Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Tumalo Trails aka "Cowboy Up", DONE

I call this "Cowboy Up" because it looks so  ... blue sky, outdoors and I'm here in western Nebraska, where there are a LOT of blue skies, and real cowboys!    It's about 86"x 106", all MQ'ed on my Janome MC6500.  Whew!  In case anyone wonders, I have 8 7/8 inches from the needle to the machine housing. 

Thank you to Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com for the inspiration.  The border is my own idea. The darker blue corners took a little fidding on graph paper.

This is the quilt that started one day when I just HAD to sew something, and made about 100 little 9-patches, wondering what I could do with them.  At the same time, my PILE of accumulated stuff on my sewing table was out of control.  Suddenly a blue plaid shirt that I had not yet cut up, fell on top of the 9-patches.  My gosh, it was the PERFECT fabric!  It had been given to me by my friend Janet, who knew I liked cotton shirts.   I used every bit of that large shirt, with NOTHING left over. 

I learned the border quilted swirls using the clear Janome foot that glides, doesn't hop, with red guide lines that help to keep the arches approximately even.   Thanks to videos from talented Angela Walters.  This design uses a backtracking method.  It really helped to have thread matching closely to the background.  I quilted each side in about one hour.  That narrow dark blue in one of the borders is a dimensional flange - just for touching.

This clever design is called pea pods.  To avoid boredom, I used a number of quilting designs on different rows.  

Oh yes, about 3600 pieces!  




12 comments:

  1. Fabulous finish - terrific quilt!!!!!!

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  2. Wonderful finish, Elaine! I can't imagine quilting that on a DSM. Great job!

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  3. Stunning! You are so good with value/color, besides the quilting!

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  4. It's gorgeous and the quilting is perfect! I love that you describe how you quilted it and how much space you have in your sewing machine, which is the same as I have. I had never really measured it before. People are amazed when they find out I quilt on my Janome. I'm just getting ready to start quilting a queen size quilt and trying to figure out how I want to do it. Thanks!

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  5. Beautiful! The border design really sets it off.
    More power to you. I could not do it on a small sewing machine.

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  6. Elaine, I love your interpretation of Bonnie's Tumalo Trail. so nice with all the blues.
    I can't seem to find the pattern in Bonnie's book. can you tell me which book it's in? or was it in one of the magazines. I'd love to make one
    Joan

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  7. Great quilt, and as usual your quilting is superb.

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  8. Truly wonderful! Thank you for the inspiration.
    Sarah in California

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  9. Gorgeous from another Nebraska down by Hastings. This is on my bucket list. Love your colorway!!

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  10. Wow! Is that ever a beauty. You really do have a talent for getting the perfect border on your quilts. I'm going to go check out your links now... I have the scraps but I'm afraid not in the pretty blues.

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