The Hand Quilting - why to keep it simple...

It is coming along, a bit of the right side borders to do then I can roll up to the next row of blocks. I really enjoy hand quilting and am happiest when the quilting enhances the piecing.

Most of the work on the quilt I am currently doing is complementary. There are 4 borders. The inner 3 borders I am treating as 1 border for quilting pattern purposes. The widths are: 3" of a tiny print which "reads" as a solid grey tone, 1" red print, 3" blue small but busy print. I am quilting overlapping circles (scallop effect) on both 3" borders, omitting any quilting in the center 1" strip so the effect is of half circles scalloped along both borders. The quilting is the same but what is noticeable is certainly different. The semi-circles on the TOT border are very effective, pretty, while the opposite hemispheres are barely noticeable in the busier print. The quilting just disappears.





My 8 " outer border, a busy larger scale print of leaves and birds (these are reproduction prints of the late 1800's) completely hides the careful work I am doing on the feather quilting design. I was past the halfway point of completion when I fully realized this. On such a busy print a simple grid, rows or diagonal would have served very well and I could have had this quilt completed by now.



So now I know, busier prints or multi coloured borders should have very simple quilting designs and save the complex quilting for plain areas.

In any case, One last row of blocks, then the upper border and 4 small cornerstone squares until the quilting is completed. I really want to finish this one up for our guild Quilt show next month.

... and I have high hopes of completing another quilt with machine quilting if I can squeeze it in.

Comments

  1. I've oftened wondered how quilting designs are chosen. Can you put up a picture of the whole quilt?

    ReplyDelete

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