There are at least seven quilt tops sitting in bins on my shelves, waiting to become full-fledged quilts. I was about to start working on yet another top, with the blue fabrics I shared in my last post, when the list of unfinished quilt tops started glaring at me from my bulletin board. I conceded that I could try to finish at least one before adding yet another to the queue.
On Wednesday I basted the quilt sandwich, pondering a quilting plan as I basted. Inspiration hadn't struck by the time I finished basting. The only way to move forward was to start stitching in the ditch and hope ideas would sprout as I moved the quilt under the needle.
Aren't these pretty fabrics? Sherry of Powered by Quilting sent them to me for a blog hop in June. These are from Plum Pudding, her latest signature collection from Island Batik. These are not my usual colors (or hers, I think) but they are so, so pretty, and it was fun to work with something a little different than my usual choices.
By Thursday evening I had finished stitching in the ditch with the walking foot. I could have done it with a straight ruler and my ruler foot, but these are large pieces so it was just as easy to use the walking foot.
Friday I got to work with paper and pencil to figure out what to quilt. I already had a plan for the background. That involves a lot of straight lines repeating some of the shapes in the quilt. I wanted something a bit more intricate to dress up large pieces of print fabric. Since I am drawing challenged, I thought some of my Westalee templates should come out to play to help me out in those spaces.
I stitched out he design in one block on Friday, then walked away. I thought I liked it, but I wasn't 100% certain. I needed to let it sit a bit and see how I felt about it in the morning.
The design doesn't show up well in the photo, especially on that busy (but pretty!) print. However, when I came down this morning and looked at it again, I liked it. It looks better in person.
The garden called me outside earlier, but I'll fire up the sewing machine after supper and see how much I can get quilted this evening. I would love to have a finished quilt by the middle of next week so I can move on to that new blue quilt project guilt-free!
I'm sure however you decide to quilt that pretty top, it will turn out wonderful. You are right; that really is a beautiful print fabric! Have fun, and get it done so we can see it finished. ---"Love"
ReplyDeletePretty colors and I like the design you've chosen. With that part out of the way, things should move faster now, right?
ReplyDeleteThose fabrics are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThat is how I operate when I don't know what to quilt--get it basted and start ditch stitching. I like what you have decided to do in that area. Very pretty.
Well, you've given me an idea for how to quilt one of my UFOs. Thanks! Those jewel fabrics are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteThose are pretty colors. Hopefully it will start speaking to you soon!
ReplyDelete