Quilting with different textures and fabrics

I did a good clean/purge of my sewing studio recently. Marie Kondo style – for real, there were big bags leaving my quilting studio!! It was a little scary but I’m happy I did it. In the process I uncovered a lot of quilting projects that need to be finished + some fabric I forgot I had.

Bailey is checking out this quilting project that I just finished. I found this panel when I was cleaning up during the great purge of January 2019. I added some accent fabric on each side, and backing – and voila, a little cute little quilt for my daughter to use to keep warm while the car is warming up!

When I think about what my favourite type of sewing projects are, quilting is definitely right up there. I had been sewing for a long, long time (decades) before I ever attempted my first quilt. In the beginning of my foray into quilting, my type-A personality needed structure and a pattern, which there are a lot of, before I could jump in. Somewhere along the way, I figured out some basics and have been freestyling more quilts these days – or taking inspiration from one pattern and pairing it with some ideas in my head to make it personal and unique.

And for a while I stuck to mainly quilting cotton for my material but recently I have been branching out.

To finish off this quilt, I used some material I uncovered in the purge for the backing. Have you sewn with minky fabric before? It tends to “stick” and not glide nicely along one’s sewing tables.

The Acufeed Flex Foot rarely leaves my Janome Skyline S7 these days. When I was stitching in the ditch to secure my quilt top to the backing, it definitely helped make sure the top cotton fabric moved at the same speed as the minky.

A while back I shared with you my recycled, repurposed jean quilt, made from jeans long past their wearable days. I love that all the fabric for this quilt project came from something I could have thrown out (which probably has some link back to my first statement on today’s blog about having SO MUCH to clear out of my quilting studio… but we will save that convo for another time).

I’ve also been experimenting with another interesting textile for quilting that has a nod to another area of my life I’m heavily involved in – dog shows! When you attend dog shows, if you attend enough and do well, you generally get lots and lots of ribbons and rosettes. These memories are wonderful, but what do you do with all of them?

This is a work in progress but here’s my take on dog show a memory quilt. (This one is for a friend in case you’re wondering why that’s not a basset – which is my breed.)

These ribbons are slippery and shiny and ensuring they don’t move around too much when sewing is critical.

I love this extra touch of the personal photo that will be incorporated into the finished quilt. I actually printed on fabric using my inkjet printer.

I’m still undecided how everything will come together, but this is definitely one of the most unique and personal quilts I’ve ever made… using some very non-traditional “fabrics.”

What is the most interesting/odd fabric or textile you have ever used for quilting? How often do you use your Janome Acufeed Flex Foot/Walking Foot? Have you ever made a memory quilt?