Saturday, July 20, 2013

Feathers galore on the Anna quilt

The quilting on Anne's (aka Mom) Anna quilt is coming along very nicely and I am extremely pleased with how it is looking. I completed the feathers around the centre medallion (on the brown background), echoed the feathers and then stippled the background around the feathers. I've also quilted the centre picture hexagon (surrounded by pink) and the two picture hexagons that make the diamond points of the medallion (surrounded by blue). All three of these had large spider webs so I simply used the spider webs as my quilting design. The remaining six picture hexagons are not yet quilted.







They look so nice on the front and especially on the back!


I'm using Superior Monopoly on top and Superior The Bottom Line in the bobbin. Monopoly is invisible. I wanted to stipple up to the echo around the feathers but it can be hard to see the echo.....it is invisible thread after all! The solution? I used my blue water soluble marker and marked the echo line so I could easily see where to stop. In this picture you can still see the spine for the feather which had not yet been removed and the blue marks on the echo quilting.


There were six remaining picture hexagons that circled around the picture hexagon in the centre (surrounded by pink). I had the quilt spread out on the floor all evening hoping that a quilting idea would come to me and it did! I decided I should quilt more feathers but they would form a large circle that surrounds the centre hexagon. As with the other feathers I would echo the feathers and stipple to fill the spaces. 

The first step was to mark the spine of the feather on each hexagon with my blue water soluble marker.

This is a close-up of the feathers, echo quilting and stippling.


This is the entire circle of feathers quilted.


And this is what the back looks like!


I am very pleased with how this quilt is shaping up! The process of machine quilting just gets easier, less stressful, more fun and better looking with each quilt that I work on. That's practice! I never thought I would be able to produce quilting that would look like this! It isn't perfect but I am really happy with it!


I want to introduce some dragonflies in the quilting in the open areas within the swags because there are dragonflies in one of the main fabrics used.


Here's a little peek at what they will look like! This is my test swatch - the dragonfly's head is a little off kilter but that won't be the case when I work on the quilt.


I'll show you how I quilted the dragonfly tomorrow. You'll be surprised at how easy it is to make any shape you want. There's no marking of the quilt required and you don't have to be able to draw! And this technique can be used to produce any motif you want! If you are an experienced quilter I'm sure you are familiar with this method but if you are new to machine quilting I hope that I have I piqued your curiosity and that you drop by tomorrow to see how it's done!

Too busy quilting today to take pictures in the garden. Maybe tomorrow!

Until I post again, happy sewing!

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