Applique Quilt #1

Welcome to the first of two currently quilted applique quilts.  The second one is the same size, but has about twice the applique, if that even seems possible!  Just wait...

This quilt measures 71.5" square.  I wish I could tell you who designed it, or where to find the pattern, but I just don't know.  It could be original, but I kind of suspect it is a pattern.  It is beautifully turned edge applique.

This quilt has a single wool batt to give excellent relief to all of these appliques.  I don't like to really stitch on the appliques themselves unless they are quite large, because it tends to flatten them, but this quilt has plenty of puff.  I spent hours (and I do mean hours...something like 8 I believe) ditching around every applique, every blasted circle, and there are more than 100 of them too!  I used a clear Madiera monolon thread for the ditching.  The remainder of the quilting is done with an old standby - Superior So Fine.  I haven't done an entire quilt with SoFine in ages, since the advent/discovery of Glide thread and Omni and others that I frequently use.  The SoFine did a fantastic job.  50 wt is just fine enough for the background quilting to be dense but not thready.

A background like this one has just enough room to try to develop a design.  I like to use the straight line work paired with a swirlier filler.  It makes a nice juxtaposition.  They are enough different from eachother that each of the fills shows completely.  It is useless to place 2 fills beside eachother if they just blend away. 

 The border has a pretty and fairly wide undulating feather.  Just a nice classic look.

 I placed sections of curved cross-hatching inside of the center section (above) as well as the next border (below).  Again, it just gives enough contrast of design to keep the viewer's eye jumping around.

She's definitely not my favorite part of the quilt!!  There are few things I struggle with quilting, but faces are definitely one of them.

 One pretty corner...

The quilt has a very neutral backing so all the quilting is very evident.  I love this when the thread matches, but it always makes me nervous when there are dark green and red bobbins too!  It means that you have to be ultra-careful while quilting to be sure that the backtracks are as clean as possible.

 ...and the center square.  The texture is fantastic thanks to the wool.

I have a real Baltimore Album quilt loaded at the moment.  It is taking a way lotta hours to ditch, but I should be onto the fun quilting tomorrow.  I expect to finish it before I leave for MQX next Wed.

If you live within driving distance of Manchester, NH, consider coming to MQX next weekend (Thurs - Sat).  It is a great machine quilting show.  I have 4 quilts entered, but there are probably many, many more quilts better to see there!