Asian Beauty

This is probably my one and only custom quilt of the summer.  It's only about 40"x 60", but custom quilting with kids in the house (up and down the stars, in and out of the studio door, etc!) is too challenging.  I'm not able to focus on the quilting as I want to.  Never the less, this turned out beautifully, and I hope my client feels the same.  It should be home to her in CA by the weekend.

 There is nothing I appreciate more than fantastic piecing and applique, and this is truly some of the best applique I have seen.  Having appliqued little flowers like this on a quilt not so long ago, I appreciate how very well these are done.

 This quilt has a single layer of Quilters Dream wool batting.  All appliques and seams (except a few because they were pressed open) were SID with Madiera Monolon clear thread.  Never, never do I quilt a nice applique quilt and NOT ditch stitch.  It just doesn't look quite as nice or finished.   The quilting on the quilt other than the SID is either Glide or YLI polished poly -- 6 different colors.  The sheen is just right on the gold-gilded fabrics.

 The client requested a gold metallic, but in all honestly, I hate working with metallic.  It is just unpredictable.  I think you can get a similar look with much greater ease with the gold shiny threads.

 She asked for the clam-shells, so there is a prominent panel of this pattern.  I have also included a variety of other pretty patterns on the solid blocks that fit the theme.

 This whimsical butterfly is wonderful...but he needed antennae!

 The only comment I want to pass on to my readers is about clipping beneath lighter fabrics.  If you applique a white or pale patch onto a dark fabric and you can see the background fabric, please clip it away.  If you are concerned about the integrity of the quilt, then add a piece of very lightweight fusible interfacing on the backside.  I cut away backings ALL THE TIME!  as long as there is SID and quilting on the applique pieces, it is going to be secure.  If the darker background is NOT cut away, then I won't quilt on the applique patch because it will not look good, as the background fabric shadows worse.  This is quite unsightly with printed fabrics!  ...just my words of wisdom :-)

 Here's a couple looks at the backside...It is a gorgeous gilded gold fabric.

Happy Thursday~