Quilt Reveal – Bad Girl #3 – The Orange One from the Quilt Along
While this wasn’t the quickest and it is the third time I’ve made this quilt and in the midst I always think I’ll never finish, I’m finding this one to be the most refreshing one I’ve made. I’m sure it has to do with the oranges and corals and peaches, but oh! I’m feeling such joy over it! Maybe has something to do too with the longarm quilting that was done on it too (Thank you, Tracy!) and the fact that this quilt is mine. I’m not gifting it to someone else, I’m not saying goodbye. It doesn’t have to be sold off to pay for this bill or that bill. It’s mine. And I adore it.
All my Bad Girl quilts:
- The first one – very scrappy
- The second one – the blue chambrays
Get the Bad Girl quilt pattern
What I Learned
As I’m sure most of you know I made this with you during our quilt along this past summer. What was it? Mid-May to early July, if I’m remembering correctly. See the progress here. I’m trying to make an effort to take notice of what I like and don’t like about a quilt instead of just rushing to the next quilt.
I’m a fan of shades of orange. It’s not something I’ve always known, but orange or more like coral, I now consider a favorite color. It’s so happy and cheerful and makes me smile. I learned with a quilt last year that I’m not a fan when I put all of my Heather Ross fabrics together, but this time I did it juuuuuust right. In the center of at least half of my stars is a HR fussy cut. I get tickled when I happen to run my hand over one.
I also calmed my background down. Okay, okay. I calmed it down for my style. Ha! I’m not getting away from my scrappy backgrounds, I just can’t, but I made sure to mindfully choose which ones were going in based on their busy-ness. The Bad Girl is a busy quilt pattern, so I chose fabrics that were a bit less so. That Nisi floral though is still calling my name. It was my favorite of the backgrounds. I’m also a fan of the pops of bright white in the sea of egg shell white in the background. It’s more noticeable in this quilt than in some, but I like it.
Last things I love is the quilting on it that Tracy (more on this in a minute) and the chunky hand binding (more on this soon too).
Taking note of what I don’t like about a quilt I’ve made is more important to me than what I did like because it’s a chance for me to learn more about what works and doesn’t work, but on this quilt I’m finding it hard to find something. If I had to choose something, I’d say I should have added in another peach instead of the darker orange, but now I’m just being nitpicky. I’m also going to stop cutting my binding at 2.5″ and start cutting it exclusively at 2.25″.
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Most of my quilts I always quilt on my domestic machine. It uses up time, but saves me money, so it’s what I do. My friend Tracy asked if I’d let her practice on this Bad Girl with her longarm. I’d already seen the work she was doing in pictures and I had no worries when I shipped my quilt off to her. She didn’t disappoint either. This is a custom quilting job. You can see the difference in what she put on the background versus what she did with the Dresdens and the stars. I’m absolutely in love with it. I could literally gush all day. She also hand quilted a little on top of all of the fussy cuts.
She needs to start taking orders. She’s that good!
Since posting pictures of this quilt and my last one with longarm quilting, I’ve gotten some questions about using a longarmer. I would definitely encourage you to do whatever you think is right for you. For me it’s usually about budget, so it’s good I can quilt my own quilts. Of course, sometimes I just want to quilt my own so that it’s all my work, sometimes it’s more about timing (I might need something done right now). Honestly though if I could afford to send them all out I probably would. I rarely put much effort into the quilting, preferring to get it done, so my work doesn’t personally compare with any longarmers work.
I’ve used three different longarmers to date:
- Linda over at Blue Barn Quilting quilted a Medallion quilt for me a year ago. Her work was beautiful. She has a website that you can order from and that made it very easy for me to choose a pattern and see prices which were competitive to other longarmers I’ve visited.
- I mentioned above that Cindy Lundy quilted my Ruby Beatrice quilt just a month or so ago. Another beautiful job. She quilted all over with a design I requested. She doesn’t have a website, but you can DM her over on Instagram. I know she takes commissions. Cindy also quilted all of the quilts we donated to the Paradise Camp fires.
- Then this quilt, quilted by Tracy.
Just because I get asked about prices often… most longarmers charge based on the size of your quilt. I’ve seen prices range from $.01-.05 per square inch depending on the design. Custom quilting costs much more.
In all three of my experiences I was gifted the quilting.
Patchwork + Quilt (a class for learning to quilt)
Quilt Details:
Pattern – Bad Girl Quilt (click here if you prefer a paper version)
Size – 60×72″
Blocks – 30 blocks, 15 Andromeda Stars + 15 Quarter Dresdens
Top Fabrics – All fabrics came from Meander + Make
Backing Fabrics – Mousies Floral by Heather Ross and Plot’s Fiori by Bari J
Binding – Illusion in Pink
Batting – Warm and Natural batting by the Warm Company
Thread – So Fine by Superior in Blizzard
Techniques Used – meander quilting, wall basting, and chunky hand binding (tutorial coming soon)
Quilt Label – from my shop here, tutorial for how to install it here
Let’s touch on the binding. This is not my first time with the chunky hand binding, but it is my first time doing it on a whole quilt. I’ve done it on a couple of small projects before. I ADORE this small detail. From here forth I think I’d like to do it to every quilt that I have no immediate intentions for.
I used Pearl cotton #8 and a sashiko needle and all it is is a running stitch. So it’s not hard, very basic, but adds so much to the whole project. Don’t you think? I’m in love.
Thanks for reading along! I do hope if you participated in the Bad Girl quilt along you enjoyed it. I’m still gushing everytime one pops into my feed on Instagram. #badgirlquilt
Hugs!
My Quilt Patterns
I am trying to decide which way to sew my Bad Girl quilt. I notice several getting a different look and I finally figured out why. Some use the darker squares alongside the stars which then run down the center of the dresdens and some use the lighter ones, creating an entirely different look, a nice distinct oval with the dresdens. You did your blue version that way with the lighter squares.
Oh, yeah. I really like both ways, but prefer the alternate version. One of the pages in the pattern covers this.