Botanical Quilt is Finished!

Yes,  I'm doing the Happy Dance!  And yes, I do indeed need a few more dance lessons.  But I don't mind if you laugh.  My family often does.

Here's the front.

And a zoom of the front.  The zoom shows off the salamanders around the center medallion and the outline quilting.  I think I'm in love with outline quilting.  The effect is stunning to me.

The borders are hard to photograph.   These are fern fronds (repeated from the center blocks with 3 dark squares) but these are curled into circles.

curling ferns and the outer ginko leaves in the dark green

The back is pieced also and it has a center medallion too.  It's not easy getting these to line up.  Loading the quilt becomes unconventional and sort of starts from the center.

Back side - pebbles (front side- in the dark brown triangles) are evident here.

There are more botanical quilt photos from this post.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Off the Frame

This one was made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  I really like what my customer did by separating those prints with a soothing off-white strip.  The overall quilt top is strikingly pretty and there's a nice order to it.  I think some quilters shy away from the busy prints because they're afraid those kinds can't be tamed.

For a quilting design, I suggested this oyster shell allover stitching.  It adds a texture without taking away from the true stars of the show - those K. Fassett prints.  When you see the whole quilt top and you're not really close to it, the quilting threads disappear into the texture.

This quilt top pattern would be fun to work on when you're enjoying a sewing day with friends.  It looks like it's pretty forgiving if you accidentally reverse a row.  I might have to keep this one in mind.

I quickly pieced a few scraps together to use as a tension tester.  Before I start quilting or after I've changed bobbins, I like to test the stitches on a spare piece of fabric.  By making this one extra large, it can be cut into about 5 mug rugs.  It seemed like a nicer way to practice than just wasting a swatch of material.

One more photo to share because this one is so fun!

BTW, the botanical quilt is back on the frame.  It's almost done!  I needed to rotate it a quarter turn to finish the borders.  I'll take lots more photos before returning it to it's owner.  Then, I'll enjoy a few days of rest before returning to the frame.

Enjoy your day!
-SeeingStars

I've been quiet for a reason ...

It takes more concentration to work on a more detailed quilt.  This top is the most technical quilt I've done.  It has a pieced back, which I worked for several hours to align with the front.  Both sides have a center square and I wanted them to align as well as possible.

Leaves are quilted with their appropriate vein patterns.  Maybe another photo to capture the threads better.

My customer made this for her son.  You can tell there's a lot of thought and creative planning and love that's gone into the design and piecing and needle turn applique. 

Along with the botanical theme, she asked for Red Hill Salamanders.

And also some Gopher Turtles.  I looked up photos of the turtles and decided for quilting, a top down view of the carapace was best.

Gopher turtle shell and some 9 patches with tree rings

 

The outer border has Ginko leaves quilted over a batik spray.  It's a perfect template for these leaves.

Zoomed in to show off the ferns

Here are some ferns with a few curly tendrils (Jamie Wallen - style).  There are top and bottom borders which will be filled with more of these ferns  after I turn the quilt.


It's at the half-way point, but I wanted to share how it's going so far.  I think the second half will go much faster than the first.  I really hope she'll like the finished quilt.  

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars