Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Voile Quilt

This is a quilt that was made by Michelle and quilted by me last month. It's larger than the picture leads you to think it is - about 60" square. I was intrigued about the voile fabric right up until the point that it actually arrived in my mailbox. Then the fear set in. This was thin, almost sheer, and definitely silk-like. What on earth was I getting myself into?? The prints are from Anna Maria Horner, and are very pretty. The backing is fromn the blue floral print, which I really like. But the quilting was a scarry job.
I ordered a blue-gray thread to best match the background. I knew I had one chance to quilt it. There couldn't be any ripping out or else it would show. And if I wasn't already scared of how this fabric would tension, Michelle sent a super thin QD Select batting which is essentially like a layer of thick flannel. All the longarmers out there know that tensioning is easiest when the sandwich is thicker. No luck with that here! She wanted simple quilting that would not minimize the drape of the material. I really wanted to quilt the star differently from the background, but again, she requested a simple all-over pattern so my job really was just to get it right the first time.
If you read her post, you'll see that she finished the quilt for a wedding gift, and was happy with the quilting. I'm curious to see how the material washes, and how much it pulls up/puckers. I really dislike the solid blue fabric because it's too sheer, in my opinion for a quilt. The seams and batting are visible through it. The other materials are just lovely though. It might be prettiest done with a layer of super thin cotton muslin, died to match as a foundation layer. Then you get the softness of the voile, with more durability. JMHO~

1 comment:

Angie said...

Beautiful quilting. The colors are great too!
Angie @ www.craftedAngles.com