Subtle Quilting for a Sweet Quilt
These 2 blocks are the basis for the quilt I’ve been stitching on the last couple of days. I’m not sure why, but there is something so sweet about blue and yellow quilts! That combo just hits a home run every time! For me, the drama or interesting part of this quilt is all about how those appliqued feathers interact with one another. Because of that, my whole goal with the quilting was to echo the feather motifs and to do it in a very understated way. I guess I didn’t really want the quilting to be consciously noticed, and that is not usually my goal.
The easiest part was quilting the blue blocks, because the “empty space” in the center was just right for a feathered wreath. Again, because it’s stitched in a matching solid color rayon thread, you hardly even see the wreath:
(Sorry about the lousy color there!) The yellow block was a bit more challenging because that “empty space” was a very different shape. I started off with a smaller feathered wreath in the center:
I then drew diagonal lines from opposing corners and that gave me 4 straight “spine guidelines” so that I could stitch 4 straight free-form feathers to fill the 4 “corners of that “empty space:”
In order to fill some small unquilted spaces, I stitched 4 small feathers in each of the block inside corners using part of one of our stencils. Here’s what they look like when seen in 2 adjoining blocks:
…but they look much better when you see that same motif where 4 blocks join:
Once I’ve got the binding on, I’ll show some final pictures, but this was a fun one to quilt!