Its always fun to see the Christmas quilts that pass through the studio throughout the year. This one was especially pretty. Vicki is a regular renter, but she asked us to custom quilt this for her. I loved it immediately. The colors were so unusual, but so very elegant. I was thrilled to get to it but because of the Jamie Wallen classes in the Studio, I had to wait a week to start.
In that week I was able to think the design through. It was good to have that time, I don't usually take that much time to ponder a custom quilt. It paid off, and I learned that I am going to look ahead at what custom work is coming up, and take the time to think the design through.
Each Individual embroidery block had either pebbles or echos to hold the background down. I used Glide thread, Pearl for the background and the
swirl meander, and Garnet for the ribbon candy design in the small red sashing.
The bobbin was a prewound L Magna Glide, in the light cream color. The batting was Hobs 80/20 Cotton Poly, it has enough loft to lift the embroidered
images up so that they actually seem to come to life.
I choose a swirl design for the blocks surrounding the embroidered blocks,
as well as the outer border. There are so many swirls in the fabric and
embroidery, that it seemed like an obvious choice.
During the week of the Jamie Wallen classes, like I said before, I thought about this quilt. Jamie had brought along his rulers from Quilters Apothecary. He has one that is great for ditch work, the Mystical Ditcher, and another that is great for stitching close to the applique, the Mystical Mini. Using these I was able to stitch
around the embroidered images, and ditch the blocks beautifully.
Thank You Vicki for making my Christmas season start so wonderfully!
From my little corner of the Studio to your studio at home, A very Merry
and Blessed Christmas to all. Its been wonderful sharing our stories and beautiful quilts with you. See you in 2014.
Blessings, The YEG Quilter
Great job Sheila! I love your backgrounds!
ReplyDeleteMarg McCulloch