Turning Quilt Tops into Treasures
I finished this little quilt this past weekend. I emphasized the boxes by stitching nested squares in each of the boxes. The background has a feather fill and the inner blue border has a swirl design, and beadboard in the outer border. Came out nicely.
Here are pics. Can you tell which ones were taken with the old camera? I LOVE the new camera. I can take closeups and actually see the individual stitches!!
Ok, I bit the bullet and bought a new camera. A Panasonic Lumix DMC FH20 (http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/compact/fh22_fh20_fs33_fs30/) I figure anytime a customer offers to take pics for you that’s a good sign that something is amiss in your photos! Seriously, I’ve been complaining about my camera for several months now. I just can’t seem to get a good photo that’s not blurry. I take gobs of photos in the hopes that one might be good. It was good when I got it several years ago, but digital cameras have progressed quite a bit in the last 5 years. The Panasonic Lumix brand was recommended to me by a colleague. So, I did some resesarch online and found a great deal at NewEgg.com for $129, including SD card, camera case and free shipping. That’s $70 off the regular price! I should get it in 2-3 days. I’m looking forward to checking it out and using it to photograph my quilts.
Now, the rest of the story. The lady this quilt belongs to was referred to me by the owner of a LQS I frequent. This lady had already had another longarmer quilt this for her. She took out all the stitches because she wasn’t happy with the end result. I was a bit apprehensive about doing this, but I can see why she might not have been happy with the first quilting treatment. The first quilter had used a thick linty looking medium tan colored thread in the light green border and outlined all the top applique phrase with that thread. It really contrasted poorly with the applique. She also stippled the background of the applique blocks with a white thinner thread which also stood out – but the bigger problem I saw was that she stippled the applique itself. The swan had small stippling holes all over it (white thread on a blue swan) and I hope those holes will close up for her when she soaks or washes this quilt.
When she brought the quilt, I asked her what she envisioned for her quilt – and she pointed to several things I had as samples and some of designs on my quilts. She expressed a liking for pebbles and echoing. I tried to get as much information on what she disliked about the quilting treatment and what she liked for her quilt. I hope she likes what I have done. I think it looks nice and is what I would have done to this quilt had it been mine.
Ok. I have finished the borders! The top border is echoed with a few feather swirls thrown in here and there and the bottom border is feathered. I didn’t get much done on it today. I went grocery shopping, cleaned house, and my husband and I went to dinner with my parents and brother to celebrate my dad’s 82nd birthday!! I hope I do as good at that age as he does! Anyway, tomorrow I have laundry to do and Sunday dinner, but do plan on getting several of the applique blocks finished. I’m in the home stretch now! Here are two more pics…
Here’s the next installment in this lovely applique quilt. The first pic shows the spine of the switchback feathers with one side finished. The second shows the finished feather border. I should have finished both sides and the bottom, except I stitched the spine of the feather backwards and had to rip the spine completely out!!!! I finished one side and still have to rip the other side out and redraw it. Oh well, chalk it up to a lesson learned. I took a break tonight and played badminton at the Friday Night Badminton Club at our neighbor’s house. This was my first time this year – and as usual my hair was wringing wet in short time! And I lost too! I plan on finishing the feather border and echoing around the applique in the top border tomorrow and hopefully get a great start on the pebbles and echoing in the applique blocks on Sunday. Stay tuned!
I decided on a holly/berries/swirl pattern for the green sashing and outer border as well as the red outer border. I’m using King Tut ivy tone on tone and red Signature threads. I’m keeping the cream Bottom Line in the bobbin and I’m happy with the result – tension has been great – no pokies with the two different colored theads. The back of the quilt is looking fabulous so far.
I believe I’ll leave the red border around the applique blocks blank with just SID. The applique spills over into the red border and I’m inclined to let it act as a frame for the applique. I’ll stitch straigh lines in the 2nd cream border around the applique – 1/4″ apart and going around the block. Pebbles and echoes will go in the background fills behind the applique. And I’m planning on feathers in the light green border and a small feather fill or echo (or both)around the applique in the top border. I’ve finished all the green and one of the red borders. I’ll finish the bottom red border and turn the quilt to finish the red borders on the side. Then I’ll do the feathers in the light green border. I saw a cool blog post from Desley that outlined an efficient way to drawn out feathers in a border and I’ll think I’ll follow her advice. See her post on her blog: http://addictedtoquilts.blogspot.com/. She does lovely quilting!
Here are the latest pics:
I finished stabilizing the blocks using clear Madeira Monolon. I have just the bottom borders to complete and then I can start working with “real” thread. I’m using a double layer of batting, 80/20 on bottom and Legacy wool on top. The Legacy brand wool is thinner than Quilters Dream, and while I could have done this whole quilt in just the Legacy wool, I wanted the applique to pop like trapunto and the extra thickness will give it more height when I do the background fills. It’s looking good so far. Here are the 12 blocks:
I know, it’s almost 100 degrees outside and I’m singing Christmas carols. Specifically, the 12 Days of Christmas! This is a wonderful applique quilt – it consists of 12 blocks with a number in each block and applique for each day. Right now, I’m SID all the blocks and applique with clear Madeira Monolon thread on top and ivory Bottom Line in the bobbin. When that is done, I’ll go back and fill in the blocks with an assortment of thread colors and quilting designs. Each of the applique blocks will have 2 types of background fills and those will most likely be done with Superior Bottom Line, a very thin thread. I’m debating on using King Tut ivy variegated in the outer border and combining the two outer borders into one quilting design – beadboard maybe? That border’s just not talking to me right now. I’m on the fence with that thread too. The only reason I’m considering it is I have it in my stash. Hmmm. That’s not a very good reason to use it, is it? I have plenty of time to make up my mind on the thread color and design for that outer border, because the rest of the SID will take quite a while.
So, here’s a peek at what I’ve done and the threads I plan on using.
This beautiful quilt is finished. The colors in this quilt go perfectly in my house and I absolutely LOVE it. The gal who pieced this, Sharon, did a great job. All the points match and the colors are wonderful. She spent a lot of time on this and wanted something special for it, so I gave it feathers in a half-circle and beadboard in the border, feather vines in the inner border, feathers in the center medallion, SID the whole thing, and pebbled the background fabric in the center and behind the star blocks and one of the inner borders. I love the texture of this quilt.
I used a Quilters Dream wool batting, Madeira Monolon clear (for the SID and red fabric), Filtec Premo Soft in light olive on the green fabric and in the bobbin, and Superior tan Bottom Line for the pebbling (in top and bottom). I used a circle ruler to outline the circles in the border and the spine of the feather in the inner border, and a straight ruler for the SID. The rest was freehand.
I tried taking pictures, but I’m still struggling with my camera (time to upgrade to a new one). Here are the best 5 out of 20 pics I took!
This is what is currently on my frame. A beautiful feathered star surrounded by Ohio stars and 1/2 sq and 1/4 sq triangles. I love the colors on this quilt. I stitched the ENTIRE thing with clear Madeira monolon. Then I went back and did all the red blocks in clear and the green blocks using Filtec Premo Soft in light olive. I used the light olive in the bobbin too. Now, I’m doing pebbles in all the “background” fabrics using cream Bottom Line thread. I finished the first row of 1/2 square triangles and am starting the first row of Ohio Stars. All that is left is this pebbling and the background feathers in the center medallion. I hope to get this done this week as I have a beautiful applique quilt to do (The Twelve Days of Christmas) that is just what I need to remind me that it WILL be cool again instead of this sweltering 90-degree weather.
