Christmas Starlets Quilt using Rumble as Crosshatch E2E Quilting

Today, I'm featuring an alternate use for the Rumble edge-to-edge design we released three years ago.

Back then, when a new design came out, I didn't have the bandwidth to do anything but email the Longarm League membership and maybe post it to Instagram. In other words, Rumble never got the blog treatment that it deserves.



I've seen Rumble used many times over the years, much more commonly without the offset. Here's an example of a time I used it with my Fierce Feathered Star quilt:

Rumble used the default way makes a great alternative to straight-line quilting. It's awesome on modern quilts! 

But as I was sewing this Christmas-y quilt together, I thought Rumble this alternate way—with a 50% offset— would be a great way to finish the lap quilt. I'm very happy with the result!

I am NOT big on decorating for any holiday, so I feel especially festive right about now, a whole two weeks before December 25th. I'm throwing this on my couch and calling it good. 

We have a raggedy old fake Christmas tree up, but that's about it. We discovered the twinkling lights are just too tempting for little Jerry—our newest cat—in his first Christmas with us. He EATS the light bulbs, so we haven't felt comfortable plugging it in much this season. 

Luckily, this quilt shines bright enough to be an alternative to the Christmas tree that's going out to the curb on December 26th.

The Quilt

I'd admired a number of different versions of the Starlets quilt pattern by Modernly Morgan and thought that if I was going to sneak one more quilt top in for the year, it was going to be Christmas-themed.

So cute, right?! Pinks are a perfectly acceptable addition to any Christmas palette, I think. ;)

I made a few blocks with the very limited number of red fabrics I had on hand, but I quickly realized that I didn't have enough reds in my collection to make the kind of quilt I wanted with a LOT of variation.

I looked around online for a bundle of red fabrics and couldn't find what I wanted. I gave up on the idea for a few days until I saw my friend Meg post something unrelated on Instagram and wondered if her Etsy shop would have the fabrics I wanted. And boy, did it ever!

Meg is local-ish to me, but maybe it's because she doesn't have a brick-and-mortar shop, or maybe it's because I'm rarely on Etsy, but it never occurred to me to check out her shop. I've been a fool! :) I visited Monograms for Makers (the name of her shop) for the first time and quickly found so many cute red prints that I NEEDED for this project. Even though I was in and out in no time at all, I checked out with exactly what I wanted and found some great end-of-the-bolt deals, too. 

I was so delighted with my experience and know I'll be back.

At some point while making the blocks, I remembered I had this fantastic print that I got from a friend at retreat. I very hesitantly brought it home with me, never thinking I'd make a Christmas quilt, and yet HERE I AM. And this print was absolutely perfect for the front and back. It's from Rashida Coleman-Hale for Ruby Star Society. "We" (read Josh) collect vinyl records in our house, so it really is perfect.

The Quilting Particulars

I broke two of my own "rules" with this quilting!

One: I generally do not like mixing angles. Because the adorable sawtooth stars contain 45° angles, I wouldn't ordinarily go for this quilting that is even narrower than 60° (not sure what angle it is, exactly). But, I did want to emphasize the long and narrow nature of the blocks, so I think this quilting option works well for that purpose. It's hard to argue with that allover texture!

Two: I rarely like to choose a quilting thread that will be darker than many of the fabrics on the quilt, but I bucked my own trend and chose a dark pink/red thread. Specifically, I used an old So Fine spool of the color 461, which the internet tells me is called Campfire Red. I'm feeling pretty frisky about this.

The quilt is made with more saturated fabrics than I normally use, so to have a punchier thread color just felt right. It makes the cross-hatching stand out even more, perhaps.

Here's where I tell you that quilting Rumble this way is tricky because each row should touch the row above and below it. This can be extremely difficult to execute for longarm quilters who are just getting to know their equipment or for seasoned quilters who rarely use designs that require such precise placement. If that's you, I'd suggest trying a design like this on one of your projects or a charity quilt you are volunteering for because the pressure won't be as high as with a paying client. 

I link to this article a lot, but if you're new here, you might find these tips for precise placement to be helpful.

There's a video of the stitch out at the top of the blog post. You might be surprised to find that instead of a stitch path that resembles a grid, the design is built one row at a time.

When I set up the design in my software (I use Intelliquilter), I started with no gap and then overlapped the rows by two clicks—shown in the extreme close-up photo below. That was the perfect amount to have the lines actually touch when stitched out. There's a tendency for a tiny gap otherwise. This variance will likely depend on your equipment and settings.



I took my own advice (linked in the blog post above) and started each line of stitching at the left, instead of sequencing it to alternate back and forth throughout my quiltable space. I get more accurate results when I do this. I also took the time to tug on each edge of the quilt (between rows) to counteract the shrinking inward that can happen with dense designs.

It takes more effort, but I cannot argue with the results! I was very pleased with the accuracy of my little intersections throughout the whole process.

One last thing I need to mention: I loaded the quilt top on its side to create a vertical orientation when taken off the frame.

Here are the sizing specifications for how I set up this sample quilt size using my Intelliquilter (56" x 61" quilt size). Please note that since this is not the default setting of the design, the following measurements are not given in the included PDF (preview below).

Row height: 0.5"
Gap: -0.01" (this is TWO clicks overlap, which is barely visible on the screen, but helps the points meet during the stitching process) 
Pattern height: 0.51" (measurement from top to bottom of the repeat)
Offset: 50%
Backtracking: none

Here's a look at the included PDF:

If you use Rumble on a quilt, we'd love for you to use the hashtag #rumblepanto and tag @longarmleague on Instagram so we can see how you use it! You can also visit our full digital design shop to take a look at all our previous designs.

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