Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Basket of Posies Wool Applique

A happy middle of the week to ya!  This quilt is enroute back to it's Iowan owner, as I type this.  I have finished off several others since this, but they'll get shown in due course.  There's a large-ish batik quilt on my machine right now that is taxing my brain a little bit.  Or it could be something else.  

This quilt is only about 24" square, but the darn little thing took many hours on account of all that stitching.  It has a wool batting, which helps to show off that pretty applique, and the relief of the quilting.  I used a soft yellow (kind of maize colored) thread - 50 wt So Fine I think.  I love to make the large mass of blank space carry alternate quilting patterns - hence the square on point that I added.
 I limited the stitching on the wool appliques to just the leaves.  This type of applique can get really bulky, especially considering the fact that the flower petals all sit on top of a leaf too.  I'd suggest cutting that and the backing fabric away, layer by layer, as they are appliqued.  I always do this to my applique unless it is one continuous background fabric.  It keeps seam lines from showing thru the applique pieces if a quilter happens to stitch on the appliques (which I often do).  If you sewed the appliques well (these are machine stitched!), then the quilt can't possibly come apart.  Many quilters do not do this, but it is good practice.

5 comments:

Эльвира Пустовала said...

Delicate beauty, amazing stitch

Bev said...

ACKKKK! I just LOVE everything you do! I wish I could afford to have you quilt some of my tops. I'm putting that on my bucket list for sure! XO

dq said...

I love the way you added a secondary diamond shaped border!

Tami @ Lemon Tree Tales said...

All that lovely quilting really helps to bring all those posies to the forefront ... great texture. Is it only wool batting or did you layer 80/20 with it as well? When you use both which one goes on top?

Lynette said...

That wool really did make the applique look terrific. Love those squiggle roses quilted in the outer area.