Quilting a Pineapple Quilt

Question

How should I quilt a miniature pineapple quilt?

Reply

It seems like great minds are thinking alike today! There've been a couple of questions come in in just the past 24 hours about pineapple quilts and quilt blocks, and I'm in the middle of working up a page about them, too. It must be a sign!

The pineapple quilt is one of those blocks that is really all about the piecing and color placement. The quilting should be secondary and not overwhelm the patterns created by color and value.

I like to have the quilting take the quilt to the next level design-wise, but as you stated, your quilt is a miniature. The quilting should be kept pretty simple, because it will need to be small. And it can't overwhelm the quilt. Your miniature work should be the star.

I've taken the liberty to add a pineapple block for illustration's sake. Though your colors are probably different, it does provide a place of reference.

The quilt (below) and block (above) were drawn in Electric Quilt 7. The proposed quilting lines (not all of them are marked) are in black and were added in Photoshop Elements (that program, I'm still a novice in for drawing).




So why not try this?

It's all straight line stitching so you can use your walking foot if you'd like. Quilt in the ditch to get around the square in the center of the block. It may be necessary to travel in these same 'ditches' more than once to avoid too many starts and stops.

If you want to minimize traveling over the same spot more than once, try a 'cross' or and 'X' through the center square of the quilt block.

The remaining quilting lines need not be marked, just quilt from tip to tip or valley to valley across the spiky part of the blocks. No marking.

This machine quilting should add extra interest.

It will fool the eye into thinking that each of the points on your miniature pineapple quilt were pieced...looking like you did twice as much work as you did. It should be fun to watch people see your quilt for the first time!

Do post quilt pictures in our online Show and Tell. I'd love to see it finished!

I hope this has given you an idea or sparked others!

Readers, what do you think? Just use the 'Comment' link below to share your thoughts and ideas! Thank you.

Piecefully,


Julie Baird
Editor