8 Different ways to quilt the same quilt pattern

I love it when I get to quilt the same quilt pattern more than once. It is fun to try to choose different designs for each of them that make them unique and beautiful, but still compliment the quilt. My friend Tina over at Art Nest Retreat Center has been busy making some glorious Trailing Star Quilts. The Pattern is by Plains and Pine, who specializes in large scale star quilt designs. In this post I want to share the different designs I quilted on each quilt. Maybe this will help you in deciding what design to choose for your next quilt. Tina left it to me to choose what designs to quilt on her quilts and that is always a thrilling challenge.

Lets also talk about batting for a second. I used Quilters Dream 100% cotton Request loft batting on five of her quilts. And 80/20 blend on the other three. Lately I have been loving the thinner loft on my own quilts, especially on the quilts I travel with, show in trunk shows and just for general use. The are lightweight, have super drape and are just wonderful. 80/20 blend is the go to standard in the quilting industry and it is great too. It creates a bit heavier quilt and it realy stands up well to many washings and daily use.

Here they all are laid out in a beautiful grid. I love seeing them all at once.

For her first version Tina used solid style fabric. Several of these fabrics are woven and I loved the soft color pallet she chose. I used one of my favorite digital quilting designs named Raindrops on the Pond. I love the swirling design and think it creates a peaceful texture that looks great in the body of the quilt as well as in the blue bckground.

For her second Trailing star quilt she dove into her beautiful Anna Maria Horner/Perry fabric. She chose an olive green background . I recently purchased several designs from OESD and This one Gardenia Garden was one of them. I thought is would be perfect to compliment both the beautiful floral fabric as well at the green background. I have found that the designs made by OESD really enjoy a lot of backtracking which means the machine quilts over top of the same stitch path a couple times. In general I am not a fan of backtracking designs and I tend to avoid them. Sadly there is no obvious way to know how much a design backtracks until you stitch it out. With that said I still like the results and I will definitely use this design on future quilts.

I quilted Beech Leaves on Tina’s third quilt. I love the sketchy nature of Deborah’s quilting designs. This design isn’t quite as dense as many of the others ones I quilted on Tina’s quilts, but I love how soft and cozy this quilt will be after it is washed. I used Glide Peacock thread on the top of the quilt and Pink Glide in the bobbin. The peacock thread is a funny shade. It is a bit purple, a bit blue and a bit lavender. It is one of those chameleon threads that goes well with almost anything and the pink blended perfectly with the pink fabric on the back of the quilt.

I quilted Swirls Paisley Pantograph by Amanda Murphy on Tina’s fourth Trailing Star quilt. I love the simple beautiful texture of this design. I also used Glide Sterling (a medium grey) on her quilt. I didnt have the right shade of purple, so I thought the grey blended well across the quilt.

I didn’t get great pictures of Tina’s fifth Trailing Star quilt, but it quilted up great. I used another of Deborah Lobban’s sketchy designs called Fun Flowers. I love the texture and design and think it compliments the beautiful fabric and looks great in the negative space.

I totally failed to get any pictures of Tina’s sixth Trailing Star quilt. I grabbed this one from her Facebook page. I used another new to me design that I found over at OESD. This ones name is Nebula. I love how it quilted up and really wish I would have taken some pictures of it while it was still loaded up on the Gammill. I used Pink thread and Cotton Request loft batting. This one wil be so squishy and fabulous after it is washed.

I used one of my favorite Karlee Porter designs on Tina’s seventh Trailing Star quilt, Abundance. I always love Karlee’s beautiful designs paired with Anna Maria Horner/Perry fabric. I also love her designs for flaks who want a custom quilted look, but don’t want to have to pay all that $$$.

I quilted Feather Frenzy by Karlee Porter on Tina’s eighth Trailing Star quilt. Isn’t that texture great? This is another quilt that I used Glide Peacock thread on.

OK, that is it for now on Tina’s great collection of Trailing Star quilts. I love them all so much. I really want to custom quilt one, so I bought the pattern and I am in the process of making one for my own bed! I will be using Essex Linen and a super thick cotton Batting because it is so cold here in the winter. Have you made any of Plains and Pine star quilts? How did you quilt them? I am a bit obsessed! I hope this post inspired you to think of different quilting designs for your next quilt and if you would like me to quilt for you please don’t hesitate to make a submission on my website. I would be thrilled to quilt your next quilt.