The Butterfly Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner + Bonus Videos!

I recently custom machine quilted this gorgeous butterfly quilt. This quilt is extra special to me for a few reasons, but mostly, because it was pieced by my grandma! Yes, she's awesome and is still an amazing quilter!

A year or so ago my mom gave my grandma the kit to this quilt and my grandma worked on it for several months. She then sent it to me for quilting. She calls herself a "topper", meaning she makes a lot of tops but most of them stay as just tops. So when she asked me to quilt this one for her I was more than thrilled!

I didn't tell her that I had started quilting on it, or anything about it, and today, for Christmas my mom and I gave it back to her, all quilted and bound as a Christmas gift. I can't wait to her what she thinks I'm pretty sure she's going to love it! I hope that someday, in a really, really, really long time I can inherit this quilt.

Dashing Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

Mary made this darling version of a Dashing quilt and sent it to me for some custom machine quilting. I love this pattern, it's such a great pattern that really lends itself to secondary designs that I was able to really bring to life with my machine quilting. 

I love combining ruler work with feathers, I love the modern meets traditional element that it brings to the quilt. :)

Modern Building Blocks Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner + Bonus Videos

I recently custom machine quilted two of these gorgeous Moda Modern Building Blocks quilts. I'm sure you all have heard me say, over and over, how much I love quilting these quilts! I've quilted several of them now and no two have been exactly the same, I just can't do it!

These two gorgeous quilts belong to Susan and her daughter Jen. They pieced them together and I really loved custom quilting the quilts.

Red & White Modern Building Blocks Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

I recently custom machine quilted this beautiful red and white Modern Building Blocks quilt for Linda. Linda loved the version of this quilt that Sherri made and I custom machine quilted for her a few years back, and asked that I machine quilt her quilt similar to Sherri's quilt.

I say this all the time, but, I don't like to quilt two quilts exactly the same. Mostly because my moods and ideas are always changing. So Linda's version is similar to Sherri's it's not exactly the same, and I love that!

Quilting on Video!

It's been a bit quiet here on the blog lately, not intentionally, I've just been busy quilting. I've also had fun brainstorming up fun ways to share what I'm doing, and I've come up with a little plan. I'm going to be sharing fun little videos over on YouTube every Wednesday and Friday. These videos aren't going to be full tutorials, just fun little videos that I create while I'm quilting.

I've got the first two videos up now, I hope you enjoy them.

Austin Bluebird Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

I recently custom machine quilted this beautiful Austin Bluebird quilt for Janet. If you remember earlier this year I custom machine quilted another one of these quilts and it turned out fabulous. Well, Janet loved that one so much that she asked me to quilt hers for her.

I have a hard time quilting two quilts exactly the same, I get bored. So, this one is similar to the other, but still a little bit unique.

Introducing: Scrappy Pinwheels - A Quilt Pattern Featuring Thrive Fabric

I'm happy to officially introduce you to another one of our new quilt patterns, Scrappy Pinwheels, featuring our brand new fabric collection, Thrive by Moda Fabrics, which will be in stores any day now!

Introducing -- The Trailer: Machine Quilting Ruler

Quickly after developing my first machine quilting ruler and using it a lot, especially in classes I came up with a few more ideas that I really wanted to use and incorporate into a second machine quilting ruler. 

Over the last year, since developing the 4-N-1 Machine Quilting Ruler I've had several people tell me that the ruler looks like a VW Beetle, and some of you might know, I've owned a few of those cars and love them. After I came up with the concept for this new ruler and sent a photo of it to my mom, she quickly responded and said, you should call it The Trailer, it looks like a trailer and is the perfect follow up to the 4-N-1 Machine Quilting Ruler. So, that's where the name came from.

Modern Building Blocks Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

Over the last few years I've custom machine quilted several of these gorgeous Modern Building Blocks quilts. I've had so much fun quilting them. 

I don't love to machine quilt two quilts exactly the same way, so I've had a lot of fun quilted each of these similar, using mostly straight lines and ruler work.

Red & White Pineapple Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

I recently custom machine quilted this beautiful red & white pineapple quilt for Daisy. Actually Daisy's dear friend Sharon pieced this quilt top and recently passed away. When Daisy was helping to go through Sharon's things they found this beautiful quilt top and Daisy sent it to me for some custom machine quilting.

The whole time I was machine quilting this quilt I felt like my heart was going to burst. The quilt is stunning and being able to finish it so that Sharon's art could live on just makes me so happy. 

Gravity Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

Over the last few years I've machine quilted several of these gorgeous Gravity quilts. Each one of them has been so much fun to quilt. I love playing with modern designs and of course the custom machine quilting on the solid fabrics really shows off.

Pam made this beautiful Gravity quilt and sent it to me for some custom machine quilting. She loved how I had quilted the other Gravity quilts and wanted something similar, but if you know me, you know that I don't like to machine quilt two quilts exactly the same, so they might but similar but no two are exactly the same.

Introducing: Pendant

With our new fabric line, Thrive hitting stores within the next month it seems like perfect time to introduce you to another new pattern that features our Thrive fabric.

This fun scrappy quilt is called Pendant and it's the perfect quilt to feature Thrive or work from your stash to create a fun quilt.

Clementine Quilt Along - With Fat Quarter Shop

My friends over at Fat Quarter Shop are pretty awesome and have introduced their newest quilt-a-long, Clementine. This fun quilt-a-long will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I was able to custom machine quilt this fun quilt for Fat Quarter Shop and had so much fun quilting it.

Introducing: Splice

I am so excited today to officially introduce you to our newest quilt pattern; Splice! I'm in love with this quilt! If you know Kathleen and I you know that we LOVE log-cabin style quilt blocks. We love them so much that we wrote a whole book based around them; Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts, so why not design a quilt that coordinates with our new fabric line, Thrive, that is log-cabin style.

Machine Quilting An Applique Quilt by Natalia Bonner

Over the summer I custom machine quilted this beautiful applique quilt that was made by Martha. Over the last few years I've machine quilted a few of these beautiful quilts and each time I've quilted one I've been so amazed by all of the gorgeous hand applique. Truly a work of art.

2018 Quilters Planner

I am so excited about the 2018 Quilters Planner! First of all, it's an awesome planner, for any quilter! Second of all, because my Over Under quilt pattern is featured in it! :)

I'm sure you all know that I'm obsessed with playing with Log-Cabin Style quilt blocks, so this fun modern version of a log cabin is a favorite quilt of mine. 

Custom Machine Quilting - Moroccan Lullaby

Kathy made this beautiful quilt and sent it to me for some custom machine quilting. Kathy didn't have anything in particular in mind for the quilting, except maybe some wine bottle and wine glasses. 

This is one of those times when I get to combine my statler stitcher with my free-motion quilting and really have some fun with machine quilting.

Summer at Piece N Quilt - Introducing 5 New Quilt Patterns

Hey quilty friends! I hope you've all had a fabulous summer! I really cannot believe how fast this summer went by. My daughter is already back in school and my son starts Kindergarten next week. This will be the fist time in 10 years that I've had both kids in school and it's really going to be different around here. 

Besides the general craziness of summer my husband broke his arm and we had a little car crash, we're all fine but we've got some fun new memories. :) Over the summer I had the opportunity to go "home" to my hometown a few times, travel with my kids to California and try really hard in the time I had at home to get caught up on machine quilting. 

Kathleen, my mom and I also designed 5 new quilt patterns featuring our upcoming fabric line, Thrive. Thrive will be in quilt shops in October and we can't wait to see what you all make from the fabric. :)

Yay! Paper patterns are here!  #thrivefabric #splicequilt #pendantquilt #scrappypinwheelquilt #standtallquilt #makeapearquilt

A post shared by Natalia Bonner (@nataliabonner) on Aug 3, 2017 at 8:08am PDT

I'm still working on getting all 5 of these fun quilts quilted, generally I squeeze my own quilting in on the weekends or at night, that's why they still aren't done yet, but once they are I will share details about each one. In the meantime, if you're dying to get your hands on one of these patterns you can check them out over on our website.

I've got a busy fall schedule coming up including teaching in Mississippi, Chicago and California. There are still openings in my Mississippi and California classes, and I'd love to see you at one of the upcoming events. 

I hope you've all had a fabulous summer and can't wait to share some of the gorgeous quilts that I machine quilted over the summer. 

Happy quilting!

Natalia

Farmers Star Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

I recently custom machine quilted this yummy Farmers Star Quilt for Genny. I may be a bit biased, because this quilt is from our Farmers Star pattern, and the Bella Solids coordinate with our Thirve fabric, but hey, I really do love it!

Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt

Jan made this gorgeous quilt and send it to me for some custom machine quilting. I knew right away that I could do some really cool custom quilting. I chose to quilt a fun pebble, swirl, clam combination pattern in most of the background (I teach how-to quilt all of those designs in my book; Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting).

Austin Bluebird - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

I recently custom machine quilting this beautiful Austin Bluebird quilt for Barb! The quilt is stunning and Barb did a fantastic job piecing and appliqueing the quilt. She sent it to me and asked me to custom machine quilt it for her. 

Introducing -- Barn Star -- A Quilt Pattern by Natalia & Kathleen

The Barn Star quilt pattern is another fun quilt featuring our new fabric collection, Thrive by Natalia and Kathleen for Moda fabrics.

This fun quilt is scrappy and could be made from a couple of charm packs, or some yardage. The quilt finishes at 58"x58", it's the perfect size to add a bit of color to your home, or a great wall hanging. You could even make four of the stars, put them together and make a nice large quilt!

Introducing Tangle - A New Quilt Pattern by Natalia & Kathleen

I'm loving our new Tangle Quilt Pattern. This quilt is so fast and so much fun to put together. I was so surprised when I pieced this quilt at how fast it went together. 

This quilt can be made from Jelly Rolls or yardage,  and the pattern includes options for 60"x72" or 72"x84" quilt.

Introducing --Thrive Fabric - The Prints!

Over the last few weeks I've been teasing and sharing small bits of our new fabric collection, Thrive, by Natalia & Kathleen for Moda Fabrics. Now it's time to finally show, and tell you all about the fabric!

We love quilts and quilting! Kathleen loves creating color combinations and mixing prints and Natalia has a gift for creating magic with her machine quilting skills. With Thrive, they have combined their passions and created a collection build on simple, clean lines. The modern tonal prints work perfectly as the focus or as the background, showcasing your design, piecing and machine quilting.

Introducing - Outside the Lines Quilt Pattern

It's time to introduce you to another one of our new quilt patterns featuring our new Thrive fabric, Outside the Lines. Thrive will be in stores Fall 2017

I'm loving this quilt. The big blocks go together so quickly and there are so many fun options. On the pattern cover the quilt is made with light background and dark stars, but the version above is made with a dark background and light stars, and features our adorable panel! Either way the quilt is so much fun and goes together pretty quickly!

Farmers Star - A Piece N Quilt Pattern

I am thrilled beyond words to introduce you today to another one of our six new quilt patterns. These patterns all coordinate with our new fabric line, Thrive, which will be in stores Fall 2017.

Farmers Star!

Introducing Delightful - A Pattern by Natalia & Kathleen

I am so excited about this fun new quilt pattern! At the moment Delightful is my favorite quilt, but I might get really excited about another one of our new patterns tomorrow and be even more excited! Who knows! I'm just having so much fun on this journey!

Introducing Thrive - A Fabric Collection by Natalia & Kathleen for Moda Fabrics.

I have been dreaming for years, that one day I'd be able to have a fabric collection with Moda Fabrics. I've always said that maybe after both of my kids are in school, I'd have a little more quiet time and I'd be able to really channel some creativity towards fabric design. Well, later this year, both of my kids will officially be in school and our new fabric line, Thrive will be in quilt shops.

For years, my mom and I have been making quilts from mostly solid and tone on tone fabrics. We love the simplicity of that type of fabrics and also the ability it gives me to really show off my custom machine quilting.

Kathleen is great with color, most of my life she's been decorating homes all over Utah. Most of my childhood she owned a store called, Curtains in the Window. My siblings and I spent a lot of long hours there watching the ladies sew for my mom, and my mom decorate homes. So, when it came time to put our brains together and create a fabric collection naturally she picked the color palate and all of the patterns are my machine quilting designs.

I love that the fabrics are crisp, simple and clean. That's just the look I love. In both of our homes we have very neutral furniture, and add color with quilts, throw pillows and other fun simple accents. These particular colors happen to be perfect in both of our homes.

Custom Machine Quilting - 2 Applique Quilts - By Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt

Hi friends! I cannot believe how fast this year is flying by! It's already May. I swear Christmas was just last week. 

Obviously I have fallen a little bit behind on my regular blogging, and this makes me terribly sad. I love my blog. I love blogging and sharing the quilts that I've been working on, but to be totally honest the last month has just been crazy. I have been putting in a lot of extra hours quilting and sewing and I just had to let blogging be the one thing that didn't get done. With Quilt Market just a few weeks away things are still going to be a bit crazy, but after that I think, maybe I'll get back to a regular blogging routine. :)

I do have some amazing things to share and I really can't wait to share what I've been up to with you all.

Okay, so back to the quilts I've got to share today! Carol made these two beautiful applique quilts and brought them to me for some custom quilting. The quilts are darling and I knew they were going to be really fun to machine quilt. Carol did ask me to keep the quilting a little bit lighter, she wants to put these two quilts on beds, if you know me well you know that I like heavy quilting, so keeping things a bit lighter is a bit of a fun challenge. :) Carol also asked me to quilt the two quilts similar but not exactly the same. 

Peacock Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

Emily from Pattern Jam designed this gorgeous Peacock quilt. Now, if you haven't heard of Pattern Jam before I'd highly recommend checking them out! Believe it or not this quilt is a digital panel that Emily created, and by custom machine quilting it I was able to bring this cool quilt to life.

Dappled - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

Kathy made this beautiful version of our Dappled quilt and sent it to me for some custom machine quilting. The pattern for this fun quilt comes from our book; Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts. 

First Snow Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

Thelma made this beautiful "First Snow" quilt and sent it to me for some custom machine quilting. Thelma did a fabulous job piecing this quilt and right away I knew that it needed some ruler work to really enhance the piecing. 

Bella Skillbuilder Block #3 - Pineapple Quilt Block

Over the weekend I spent some time just sewing for fun. Sewing for fun is always so refreshing and rejuvenating. I decided to get my 7 blocks made for April's Bella Skillbuilder Quilt. I have never made a pineapple quilt block before so when I realized that I needed a special ruler to make it I was pretty tempted to just use a regular ruler and go for it, but I decided last minute to pick up the ruler, and let me tell you, it is totally worth the money. It made making the blocks so much easier and I think my blocks turned out almost perfect!

Giant Star Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

MaryAnn pieced this beautiful giant star quilt and sent it to me for some custom machine quilting. I've machine quilted several quilts for MaryAnn over the years and for some crazy reason, even though we both love feathers, I've never quilted feathers on any of her quilts. So, I knew when I saw this quilt that I finally was going to quilt some feathers on one of her quilts, along with some fun ruler work. :)

How to: Machine Quilt an Orange Peel Quilt Block

Happy Thursday! YAY! it's time for another fun machine quilting video tutorial. The video tutorial I'm sharing today is a classic. Who doesn't love an orange peel?

Make sure to watch the complete video, I really debated weather to share this video or not, I want to be true and honest, decided in the spirit of that I'd share the video. I'm not always perfect, nor is my quilting. I think that we often only see the best of the best online, so I thought it'd be nice to see that sometimes my quilting is less than perfect.....

How to: Machine Quilt a Pointed Oval Border - Featuring the 4-N-1 Machine Quilting Ruler

I'm a day late! I was planning to have this tutorial up yesterday. But, somehow time slipped by way faster than I had expected and I'm a day late getting this to you. 

This fun border is a great simple pattern for any border, however I think it's best in a smaller type border. The border that I've quilted the design on in the video is about 3".

How to: Machine Quilt a Triangle Quilt Block with a Cone Pattern - Featuring the 4-N-1 Machine Quilting Ruler

Hey quilty friends! I hope your week is going well. It's spring break here, so with my kids home from school, and my sons birthday things seem to be moving a little bit slower than usual, but that's okay with me! 

I do have a fun new machine quilting video tutorial to share with you today. I call this design the cone pattern. I love using this machine quilting pattern in triangles to soften them up, but keep that nice crisp, modern look.

How-to Machine Quilt Clams with Natalia Bonner - A Video Tutorial

Clams are such a great filler! Today I'm sharing a fun little video tutorial featuring this fun background filler. This design can also be enlarged and quilted as a great edge to edge design.

How-to Machine Quilt Pebbles - A Video Tutorial

Hi quilty friends! I've been having so much fun making machine quilting videos lately that I thought I'd continue sharing them on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next several weeks.

This fun design that I'm sharing today is the Pebble design, this design is great for background fillers but could also be enlarged and quilted as an edge to edge type design.

How to: Machine Quilt a Checker Background

I love this checker background design. It's actually a pretty simple design to machine quilt so I thought you'd probably enjoy a fun little video tutorial.

QuiltCon 2017 - A Recap

I may have been a bit frazzled arriving at my first class today, but I think it was a good reason...last fall I custom machine quilted this fabulous "Madonna" quilt for @brittanybowenburton. Today it won Best Machine Quilting at QuiltCon! I'm still kinda freaking out! :) #piecenquilt #longarmquilting #freemotionquilting #quiltcon2017 @gammillquilting #gammillquilting @quiltersdream

A post shared by Natalia Bonner (@nataliabonner) on Feb 23, 2017 at 9:47am PST

This past week has just flown by. I can't believe it's already been one week since this fantastic week started. Let's start from the beginning, a week or so before QuiltCon Brittany Burton contacted me, and let me know that her Madonna quilt that I had machine quilted for her won an award and she invited me to attend the awards ceremony with her. I was thrilled, like beyond words, but had to keep it a secret. I didn't even tell my husband, eeek!  Early Thursday morning, before my classes began I went to the awards ceremony, Brittany had entered the quilt into the Improv Piecing category, so when that category came up we were all so excited and ready to take pictures, but the category passed and we knew that the quilt had won something big. (I'm having a hard time typing this right now because I'm still so full of emotion, my eyes are full of tears.) When the category for "Best Machine Quilting Framed" and Madonna was announced I was beyond shocked and proud. Brittany and I made an awesome team, and I thought the quilt was amazing, but to win an award like this, at QuiltCon was so overwhelming, and such a huge honor.

How to Machine Quilt Arrows in a Triangle - Featuring the 4-N-1 Machine Quilting Ruler

I'm back from QuiltCon and I've got a new machine quilting ruler video tutorial to share with you. Before I let you watch the video I do have to tell you, QuiltCon was amazing. There were so many amazing moments there that I had a hard time holding back tears. I'll share a complete blog post tomorrow with all the details, but for now, enjoy the video tutorial.

Bella Skill Builder Quilt - Block 2

I can't believe it's already March, and time for the second block in the Bella Skill Builder quilt with Fat Quarter Shop. I had so much fun making my blocks this month. I haven't done any applique in quite some time so it was nice to get back to applique, and I'm totally crushing on the fabric combination that I chose for my blocks, so that made it ever more fun to make these blocks.

How-to Machine Quilt Modern Curved Cross-Hatching on a Triangle Quilt Block

Hey quilty friends! Okay, I'm sure you are well aware by now that I really love machine quilting, and maybe even more than that I love to play around and be creative with my machine quilting.

Today I've got another fun machine quilting video tutorial, in today's video I use my 4-N-1 machine quilting ruler and teach you step-by-step how-to quilt this cool triangle quilt block.

Modern Star Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

Susan made this beautiful star quilt and sent it to me for some custom machine quilting. I'm loving the bight stars with the white background, it's so crisp looking.

When Susan sent me her quilt we decided to keep the machine quilting more on the modern/straight line quilting side, and I couldn't be happier with the final result.

Edge to Edge Machine Quilting Pebbles by Natalia Bonner

Barbara made this gorgeous quilt and brought it to me for some edge to edge machine quilting. Actually Barbara made this quilt as a Valentines Day gift for her husband.

I'm sure you all know how much I love solids and especially yellows so this quilt makes me so happy.

How-to: Machine Quilt a Scalloped Border with the 4-N-1 Machine Quilting Ruler

Happy Thursday! I'm in Savannah, GA right now teaching at QuiltCon, but I didn't want you all to miss out on the fun, so I've got a fun new machine quilting tutorial featuring my new 4-N-1 machine quilting ruler. 

Whenever I have a quilt with large negative space borders I love to add details to that border, you can add so much to a quilt with cool quilting. Scallops are one way to really add a lot of great detail to a border. I could talk about scallops for days, but for today I've got this fun one to show you.

Edge to Edge Machine Quilting Roses by Natalia Bonner

Raquel made this beautiful quilt and brought it to me for some edge to edge machine quilting. The quilt has some pretty big setting triangles so Raquel asked me to machine quilt this quilt with a busier pattern, something that could add some detail to those large triangles.

How-to Machine Quilt a Hexagon Quilt Block Using the Curved Side of the 4-N-1 Ruler

Hey quilty friends! I hope you're all having a great week. I'm headed off to teach a few classes at QuiltCon this week and I'm so excited. If you're at QuiltCon make sure to come say, Hi! Besides the five classes that I'm teaching I will also be doing a book signing and machine quilting demo on Sunday! So, if you're there I hope to see you.

I'm also excited to share another fun video featuring my new 4-N-1 machine quilting ruler. Today I'm using the medium size curve to quilt this fun block. I love this block because you could just stick with the first layer of curves and keep it simple, or continue adding curves and really dress up the block. You could also use the smaller or larger side of the ruler to quilt the same design on smaller or larger blocks.

Star Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

Dorinda made this beautiful modern star quilt and brought it to me for some custom machine quilting.

Dorinda didn't have anything in particular in mind for this quilt, she just really wanted some straight lines coming out from the appliqued stars to really make them crisp looking.

This quilt has a lot of color and I knew again, that this would require several thread color changes to make it look great, or else, I could use some MicroQuilter thread and just use two thread colors on the whole quilt.

Farm Girl Quilt - Edge to Edge Machine Quilting by Natalia Bonner

Jenn has been working on this darling Farm Girl quilt for the past year or so and recently brought it to me for some edge to edge machine quilting. Jenn did a fabulous job piecing this quilt and her fabric choices are so cheery.

When Jenn brought me this quilt she asked me to machine quilt it for her with an edge to edge pattern, she wanted something with paislies and asked that I quilt the quilt with a light gray thread.

How to: Machine Quilt a Tiny Scallop Border with the 4-N-1 Machine Quilting Ruler

Happy Thursday! I've got another quick video tutorial for you today. Today I'm using the smallest curve on the 4-N-1 machine quilting ruler and showing you step-by-step how to quilt this fun border.

Edge to Edge Machine Quilting Clams by Natalia Bonner

Raquel made this beautiful star quilt and bought it to me for some edge to edge machine quilting. Raquel did a fabulous job piecing this quilt and asked me to machine quilt her quilt with an edge to edge Clam pattern. She'd never had any of her quilts machine quilted with this pattern and has been wanting that pattern.