QUILTING IN GENERAL
QUILTING THE APPLIQUÉ
QUILTING THE BACKGROUND
QUILTING A DESIGN WITH AN APPLIQUÉ BORDER
FINISHING YOUR QUILT MASTERPIECE
PUTTING QUILT BLOCKS TOGETHER FOR A BED QUILT

Now you're ready to start quilting. Some quilters start from the center and quilt the appliqué design first; some start quilting around the edge of the appliqué design first or "quilt in the ditch". This means right up next to the the appliqué edge which helps to "lift" the edge of the appliqué from the background fabric. It can be done first or after the appliqué design has been quilted. The resulting "lift" is the same no matter your choice of how you start your quilting.

It is more important that your quilting stitches and spaces be even than how small they are. Tiny stitches with big spaces in-between are less desirable than slightly larger stitches that are the same length as the spaces between them. If you've practiced your quilting beforehand, as suggested above, then you already have a rhythm and a head start on this. Your stitches and spaces will get smaller (if you wish) the more you quilt and gain experience. But for a beginner, attempt  4-6 stitches (showing on top) per inch. That will be just fine.

Stitches are counted in two ways. Either only those stitches showing on the top or both stitches showing on top and bottom. Therefore, 8 stitches to the inch counted the first way would be the same as 16 stitches to the inch counted the second way.

So you're ready to put needle to fabric. For smaller projects you may not want to use a hoop or stretcher bars (although stretcher bars would be better as you have to move a hoop too much. Each time you change it's position you fiddle with the fabric. Some quilters will use nothing to quilt a small pillow size project. Your choice. Larger projects should be quilted using an appropriate size quilting hoop. One hand is usually placed under the fabric to help guide the needle while the other hand moves the needle. Hawaiian quilting is traditionally done using a rocking stitch, picking up two to three stitches at a time on the needle before pulling the thread through.

First, thread color. For a project where the quilting won't show on the back you can use whatever color or colors you want. Follow the colors of the appliqué or quilt all in one color. White is always safe.

If you are doing a project where the quilting will show on the back you really should use all one color as those stitches are going to show on the reverse side. If the appliqué design is multicolor you will end up with an unsightly hodgepodge of colors on the back. Best, perhaps, to have an all over color.

You have two choices when it comes to the way your appliqué quilting looks. With the first, your quilting rows can follow the outline of your appliqué radiating back toward the center of the design. In this case you
may want to embellish the appliqué design by, for instance, adding French knots to make stamens look more realistic. This should be done after the design has been quilted or after the entire quilt has been finished.

Or you may want to embroider "chicken feet" around the edge of the appliqué. The earliest Hawaiian quilts were not appliquéd. The design fabric was affixed to the background using a blanket stitch or a fun stitch called the chicken foot that looked like a V with a longer straight stitch in the middle. The stitches held the appliqué design to the background, but did not prevent future fraying.

To start quilting either tie a small knot at the end of your thread and pull it through the fabric into the batting, or pull the unknotted thread into the batting and take a backstitch as your first quilting stitch. End your thread the same way. If knotting your thread, pull the thread taught, knot it, and then ease the knot back through the fabric into the batting. When you are making a wall hanging or bed quilt be sure that you are not leaving long "tails" of thread in the batting as they could show through if the quilted piece is to be hung where light will show through it.

Ah, the scope of it all. A sea of fabric waiting to be tamed. It can be a little intimidating. The traditional way of quilting a Hawaiian quilt is to use echo quilting. This means you will be following the design of the appliquéd edge and quilting rows out toward the edges of the quilt, turning the quilt as you go so that the rows evolve evenly and smoothly as you quilt toward the outer edges.

How wide should your quilting rows be? The Hawaiian women used the width of their thumb to measure the distance between rows so that space varied quilt to quilt. Today we measure. Determining the width will be partly based on the loft (fatness) of your batting - also the look you want to create. The fatter your batting the harder it is to make rows close together. The thinner your batting, your rows can be closer together, but too close and you may end up flattening them out so much that they lose their desired contouring.

Today quilting rows range from half an inch to an inch. On a miniature quilt using a thinner batting, a quarter inch will be fine and more in proportion to the miniature design.

On larger projects you may want to quilt multiple rows at once. Thread three or four needles and get them started in the background fabric to start quilting rows that are an equal distance apart. Then quilt a little ways with the needle closest to the appliqué, then with the next needle, and so on completing the 3 or 4 rows of quilting around the entire design. Continue until you've finished quilting the background. Don't get carried away and try to quilt more than 4 rows at a time. Keep your quilting thread about 18" long to avoid tangling.

Some quilters will string multiple needles on the spool of thread (or have someone with better eyesight do it for them). That way the needles are already threaded and ready to go. All they have to do is pull the needle and the length of thread from the spool (making sure the remaining needles threaded on the spool don't follow their sibling) and they're ready to continue quilting.

To mark your rows or not. It's your decision. Many quilters "eyeball" the rows, but it takes a little experience to make the quilting to look  as symmetrical as possible throughout the quilted background. You may want to put little marks radiating out from the design to mark your quilting rows at intervals. Perhaps the best way to do this is to use a long ruler, yardstick or even a metal measuring tape.

Place the measuring device vertically on the middle of the appliqué so that it extends to, or toward, both edges of the background. Mark your quilting row guides, at the desired increments, on both sides of the design. Do the same horizontally and on each diagonal of the appliqué. When you have finished you will have your quilting lines marked at the 1/8th folds of your original cutting pattern. This should give you enough guidance to easily quilt your rows. Remember, you're striving for even rows throughout.

Do you have to quilt the appliqué and the background separately? No, you can certainly choose an interesting repetitive quilting design and quilt the appliqué and background at the same time. There is a wonderful example of this in the quilt Ahinahina (Silversword) by Junedale Quinories in the Robert Shaw book "Hawaiian Quilt  Masterpieces"  (page 82 and also shown as the dust jacket design).

You've perhaps seen where the ocean converges on a point of land and the result is a turbulent clash of waves as each current tries to overtake the other? This is not how you want your background quilting to look. You want to make the transition of your quilting, as it merges within the background area between the center appliqué design (the medallion) and the border appliqué edge (the lei), as peaceful as possible.

To do this you must take care in planning your quilting. Measure the closest appliquéd points between the center medallion and the border lei. Divide that measurement in half. If that measurement is, say 12 inches and you are using 1/2" quilting rows then you will be marking 12 rows of quilting from the center medallion toward the border lei and 12 rows of quilting from the border lei toward the center medallion. Where these two echo style quilting meet is where you must step in and to mediate their meeting place.

The main thing to remember is that if you make an island shape in one place, you need to make that same island shape in seven other places (for a total of 8), four will be in one direction, four will be in a mirror direction. The same with altering quilting rows (remember only a "smidgen"). The designs you create or rows you alter to make the converging rows fit together nicely must look the same in the same places around the quilt. It takes practice. You may want to take the 1/8th pattern and design the quilting lines on paper first to use as a guide

There are many ways to finish any project you do. You may want to add cording or ruffles to pillows, borders to wall hangings, finish pillow size projects into tote bags.  There are a lot of books and patterns available to help you decide on your finishing techniques.

So you've become the Hawaiian quilt, pillow top maniac and made enough pillows to decorate the entire neighborhood but you're hooked and can't stop. What to do?

Well, a good way to use those 18" plus quilt squares is to group them all together into a quilt top. If you've done patchwork or other appliqué style quilt blocks you probably already know how to do this. For those of you who haven't - here's how.

You need to decide if your quilt top is going to be Hawaiian style - all designs and all colors mixed together or decorative style with coordinated designs and colors or a single design and a single color combination for your quilt blocks. Pillows to Patch Quilt...the Hawaiian Way shows some good examples of designs that have been created to all look nice together if you want a decorator style.

Once you've decided the "look", the size, the designs, the colors and, perhaps, the placement of your blocks drawn out on a piece of paper, you're ready to appliqué all of them.

Appliqué all of them, because once they are finished, you will join them all together first, before quilting them. You can join them as is, or you can add a sashing or inner fabric borders between the quilt squares.

Keep in mind that if you are joining them without sashing, you may not like the look of the designs each quilted in their own echo design placed next to each other. You may want to use a universal quilting design behind the appliqué - like squares or diamonds. If you are an experienced quilter you could always plan for quilting a decorative border between the quilt squares. You would just add the appropriate additional allowance to the background fabric of each square when cutting it out.

Otherwise, if you want to echo quilt each design, you should add an additional fabric border or sashing between the squares in order to add a decorative appliqué and/or quilting between the quilt squares. There is an explanation and diagram of connecting quilt squares in Menehune Quilts...the Hawaiian Way, Pillows to Patch Quilt...the Hawaiian Way and Friendship Quilts...the Hawaiian Way. Or you will find a good diagram and instructions at craftstudio.com: thecraftstudio.com/qwc/top.htm

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