About a year ago, Guidel brought me a quilt top that was very special to her. It has over 4,000 pieces and I can't even imagine how many hours it took for Guidel to piece. At that time, Guidel told me she wanted this quilt to be "special" - and "no hurry" - it was more important that it be just right. She had two requests - first that the "zig zag border stand out" and second, that the overlap 3-D pieces were not to be quilted so they kept their dimensional effect. To be honest, I am so thankful that I waited until the timing was just right to tackle this one . . . and the right time was this July . . . here's a photo journey of the quilting process. The pattern is Star Struck, designed by Jackie Robinson.
First off, I had the top hanging on the wall for weeks just looking at it - trying to decide on the right quilting designs . . . I spent a lot of time just looking at it, drawing on my sketch pad and making notes.
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| Guidel's Quilt - unquilted |
Then, there was auditioning different thread colors . . .
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| Guidel's quilt - thread choices |
Once the quilt top, backing and batting were loaded on Freeda, I started by securing the borders with Stitch in the Ditch (SID) and stabilizing the star with SID from point to point. I found it best to work on half the quilt at a time as it becomes too cumbersome rolling a quilt that is partially quilted.
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| SID around purple borders |
After securing the purple borders, I added a new border design in the lighter space. This adds a new dimension to a large, blank area. It also gives more focus to the darker border.
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| Adding stitching to border |
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| Filling in border design with continuous lines and swirls - then addition of continuous curves in patch area |
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| Denser fill in outer border - see the 3-D effect? |
Next - the centre of the quilt. There is a lot of white space - so I broke that up by making new areas for quilting . . . the focal element of the quilt is the centre star - I used that as the inspiration for quilting of the white areas.
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Star Center - beginning or quilting
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. . . and then I just kept moving forward until it was all done . . . I did have to turn the quilt 90 degrees once I had finished to the top and bottom border in order to complete the side borders horizontally.
Finished product . . . a few different views
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| Add caption |
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| Backing |
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| Backing |
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| Backing |
So, there you have it . . . the evolution of a quilt top! If you look closely, you will see that I only used three basic designs - straight lines, swirls and curves . . . Fil-tec Glide Thread (5 different shades); Invisifil Thread (for SID), and Hobbs Heirloom Wool batting.
Until next time, happy stitching from the Little House.
2 comments:
Such a talent. The quilting really makes it. Beautiful.
Bev--that quilt is amazing. You did such a great job with the quilting, the quilt owner must be thrilled.
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