Step-by-Step Tulip Quilt

Now that we have passed the winter solstice and the days are getting longer.  I feel like Spring isn't that far away, I can see the light!  Monette sent me this quilt from Kamloops, BC and her colours and piecework are impeccable.  I fell in love with this gorgeous pink tulip quilt. 

I did the video this week in the watch and learn fashion so make sure to check it out!

Tulip YouTube Video

I knew I wanted to make a statement on with this quilt, and my mind always goes to ruler work.  But I loved the traditional piecework of the tulips and the false prairie point border, so I decided to use traditional designs and let the fabrics carry the quilt. 

Now don't be fooled, traditional designs are actually some of the hardest to master.  

It doesn't help that I decided to put cross-hatching throughout the background of the tulip blocks 🙄.  Although I didn't time myself when I was marking this quilt it probably took me a minimum of 4 hours, not including the design process.  But there is a method to the madness, if I didn't mark the entire quilt, I would have inevitably made a very costly mistake.  It only takes being off the diagonal line by a millimetre for an entire cross-hatch design to go all wonky.

I also decided to have a traditional flowing bump-back feather along the outside border. Feathers definitely take time to master but once you start getting a handle on them they are a fabulous design to use in a ton of ways.  Even though there are so many feather variations I always come back to this classic bump-back feather. 

I also spent quite a lot of time planning, mathing, and marking this outside feather.  I do consider myself a modern quilter but my heart still melts for a beautiful feather.  Look how great it looks next to the cross-hatch quilting. 

Before and After quilting the bottom feather border 😍😍😍

I left the tulip blocks til the last, as I was changing thread colours on almost every tulip.  I almost always do thread changes on every custom quilt, I think it adds more complexity to a quilt and steps it up to the next level.  I kept the tulip quilting to traditional designs as well using a petal shape, feathers, matchstick quilting, and ribbon candy.

And that's all the details!  It seems so simple typing it all up, but it took me 20 hours to quilt this giant quilt, not including marking and planning. 

Thanks so much for watching the video and reading the post I truly appreciate the support 🥰  Below is just the script I wrote for the YouTube Video 

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There are timestamps in the timeline of this video if you want to skip around to your favourite part
So I just had to do a big flowing feather around the border of this quilt. When I do this style of feather there are a couple of key marks I use. Firstly you can see that I have marked the spine of my feather, I also drew some registration plumes so when I come around the quilt I will be able to line up the beginning with the end easily. I also mark a half-inch line in from the edge. This is just a reminder to myself not to stitch out to the edge, when the quilt gets trimmed and bound I don't want the feather to be cut off.
This is my favourite kind of feather for borders and sashings because you don't have to stitch the spine out in one go if you watch you can see that I bump along one side then stitch the spine back and stitch out the other side of the feather as I progress.
I do take a lot of time measuring and marking my border to create a nice symmetrical feather that flows around the corners.
Feathers are such an interesting design. They can be a little like handwriting, everyone looks a little different. I have done a ton of different feather designs, but for this quilt, I wanted a classic-looking feather because of the cross-hatch background, I think these two traditional designs go really well together.
There are a lot of videos and classes to help people develop their feather skills, but unless you're out here stitching them you aren't going to learn, so I would encourage anyone who wants to learn how to quilt feathers to just get stitching.
I think stitching in the ditch really does make a better quilt, and I make sure to always do it on my custom quilting jobs. In my opinion, a quilt looks better when those seems are stitched down and the quilt just lays nicer. I think it's a really good skill to always be working on, and it always makes a custom quilting job up a level.
I wanted to leave these triangles unquilted for texture and because the colours were so varied I didn't want to have to change thread colour so many times and break thread so much, I already had a big job ahead of me, as you can see by the cross-hatch markings.
Instead, I opted to add some mid-density matchstick quilting to highlight that I didn't quilt them on purpose.
And it is time to stitch out the cross hatch. As you can clearly see I have marked every single cross-hatch line, is this overkill? No, it isn't. If you are going to be stitching this kind of huge space using a cross-hatch you should be marking it.
It is so easy to get off track and line up the wrong line, and the next thing you know all of the lines are off and you have a whole mess. Did it take me 4 hours to mark all of these lines? Yes probably, I didn't time it but I definitely listened to a lot of podcasts.
One of my favourite podcasts is Science Vs. I'll put a link in the description. Do you have a favourite podcast right now, I'm always looking for more.
Now you'll notice that I'm not just stitching all the lines in one diagonal fashion, I am literally just travelling to the next closest line and stitching that one. Now I may have spent 4 hours drawing these lines but now I can crank that podcast and giv'er. It's like prepping a room for paint, it takes a long time to tape everything off but you get a better result and in the end, you're saving time.
I also mounted this quilt long ways instead of upright, I did this because the tulip blocks were actually taller than my workable space and by mounting it sideways I will be able to work on one full tulip block at a time, I can also stitch out a larger swath of cross hatch.
Remember there isn't really a rhyme or reason for my thread path, I do remember seeing some kind of pattern at the end of the first row, but I couldn't tell you what that is anymore.
I usually find the perfect thread path on a quilt by the time I reach the final row. so I've kinda given up on that as a problem.
When I stitch myself into a corner that I can't get out of I just break thread take a look at what isn't quilted and just start going again. You can waste hours trying to find the perfect path.
My rule is if it takes longer to make a decision than it does to break thread, I need to just break the thread and move on. As you get more experienced you'll start seeing your paths easier and easier. This is a skill not a talent, you can learn this.
Once I reach the other side of my row I go back and add in any lines I may have missed. I'm also stitching the ditch around all of the tulips.
I'm going to be coming back to these once I finish all of the crosshatch. The tulip blocks aren't that big and will be fine rolling up onto my take-up bar.
As I progress down the quilt I continue my flowing feather down the right side. I always seem to run my feathers this way, no idea why, it is probably just habit. I am basting the left side border because I'm going to run the feather across the bottom and back up once I finish the cross hatch.
As I approach the place where I'm to join the feather together I note my registration plumes and make everything fit seamlessly.
I am going to quilt the tulip blocks all the same, I love the fabrics and I don't want to distract from them too much. I start with a petal shape in the center of the blossom I'm using my Quilted Pineapple 15. Then I add a half feather to either side of the petal, Then I use the same matchstick design back through the center. And simply feather back up the other side
I decided on another fairly traditional design in the stem of the tulip, I used ribbon candy. As a final detail, I add feathers into the leaves. This is the one place I break thread on this block.
Oh just a quick heads up that I am going to be having a sale on my Modern Quilting with Rulers Course in February of 2025 so hop on the email list for the best deal, the link is in the description.
And that's it, all the details have been revealed. Make sure to check out the other Watch and Learn Videos. I'm going to play out some more quilting footage here but if you want to just see the full revel you can use the time stamps below to hop forward. Thanks for watching!