Applique Quilts

I recently quilted a couple of machine embroidered-applique quilts.  This first one is a small wall-hanging, about 36" square (yea, I cut off the side borders in the picture).  It has wool batting, and mostly Invisifil thread.  I toyed with using a gold Glide, but waffled on that decision the day I loaded the quilt.  I think that was my personal choice over-riding the preference of the client, who favors thinner, non-showing threads. The Invisifil sinks into the top, becoming mostly invisible, but for this type of quilt, which has a thick tear-away stabilizer near the appliques, the thinner, less robust thread proved to be a complete pain in the neck. It broke about a zillion times on me to the tune of stop, knot, bury, rethread, repeat... Live and learn!

Given the size of the top, there wasn't too much of my usual designing of secondary patterns.  Those require more space.  On the border, I pulled out a cranberry Glide thread because that was the best  match.  The border is mostly geometric.  Sometimes the borders that are not very wide, and have piecings like this one does prove to be harder to design for.

 Here is a second quilt.  It is in the vicinity of 62".  It is another colorful applique by machine embroidery quilt.  This one was even harder to work in secondary designs.  There just isn't space around the appliques to create additional designs.  I know that this isn't at the forefront of many other quilters, but when I get a top, I specifically ponder how I can work such things into the quilting.  It adds nice visual interest.

I spent something like 5-6 hours ditch quilting this beast with clear Monolon thread.  The appliques are enough apart that there's a TON of stop and start on the ditching.  It does make all the difference, though, by defining the applique edge.  This quilt also has a wool batting, but the loft is sort of lost because the entire top has a layer of a fusible interfacing.  I realize the purpose of the interfacing, but it really makes a stiffer top that just does not show the relief of the quilting as well.

 I chose several different threads...the teal areas got a 50wt So Fine - it matched the best.  It's relatively fine and easier to use than the Invisifil.  The purple setting triangles are quilted with Glide.  It also matches, but shows a small amount of sheen.  The gold (or are they green??!) squares are quilted with a tarnished-gold Glide thread.  It does show a little, but I think the sheen is pretty because this is the only area I was able to put any design into the quilting.  Hopefully the small bit of pebbling is OK.  The backgrounds of the birds are all a little different, but the overall fill is fairly consistent from one to the other.

 Lastly, here are a couple sneak peeks of a quilt I am butchering quilting.  I am far from thrilled with it right now, but I will give it another day.  Why does "Modern" have to be so far from my box of skills?

 one more peek...