size of the main body of my quilt design. After marking the design perimeter of the full size bed and placing it in the center of the quilt, I had a large rectangular shape in the main body of the quilt and a wide border left to be filled with something.
At least I had something to go by in order to be able to continue with creating my design layout. I was a proud owner of a Gammill Design Center for just a couple of weeks. Therefore, I made a decision to use a couple of design elements stitched using my brand new device, as it was supposed to be my first show quilt. My husband was shaking his head after he asked few times whether I had a picture of the quilt in my head. If I had a picture in my head, the quilt would already have been stitched completely!
Starting with the design layout in the outer border was my only option, as I was not sure what would be the best place to start. I used a blue marker to draw the base [stem] for my feathers in the outer border the best way I knew how, using freehand motion drawing. Back then, I had no clue about the possibilities of transfer, or using a swag template in order to be able to create perfect symmetry. I thought that the more of a freehand look, the better…right? Wrong. It may be right for a bed quilt, but not so right for a competition piece!
After creating the outer border, I still had enough space to be filled, so I decided to use my Gammill Design Center and embellish the area all around the design motifs placed in the border area using the same flowers which I intended to use for creating the floral wreaths. The bed size perimeter did become the main design perimeter and the secondary border was part of it. Originally, it had some flowers nestled into a “frame” looking design. I broke up the frame into sections and used different designs to fill the area around the flowers to create more visual interest in my design.
Originally, I had stitched lines between the flowers in ¼” increments and loved the way it looked, but the quality of my workmanship wasn’t that good in stitching straight lines, thus I ended up having to take the stitching out and stitch background filler instead before the quilt was sent to the first show. Once I had the borders worked out, it was time to create the main design in the center. I created 4 medallions in the corners and a large medallion in the center. Before I loaded the Hummingbird onto the quilting frame, I only had all design perimeters marked: feather stem in the border, all flower centers including the floral wreath stem, secondary border and the centers of the Gammill Design Center patterns. That’s all.
The entire quilt was executed in a freehand motion except for 2 patterns stitched with the Gammill Design Center and a few circles stitched using the Gammill Workstation. After the quilting was complete, the Hummingbird was labeled “not good enough for a show entry” and almost ended up in a closet. Now, it is time to tell you that I had 1 full month of experience doing pantographs at a local quilt shop before my longarm was purchased. While working there, I was petrified of doing any freehand work for fear of ruining a customer quilt. I always asked the shop owner for help whenever a design needed to be finished at the edges.
I put an end to my fear of trying freehand motion quilting within the first couple of hours using my own longarm quilting machine. It took the entire night and few broken needles just to find out that I can do free motion quilting after all! BTW, I watched Linda Taylor’s tapes and kept drawing for three weeks before my machine was delivered. At that point I had no clue what the future had in store for me. After just a few months into longarm quilting I found myself in a whirlwind of events that hasn’t stopped to this day!
I have learned a few valuable lessons while making this quilt.
Hummingbird is a winner of 17 awards in national and international quilt contests.
Size 85" X 96"
I am very proud and happy to announce that:
My Hummingbird quilt was chosen to be featured in:
Lone Stars III
A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1986-2011
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