Pretty as a Posie

Another mostly custom quilt has come off of my frame. This one was started last weekend as I came down with a nasty cold. It's truly a wonder I got it done because I have been really sick. But my husband took the kids to a monster sledding hill on Saturday, and I got to quilt for an extra several unexpected hours (before the cold/sinus infection truly kicked into high gear).
My client is local. In fact she lives just down the street. This quilt was from a 2009 Quilter magazine, in practically the exact Lakehouse DryGoods fabrics. The materials are gorgeous. I have had ones in the pink line. They are a lovely weight and several have a beautiful irridescence/sheen to them. Her usual quilter wasn't up to quilting feathers for her so it was referred to me. With any luck, I will be able to get more of her business too.
The quilt is a 92" square, so that center section was quite huge to quilt - even on a machine with a 24" quilting space. She gave me a Select QD batting, which I really dislike. It's just too thin to show off the quilting appropriately. Plus the stuff tends to stretch if you are not really careful. Just imagine what this quilt would look like with wool... (dreaming!)

The material at the center is too busy to show off much quilting (especially loft-less quilting), but I stitched a feathered wreath. The green triangles are a gorgeous green/metallic gold tiny check. I just wanted this area to have texture, rather than over feathering the top and having the feathers disappear. I used that flower motif in a few other places so it was a logical thing to put there too. And then, her only real request was that the large white triamgles were feathered like the magazine. I suppose I could have swirled them around a bit more, but I mostly copied the spine layout that was done, and threw in a few more whimsical feathers for variation.

The rest of the quilt is busy fabrics that feathering is either hard to stitch well or hard to see on. These side pannels are pretty fabric, but were speaking to me "I need a trellis..." But not just an ordinary straight (ruler) cross-grid trellis, so I did the diagonal crosshatching with gentle wiggles. It is just a softer look. And the stripe down the sides of the trellis is just a simple egg-dart pattern stitched with template. I suppose it could have been slightly denser, but this is only going on her bed so it ought to be fine. The entire quilt sections are all SID anyhow.

In her log cabin blocks, I did a swirly background filler. It mimics the irridescent swirls that are on a few of the fabrics too, so it all looks very natural.

And a few token pictures of the back side... If there is a single fly in the ointment for this quilt it is the choice of a rather thin white for the backing. It was SO hard keeping track of rogue threads to ensure that you couldn't see them on the back.
It does not appear to lay flat because I have a foam mat underneath it.

I am sure that the client will love this. I am not a blue-gal, and I love it!

Next post I hope to offer up some things to anyone that might be interested. These may include fabrics, scraps, quilting DVD, and a deal quilting your utility quilts (non-customs). Tune in a couple days from now to read all about this.

It is now time for me to go remove this quilt from the blocking board. It is dry! (sigh...that means i have a large piped binding ahead of me today or tomorrow!).