“Frolic” was Bonnie Hunter’s 2019-2020 Quiltville Mystery Quilt. As with all of Bonnie’s quilts, the piecing is intricate and the colors play is bold— join me as we discuss various ways to tackle this masterpiece of a quilt as well as how to tackle quilting bulky seams.

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(Quilt pictured above pieced by Laurie Crofoot)

Bonnie Hunter is a world renowned quilt designer and teacher who generously offers a mystery quilt to her fans every holiday season. The quilt, especially the colors, is usually inspired by Bonnie’s travels from the previous year, and, in her signature style, is usually intricately pieced, guaranteed to keep even the most efficient and dedicated piecer busy through the holidays and beyond.

When each careful piece is finally in place, though, there is often a lingering question: How do I quilt it??

It’s a real, honest, and necessary question: Quiltville quilts are designed to be heirlooms, and it’s well worth being intentional about how to quilt each one. But really, there are two questions to answer: Who should quilt it? And then how should it be quilted?

Who should quilt your Quiltville Mystery?

Regardless of which “side” of this you instinctually fall on, you may not have fully considered the other perspective, so let’s break this down:

The Longarmer

A number of factors would make your favorite longarmer the logical choice for quilting Frolic— Quiltville Mysteries tend to be bedsize, and longarmers typically have more experience with larger quilts. Plus, more traditional quilts can have bulkier seams, which can be a little harder to manage on your domestic machine. However, sending a quilt to the longarmer may be cost prohibitive, or you may prefer to finish your quilts yourself (raising my hand), in which case the better choice would be:

You!

Whether you own a longarm or quilt on your domestic, with a plan and a bit of patience (or stubbornness), you absolutely can finish Frolic yourself! It’s a great way to save the longarmer fee (more fabric— huzzah!), gain experience as a quilter, and make an heirloom truly start to finish yourself. Before you start quilting, you’ll find my blogs about basting and quilting a large quilt on a domestic machine helpful.

The Quilting Plan

Whether you are giving guidance to your longarmer or tackling this beauty yourself, you’re going to need a plan. As always, I consider there to be three main categories of quilting plans: an all over design, a semi-custom design, and a fully custom design. Let’s take a look at what each of these might look like for Frolic:

All Over Design

Between you and me, most quilters will choose an all over design for their Frolic quilt. While my personal style tends to be more custom, this is a very logical and lovely option for such an intricate quilt. It will create texture on the quilt and hold it secure for frequent use, without being too challenging (or expensive) to execute. A longarmer will likely offer you a selection of pantographs, but if you are quilting Frolic yourself, good motif candidates would include meandering, swirls, or, if you are feeling adventurous, a feather meander.

Semi-Custom Design

I usually define “semi-custom” as 3-4 motifs, but I’m going to expand that definition here to include quilting one motif on the blocks of the quilt and another in the borders. Swirls or a meander would work beautifully in the main body of this quilt, perhaps a wishbone motif in the skinny border, and feathers or triangle spirals in the border.

If you wanted to take “semi custom” a step further, you could choose two motifs for the blocks (one for each block, since it’s a two block quilt), then quilt the borders separately.

Fully Custom Design

Now we’re getting faaaaancyyyyy, girlfriend! Fully custom quilting generally uses the piecing of the quilt as a guide to highlight various shapes of the piecing. It can also ignore the seamlines entirely to create an new layer to the quilt, but given the intricacy of Frolic’s piecing, I’d recommend respecting the piecing. Whether or not you want to stitch in the ditch (or in some of the ditches) before you begin custom FMQ is up to you.

For Frolic, there are a few shapes that are likely candidates for “highlighting” to me— the stars in the main blocks, the Xs in the secondary blocks, and the fancy arrows of the wider border. Below, you’ll see a couple of ideas and some inspiration on how to custom quilt Frolic

(You may also enjoy this post about quilting En Provence)

(Grid above: my quilting on Claire Davies’ version of Good Fortune, a Quiltville Mystery)

What about the bulky seams?

Great question, babe! If you’re quilting this beauty yourself, it’s worth giving some consideration to the best way to tackle bulky seams. Here’s a few thoughts:

Avoid them all together

This won’t necessarily work if you’re doing a pantograph, but if you are doing an all over design on your quilt or creating your own semi-custom or custom quilting plan, you can neatly avoid stitching directly in the bulkiest seams. This may be especially useful if you’re working on a smaller machine.

Slowwwwww Downnnnn

The disadvantages, though, of trying to avoid stitching in bulky seams is that 1) it might actually be unavoidable and 2) then those seams aren’t secure and may “pucker” a bit. If your quilting plan demands passing through a bulky point or if you want to beside that bulky spot is tamed, make sure you slowwwww down as you stitch to avoid broken needles, “toe grabbers,” and weird tension.

Invest in a Glide Foot

Glide feet are shaped like plastic ladles and don’t have an “edge” like a typical hopping or ruler foot, so they can “glide” over bulky spots more easily. Depending on your machine, though, this can be an investment, so don’t feel compelled to jump to this option right away.

An Ounce of Prevention…

While the quilting tips above will make a huge difference in your quilting experience with bulky seams, don’t forget to be proactive before you arrive at the quilting stage. Pay attention to pressing directions and press bulky areas firmly to get them as flat as possible. And don’t be afraid to get a little crazy— I’ve been known to take a mallet to really bulky stars and give them a good whack flat before basting my quilt.

Congratulations!

First of all, congratulations of piecing a Bonnie Hunter quilt! Her tops are intricate and require dedication. Second, congratulations on being committed to thoughtfully quilting this treasure. Whether you are quilting it yourself or sending it out to the longarmer, you’ve made an intentional decisions, and the finished product will be stunning!!

(Still piecing your Quiltville Mystery and curious about learning more about free motion quilting so you could quilt it yourself? Click here to check out my 3 Steps to Improve Your FMQ!)

(Quilt pictured above pieced by Laurie Edwards)

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