This wholecloth quilt design was a result of a class I took at MQX Midwest with Bethanne Nemesh. We were instructed to bring to class a variety of designs we loved and would use those designs as a starting point for our own individual creations in her class. I cannot say enough good things about Bethanne. Her class was wonderful and I learned so much. I brought several designs, but the one I focused on for this class was one I had used before in a wallhanging. I expanded on that design to create this design. It wound up being 42″ square. I did not finish this in the class, but worked on it for about 8 months (off and on) afterwards. I used a piece of hand dyed cotton sateen as the base material. I transferred the design to this material and then overlaid the entire top with a piece of blue shimmering organza. I’d never quilted anything like that before, but had seen Jamie Wallen use this on one of his quilts. I wanted the shimmering effect as these were stylized hummingbirds and I wanted to mimic the birds feathers.
After I was done with the quilting, I decided to use a faced edging, but wanted to add a piece of piping and lace to it too. I had not done that before and it was extremely hard for me to figure out how to do that by watching a YouTube video. It’s not perfect, but I am glad I tried it. The lace edging started out as off white. I wound up painting it 4 times in order to get the right color. I then added some jewels to the quilt.
A note about judge’s comments at shows. One comment from show said the lace was a distraction. Another show commented that it was a great asset. So, I just really do what I think is best for the quilt at that time and I try to always take those types of comments with a shrug – everyone has their own tastes and mine is the one that really matters.
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