Hexies and hugs

Job number one after basting is stitching closely around

the perimeter of the quilt, or stabilizing. I'm always surprised

at the resistance to this crucial step from students: "Why do

I need to do that?!" THIS is why. You can't quilt a ruffle. 

This grandmother's flower garden quilt was so much fun to quilt. Anne, my client, was so easy to work with. She had drawn a diagram of the quilting she wanted, which I really appreciate. But I know my strengths and limitations, and as a freehander, I couldn't deliver. So, we regrouped, opting for feathers. The morning I was going to start quilting them, I woke up with a plan: small plumes that alternate direction. Apparently, my subconscious had been working on it in my sleep. I've learned to act on such ideas for best results.

In the printed fabrics, I quilted a ribbon candy design in the outer rings, an echoed pumpkin seed in the inner rings, and a simple flower in the centers and in between the prints, for continuity. Quilting the prints stabilized the quilt, and the echo quilting around the feathers nailed down what the ribbon candy did not.

The rewards of custom quilting are more than just monetary. When a happy client hugs me, I know the magic happened again.

In this case, the client intended to forgo a traditional binding and just turn the ends of the top

and backing under and hand-sew them closed. So I couldn't quilt closely around the edge.

Instead, I pinned the edges down and quilted up to a quarter-inch from the edge.

The nearly finished quilt. Most of the background fabrics have the sheen of cotton sateen,

which makes the feathers leap out of the quilt. The quilting added a lot of movement.

I quilted the prints in gray thread and the background with bright white polyesters, a thinner one for the echo quilting.