Client Medallion Quilt

 My client Doris spent much of last year piecing this quilt from the Quilt Show. It is a medallion style design with a whopping 17 borders!  There are more 1/2" narrow borders than I care to remember, and miraculously, it laid pretty straight and square after I was done quilting.

Here are the threads I pulled for this job. Most of it uses this tan Magnifico thread. It showed just a tad on all the ivory fabrics, but not too much. The other two colors were for more localized work, when the tan was just too light. They are similar to the Magnifico -- Glide.

The quilt has a single wool batting. Though Doris plans to enter it in the Vermont Quilt show next year, it will ultimately go on her bed. Double batting just to enhance the quilting for one show seemed silly. Most people don't want a double-batted bed quilt. I'm the rare exception because I am always cold, and I just love the added weight.

I tried to maintain some consistency of patterns from row to row to row. There are several places where the continuous curves are used. It's not because I couldn't think of something different, but because they do work nicely, they are continuously quilted, which makes it a cost-efficient motif to use when budget is a concern.  Places that benefit from more time-consuming designs, like these rounded geese - well, that is where I put more time. It's all about getting the most bang for your buck. Spend time where it will show. The feathers are pretty; most clients like them. But for me, they are not usually an overly time-consuming element. The crosshatching, on the other hand, does take more time. Together, though, they are a nice combo.

The same is true for feathers and linear work. Nice together. The feathery fill (above) around these stars is not the fastest, BUT I am able to quilt the fill and the ditching around the stars and the details on the stars continuously, without stopping. THAT to me, is reason to choose this. Stopping and starting is like the devil's work. No thank you.

 You always seek to create a center motif that has a little drama -- something to draw the viewer's eye to the middle of the quilt. There's a little bit of feathering, a little crosshatching, and a little continuous curves. Repeat, Resize, Reuse. It may be hard to see, but I quilted on the tan print with the deep green thread, just to make these feathers show a little bit more.

 ...and a little more close up.

The little rings of geese were initially like this, but I decided that was just not right. I don;t really like the puffy goose look, and I didn't have time to ditch and backfill around all of them.

I came back with the red thread and did a small-arc continuous curve design through the geese. It's just enough to lay it in place better.

The larger geese also got a similar design. These are probably 2-1/2 or 3" geese, and again, I did not have budget to ditch all of them. This ribbon-like continuous pattern quilts relatively quickly (and by quick, I mean probably an hour to do the entire loop of geese!).

So, I hope Doris likes her quilt as much as I do. They always undergo a transformation when they convert from flimsy to quilt! I love the grand reveals.

Here's my shameless plug...If you'd like to learn how to quilt all of the feathery motifs shown on this quilt (and dozens more), they are all individually shown in my book (available from the link on the right sidebar). They are fun and beautiful, and can be learned by all quilters.

Happy Tuesday...Quilt on!