Floral Applique

Erin says that this was her first applique project.  It is 20 LARGE blocks, all turned-edge applique, in the most beautiful fabrics/colors.  She's sent me a number of quilts in recent months, but I have secretly been waiting to quilt this one.  I love it.

This quilt is 90"x108", so it's not a small quilt whatsoever. It took me quite a while to do -- something like 7-8 hours just to outline all the appliques with Madiera Monolon (clear thread).  It's time-consuming, and many quilters skip this step, but I know that it yields a better looking product.  All of the piecings of the quilt are much more crisp.  I won't do a custom with only half of the stitching that the custom requires.

The border is a lovely floral.  It is one of those fabrics, though, that it is hard to quilt and have the stitching show effectively.  I sometimes do piano keys (aka straight lines), but decided upon feathers for this quilt.  The stitching in the shiny gold Glide thread shows just enough even in the floral.

I cannot remember where she told me the pattern came from (who designed), but it is not one I have seen before.  To keep the quilting consistent from block to block, I chose to only stitch on some of the applique elements.  I did a ring of feathers on the pale yellow circle - on all pale yellow circles, all lighter green leaves, and then echo quilting in the lightest green.  The echo quilting is stitched with Invisifil thread.  I haven't quilted with this recently, but it is 100wt and super fine, and just disappears into the quilt.

The quilt has Tuscany wool batting, so the appliques have a nice and gently poof.  It will not compress with time like cotton will.  Most appliques have enough stitching just in the ditching, and didn't really need any on them.  It would only have mashed them down.

 The soft yellow backgrounds are all stitched with feathers.  It makes for a nice delicate-looking quilt.

 I can't show all 20 of the blocks up close, but I have chosen a few of my favorites.

 It's an interesting pattern, combining both regular cottons and batiks..

 This is probably my favorite block, if there is a favorite.

 The quilting in the red squares is only intended to give the viewer a different shape to see.  I need to combine straight-line work with the feathers for a nice variety.  This is going on a bed, and not to a show, so over-quilting would only be a mistake.  It has just the right amount to show the quilting, and capitalize on the beauty of the wool and the applique work.

I sure hope Erin likes this :-)