Thursday, February 14, 2019

Catching Up

Somehow, I neglected to share this absolutely gorgeous Sue Garman design that was made by a client of mine. It is all turned-edge applique, and exceptionally well done. There is a good amount of background space just screaming for some very traditional quilting. My client also sent me a good photo of Sue's quilt, and asked me to replicate some of her ideas on this quilt.

Here it is, as I start the "stand and stare" routine. I didn't wonder what to do for very long though.
I quilted this with a single wool batting, and a couple of threads. Because most of the quilt is white, I began with an ecru 40wt thread. The backgrounds and borders were quilted from the top to the bottom. Sue's quilt had the feathered sashings, which I liked, so I used them here. They give the quilt nice movement.
The backgrounds of Sue's reference quilt had a crosshatch, but that was ditched immediately. It would have required marking to get good alignment. I will never mark a red and white quilt without knowing how many times the red fabric was washed/soaked. I refuse to have a disaster on my watch (or at my hands!). I think my backfill, though less traditional, is plenty functional and faster to quilt. 

Because I did not crosshatch the blocks, I put this pattern on the border. It was a bit of hind-sight that I should have spaced the lines all the way from the corner, but hopefully what I did works ok. 
 
I used this neat gadget called a Simflex to quickly space the crosshatchings evenly between the applique circles. Stretch and mark!
 When all of the white background was quilted, then I ditch stitched around the applique, and quilted on the applique swags. The swags (quilted in soft sage thread) have some echo quilting and a simple feather.

 The quilt's backing is also beige, making the quilting show marvelously!


In a few days I will be loading another traditional beauty. I just hope it turns out as lovely!

Happy February-

5 comments:

Lin McQ said...

Like all your quilts, this turned out stunning! Your customer will be thrilled.

lvkwilt said...

Gorgeous quilt with gorgeous quilting--what a treasure!

Farm Quilter said...

Gorgeous quilt in every way! That Simflex is interesting! I have a long piece of 1" wide elastic that I have marked every 1/2 inch (using different colors of marker for the 1/2" and 1" lines) that I use like you use the Simflex, except I actually pin the elastic just above or below when I want to quilt so I don't have to mark. It is long enough to stretch across my entire 12' frame, so it is easy to on both sides of a sashing. I have never seen a Simflex before!

Lisa E said...

Beautiful work, as always! I notice you mentioned you did the stitch in the ditch after all the background quilting was complete. Do you typically do all stitch in the ditch after background quilting?

Susie Q said...

The quilting is just amazing...... thanks for showing us....