Quilting Plans for Sirius
Sirius is often considered the brightest star in Earth's night sky. The Sirius quilt pattern features large focus stars surrounded by the "sparkle" stars of the rest of the sky. Once the quilt top is pieced though, how do you quilt it? Let’s talk about quilting plans, custom quilting, and finishing your Sirius quilt!
Sirius has “queen bee and her posse” energy with the big stars surrounded by smaller sparkles. Let’s talk about some ways to quilt Sirius that emphasize the main stars, some quilting that adds it’s own layer of “extra” energy, and overall how to prioritize finishing this quilt!
baby-sized Sirius Quilt. I plan to add more to make this throw sized!
What is a Quilting Plan?
A quilting plan is kind of like a “rough draft.” It allows you to audition different motifs and design combinations on paper (or on a tablet, if you draw digitally) before you commit the time and effort of stitching on your quilt. It’s a fun creative exercise, plus it allows you to start the quilting process with more confidence that you’re going to love the finished, quilted quilt.
There are three types of quilting plans: All over (which uses 1 motif), semi custom (which uses 2-3 motifs), and fully custom (which uses 4 or more motifs and/ or creatively disregards the piecing lines to create new shapes.
All Over Quilting Plans
An all over quilting plan very straight forward because it just uses one, all over design (this could be a pantograph or it could be a hand guided all over the quilt). An all over motif might the right choice for your Sirius quilt if:
You are sending your quilt to the longarm quilter
You love your fabric the most and don’t want to add too much secondary interest with the quilting
You are new to finishing your own quilts and want something that feels manageable
You want to get it done sooner rather than later!
Semi Custom Quilting Plans
A semi custom quilting plan is still relatively straight forward because it uses a limited number of motifs but those motifs can be used to highlight the different sections of the quilt.
On the left/ top I highlighted the “main character” stars of Sirius with some simple continuous curves. This is great if you like looser quilting and also if you fussy cut the center of your stars since it accents that part of the fabric. I chose a swirl to fill the background, quilting the sparkles and background as one section. You could also use a meander, paisley, McTavish, or other design for the background depending on the density and detail you want.
On the right/ bottom I chose to highlight the star blocks and treat the sparkles as sashing, almost like an Irish chain. By pairing the meander and the switchbacks, the difference between the two sections is subtle and will show up mostly when the light catches your quilting just right. If you wanted to highlight the stars more, you could do continuous curves in the stars, a meander in the background, and switchbacks in the sparkles.
Fully Custom Quilting Plans
A fully custom quilting plan uses a lot of motifs (4+), and it brings additional energy to the quilt because of its complexity. You can choose to highlight each section of the piecing with different motifs or add another layer all together by quilting outside the lines of your piecing.
On the left/ top I used four different motifs to accent each section of the Sirius quilt. The large stars are quilted with a holistic design that joins the contrasting center with the star points. Each sparkle has its own motif to make it stand out both from the other “shining” parts of the quilt but also from the background. The contrast between the stars and “space” is further highlighted by the use of angular, geometric designs in the stars and sparkles versus the much softer meander in the background.
On the right/ bottom, I used the quilting to separate the star blocks from the sparkle sashing/ Irish chain, but within the star block I disregarded the seam lines entirely. First, I quilted the entire block with a vortex motif, then I filled each “round” with a different motif. The result keeps the eye on the focal star blocks, but with an unexpected twist.
Final Thoughts
There are very few rules when it comes to creating a quilting plan, and the most important thing is to get your quilt done! Pick a quilting plan that either feels very manageable or very exciting. Don’t worry about picking the “wrong” motif– the only opinion that matters is yours!
Resources
BLOG: Why Custom Quilting?
BLOG: Sirius Quilt-A-Long
Free Workbook: Quilt Your First Project with Confidence
Quilting Rockstar University: Online membership for finishing your quilts!
SHOP: Sirius Quilt Pattern
