Celtic Bubbles as Background

I have been practicing Celtic Bubbles around a flower I quilted several years ago to see if I liked making this design smaller to use as a background, rather than as a design in itself with the lines spaced farther apart in each spiral.  

Here you see how the design nestles around the large simple shapes of the flower, and it wasn't too hard to do.  The ruler gives you a guide as to the size of the quilting, the flower, and the background spacing which is a scant 1/8".  It is time consuming, but then so are tiny bubbles or pebbles, stippling, little bananas, any closely spaced background technique.  

When I taught this design I always suggested beginning with a scant 1/4" spacing, something your brain is so good at estimating from doing piecing, and continue with this spacing until you have mastered the technique.  It is by far the easiest spacing for almost everyone, and the easiest to do on a home machine with limited space.  

When you feel confident, then try some bubbles with decreased spacing, or make them larger, whatever is your inclination.  Keep in mind it is far easier to quilt large circles, with more space between the lines of stitching, on a longarm machine than a home machine.  It is easier for me to go smaller on my home machine than bigger, always.  So keep that in mind.  However, some quilters naturally tend towards larger designs and spacing, some do better small scale.

What I like about doing these spirals is they begin in the center and are so controlled as you quilt.  I never felt like things were getting away from me, but I could go fairly fast too the bigger the spiral became.  Doing the same shape/technique over and over really helps you improve quickly and gain confidence.  It goes faster than you would think and stays interesting for you, never boring.

One reason I find it fun to do is that each spiral shape has to bump into something already quilted and you have to resolve the design so it looks layered, looks as if it is peeking out from behind the flower, feather, another spiral, etc.  It isn't hard to do this, but takes control to slow down as you approach a line of stitching, stitch over it to get to the point where the next round of the spiral should appear.  

This control makes the design look very precise and intricate, gives it the "wow" factor.  If you are sloppy and just mush things in or miss your travel stitching the design becomes just lines and stitches and you lose the clarity of the floating spirals all layered in the background.

For the tutorial on Celtic Bubbles please see this earlier blog post.

Some things I discovered:

• If there are little nooks and crannies, long skinny spaces, odd spaces where it would be exceedingly difficult to add arcs or continue the spiral design, simply fill these with echo quilting, small bubbles or pebbles, tiny stippling.  As I echo the focal point quilting (here, the flower) I filled in some of these odd areas as I went.  The last echo of the design will be with the color thread used for the Celtic Bubbles so traveling will not show.
• Begin at the center of each spiral, being careful not to start too far from another bubble or something you'll bump into.  If you do start too far away, the spiral will become very large indeed, and more difficult to do, and will stand out from the others.  However if you want larger and fewer spirals, the farther away you start one from a completed one, the bigger it will become.
• Speed is important to keep your control.  I begin with a nice even slower speed to establish the circle shape, then speed up the machine to keep up with my hands as they go faster to keep the big smooth circles going well.  If you speed up your hands to make the larger arcs, the stitches will get way too big if you don't speed the machine too.  If stitches start out very small and get very large by the last circle it means your machine was not keeping up with your hands.  Work on it and it will become natural to speed up the machine to keep up with your hand movement so you get smooth spirals from the center all the way out.
• I seem to do my Celtic Bubbles counterclockwise.  I don't know what that means......!  But, it just feels natural.
• You can gradate the sizing of these and begin with larger ones, with greater spacing, then slowly decrease their size and the spacing.  This would give you a more artistic effect, perfect for pictorial quilts or art quilts.  Experiment!  Try different thread colors on your fabric to see what looks best before you commit.

I hope you give these a try and learn to love doing them as I do.  I wouldn't fill vast spaces with tiny ones, but these work so well in a small area to set off quilting or applique.  

It's a sunny cold day here in Wisconsin, with more snow from overnight, and Oliver is sleeping on the bed near me with spiked fur on the top of his head from the faucet water running off his head as he drank.  I usually remember to smooth it down, but it has dried into hard spikes, the punk cat look.  He is such a sweetie.

Keep quilting!  A little bit every day is a very good thing.

Diane

Spring!

 

This beautiful collection of Ukrainian eggs by Carolyn Trout is the perfect harbinger of Spring!  Hope your celebration is splendid and joyful. 

 

Oliver and I are sorting through my sewing room and finding interesting things, and missing what we are really seeking.  Things seem to disappear easily in there, and we look for an hour at most, then move on.  They will surface some day.

 

The birds have returned, snow is receding like large slow glaciers melting, a house fly came to life in the window sill today and gave Oliver a good chase.  Signs of life are everywhere, spring is definitely arriving.

 

 

"Twilight Feathers" ~ Detail

 

Scraps and samples from the quilt above were found in a bottom drawer.  We vaguely remembered this one as a Pilgrim and Roy Challenge Auction quilt for the National Quilt Museum several years ago.  I finish these quilts and ship them in days, still hot from the machine, so it's no wonder they are forgotten quickly.  I hope whoever owns it still is enjoying it.  I'm working on a small one for the November Celebrity Invitational AAQI auction, just beginning to quilt a bit now and then as my thumb and wrist improve. 

 

I am so pleased many of you are trying the recent tutorial on Celtic Bubbles and having success!  My email is dianequilter@sbcglobal.net if you have photos to share.  Working on this design should not only give you something new for your quilting repertoire, but help improve the quality of your quilting, more even stitches, better control, better spacing, better everything. 

 

Happy Spring, and keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.....

Diane

 

Celtic Bubbles Part II ~ Variations

 

Border Design with Celtic Bubbles

 

Now that you have tried quilting this beautiful overlapping spiral design, I'll show you a few variations.  Above, an idea for a border includes filling a portion of the space first with a pile of Bubbles (interior of the quilt would be on top, or the other way round if you prefer, but I love having the grid go to the edge of the quilt to keep it stable for binding).  I then echoed the Bubbles once, and then added some small feathers.  Of course feathers could be larger, your decision. 

 

Finally I filled the last of the space with a quarter-inch grid.  It isn't all that straight as I winged this sample, and marked those lines after the first part was quilted on a very poufy batt sandwich, so there are some interesting variations on "straight." 

 

Tip:  Always mark any grids before layering the quilt, if you can.  Variations in spacing aren't nearly as noticeable in Diane-shiko or Apple Core, but straight line grids show everything.

 

When I finished the feathers and was deciding what to quilt in the remaining space, a grid popped into my head immediately as the perfect offset for all the curves and circles.  I like it.  It isn't that hard to do free motion, but it is marked, so that takes some time.  It is a wonderful visual contrast and contains the puff evenly. 

 

Next, Oval Celtic Bubbles!  Usually I mention in classes that it is ok to quilt an oval if that's how your circles end up, so I decided to try an oval and see.  I used my class demo sample sandwich one more time, so there are "other things" included that I had done in class.  I squeezed in a small batch of oval Bubbles.

 

Oh my gosh, it is SO much easier than circles!  The shape is much the same of course, but not having to quilt out to the east and west on a home machine is so much better.  I could quilt ovals better and twice as fast.  Below is my only sample so far, but I hope to get you a really nice one soon.

 

 

Oval Celtic Bubbles

 

 

More variations!  Next, for those of you who want some interesting variations, try some of the following, or come up with your own.  The first is a soft wood grain effect by doing overlapping ripply ovals.  The following samples made years ago for classes were folded and are a bit wrinkly.

 

 

 

Next I used a chrysanthemum type ripple to create the following.  Note it is cut from a class demo sample.....

 

 

 

You can do rectangles or squares as well.  I'll try and get a sample soon for those, as my old one is too disreputable to post here. 

 

Below is a portion of a small class example quilt where I added Celtic Bubbles in the upper corner, simply for visual interest.  I had other designs in this border but it all worked well together.  The entire border could have been Bubbles too, just another option.

 

 

"Batz Below" detail

 

One function this design does very well is enclose excess puff between other designs and work it in with the curving arcs.  Before the area was quilted there were huge mountains of puff to be controlled.  Celtic Bubbles did the job.  I like to have these tools for function as well as visuals because every now and then it's necessary to solve problems while machine quilting by the correct design choice.

 

I also really held the quilt sandwich smooth and taut to control the puff while quilting this area, and slowed down.  I had the pressure lowered on the free motion foot as well so the foot didn't push along any excess.

 

 

 

Another option for you is to do micro Celtic Bubbles, above, very tiny ones for close background fill.  I drew a two-inch square and filled it with tiny Bubbles.  They were actually easier than larger ones, but it is tempting to start whirling out into space from centrifugal force as you whiz around the circles as they become larger, so be careful. 

 

Those of you who love to do this kind of quilting should be able to get some amazing results.  I definitely used my magnifier on the sewing machine for this.  I would use Micro Celtic Bubbles for small areas instead of another tight background fill.  However, acres of them, probably not.

 

If you are more a large scale quilter, try one of the "wonky" versions and space out to about 1/2" between rounds.  It will cover territory quickly and evenly.  I think it would look great too on children's quilts in areas where you don't know what to quilt.  Try heavier threads, fun threads and colors.

 

One thing I discovered - you get so much better the more of these you do.  I look at those first ones while I was quite rusty and wow, I can go twice as fast and the results are twice as nice.  It does happen.

 

 

 

Enjoy your spirals and springtime eggs....

Diane

 

Home from Asilomar

The fire was roaring, the soft salty sea air felt wonderful on my wintry dry skin last week at Empty Spools Seminars, held at the amazing California state park, "Asilomar," or Refuge by the Sea.  And refuge it was.  Right on the coastline near Monterey, it takes you back in time as you live, eat, and work in the historic buildings scattered through the acres, deer freely roaming, surf booming in the distance.  Huge Monterey pines and natural vegetation frame the ocean views.  Delicious food three times a day, and fun and laughter with all who are there in the various classes.  And quilts, quilts, everywhere.

My class, "A Quilting Journey," was all about free motion machine quilting on a home sewing machine, and my 24 intrepid quilters did great.  We worked very hard but were relaxed and had a good time as well. 

My trip out there had a few glitches, one which involved 12 hours in Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix.  It was after 8 hours that I noticed the carpet, below, was a funky rendition of my "Celtic Bubbles" design I teach, only this one had little jet airplanes sprinkled throughout.

Our small prop jet plane ( 8 rows, noisy) left Phoenix at 9 p.m.-ish, and did ok until it met the high winds in California and along the coast.  The turbulence was terrible, still have bruises from that, and for the first time I turned green from airsickness but managed to refrain from throwing up on the handsome man seated next to me. 

In the pitch dark night we were told the loud noises we heard were just chunks of ice being thrown off by the propellers and were hitting the plane.  Eek.

Then amidst the turbulence the pilot announced we would have to land in Fresno as we were almost out of fuel.  Double Eek. 

At least the buffeting ended when we landed for fuel, and I chewed a Tums.  Ground felt so good, but soon we were up again and more turbulence.  The clouds cleared, and Monterey Bay was spread out below us like jewels in the clear night air.  I arrived at Asilomar and my lovely room around 3 a.m. Whew.  Sometimes I wonder why I teach quilting!

Above, the deer were my view out of my sleeping room, so gentle and pretty.

My class began the next day, 24 quilters who rose to every single challenge I threw at them.  We laughed, had fun, were serious about our work, but could also smile when things didn't go that well.  In the end, I think everyone improved and some were sailing free with their quilting.  It was very rewarding for me, but some gremlins took time to sum up my teaching and the class on the board one evening, below.  And if it is too fuzzy to read, that's fine too.  I think they hit all the salient points of my barking at them for 5 days!

Special thanks to Toyo and Evette, who helped with the class and did a terrific job, and Jan and Helen-Mary, who let me demo on their machines. 

Next blog post I'll give a summation of things we learned in class.

Meanwhile, Oliver was ecstatic to see me and climbed in my carry-on of quilts when I was unpacking.  He is just now truly believing I am back for good and is thrilled his two "people" are together again, just for him.

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day. 

More to come,

Diane