Pretty Embroidery/Photo Quilt

I did this quilt last week for a client.  She made it for a young woman, as a tribute to her grandmother.  It has photos and embroidery on the quilt, which she did not want stitched on.  These blocks were (I think) about 5" square.  In my opinion, they are a little large to not be stitched, even a little bit with a clear thread, but maybe the quilt won't get heavy use which would wear the batting in these areas.  

 The client wanted a light custom.  It turned out to be a complete pain because there are 30 blocks and I had so much stop and start because of the sashings.  In hindsight, I should have probably incorporated the sashings into the block design.  Live-n-learn.

The sashings are a high visibility area on the quilt because of their bold color.  I quilted the top in a taupe Glide thread, which on account of it's sheen, stitches out looking like a metallic gold.  This looks great most places, as there is gold imprinting on at least 2 of the fabrics.  On the sashings, of course, this is the location of highest contrast - fabric to thread color.  It's not my favorite look, but ok.  I'd rather the thread to disappear on the sashings...just one of my design twitches.

 Her embroidery blocks were SO gorgeously stitched.  I can only dream of stitching that nicely.  She's mixed small amounts of what looks to be jelly roller pens to fill in areas on the embroidery too.  It's a very cool effect.  Oh, and the beads and crystals are a great touch too.

 The borders are pretty all done.

The back of the quilt is just a muslin (I think).  It's a good quality, thicker muslin, but still it's like wearing your underwear to a party.  OK, only your underwear (didn't want to insinuate that you all don't wear any the rest of the time!).  It shows all bloops and blunders.  This is why I didn't really want to quilt in anything but a tan or ivory thread.

This is a crazy busy week with appointments 3 mornings and kid's things 4 afternoons after school.  It is also the week of HMQS in Salt Lake City.  I have 2 quilts out there, so keep your fingers crossed.  I have 5 weeks and 3 days until life comes to a screeching halt (kids are out of school).  I am frantically working on as many things as possible.  My quilt is going on the blocking boards tomorrow afternoon.  It appears to not be quite as square as I hoped, and has shrunk to under 80" square (80" is the magic dimension to be able to enter it in a bed quilt category.  Drat!  One of my goals with that quilt was to have it bed-sized.  Off by an inch!  Oh well...the piping and binding are all prepared - just needs a dry, blocked quilt.  Should be all set in 4-5 days!