Baltimore Autumn

This is by far the most labor-intensive applique quilt I have ever seen and quilted!  It is a 70" square quilt, and has more leaves and berries than you can count.  It is all turned edge applique, with both batik and regular quilting cottons.  The quilt is absolutely lovely, and needed great quilting to accent it.  The only stipulation the client put on me is probably the one that I hate the most...No Feathers.  Oh my goodness, this quilt is totally and completely screaming for feathers.  What a killer!

It has a wool batting so that these appliques stay puffy.  Each and every applique and berry are ditch stitched with a Madiera Monolon clear thread, so as to give the shapes definition.  There is just no reason to go to the trouble of this much applique if you aren't going to outline stitch it.  That's my firm opinion, and anyone that tries to convince you otherwise is lazy.  Ditching is not for the faint at heart, but it is a necessity.  I used 430 yards of thread and 10 hours to ditch this quilt!

 The quilt leaves only a few places for placing good design elements.  The center medallion is one of them.  I wanted to frame it out somewhat to set it apart from the other applique blocks.  The cross-hatched squares that flank the center medallion tie nicely into the cross-hatching that is on the quilts outer border.  I tried to make this center a "scene of its own" so to speak.  A variety of different stitches in a coordinating SoFine thread just create a nice texture.  I have gotten back into using my SoFine on the last couple quilts -- I may have to get a few cones next week at MQX.  I actually haven't bought any of this 50wt thread in quite some time.

The birds and animals are all so cute and fall-like.  I just continued the McT-ish filler from the outer border into this area, but interspersed areas of pebbling just for visual interest.

The outer border is 9" wide, so I knew that from a design standpoint, it needed to be more than just one filler.  I chose the panels of curved crosshatching for the outermost areas, with the McT.  In near the narrow inner border, I quilted oak leaves.  I made a template from a cereal box, and traced it on with a marking pen. These fabrics appeared to have been prewashed (no bleed on my test), so I used the pens.  I also made a template for the scrolls.  Honestly, if left to my own devices, I would have put feathers here, but I had to design something else.  This area is densely filled with a meandering fill.  It makes the scrolls and leaves pop nicely.

 Here's another look at a corner.  Whoops...I just noticed where she forgot to applique the berries (doh!).

 As usual, heavily custom quilts have wonderful backs.  This one has all matching thread except the deep red bobbin I used on the narrow inner border.  It is really pretty.

That is my last quilt for a few days.  I quilted a queen edge-to-edge today, but won't probably get to another client quilt until April 14.  Next Wednesday, I am off to MQX for 4 days.  No point loading a client quilt just to have it sit on the frame a week!  I have a small feather piece I need to quilt for an article, and have started marking a silk whole-cloth.  That one is going to take me an eternity just to mark. So, have a good week....