May 19 07
New Amish Quilt in Warm Colors
I finally finished my latest Amish quilt. Normally, I am not someone who enjoys making the same thing again and again, but Amish quilts never get “old” to me because their very simple design is always striking and it’s fun to mess around with color combinations. This most recent one is in bold warm colors:
My original plan was to do this with heavy thread embellishment with hyper-quilting within all the plumes, but I ended up going for a simpler look. I DID do the in-lining embellishment within the center heart because I felt like I had to. I had stitched the heart itself in a heavy variegated embroidery thread but the variegation was kind of distracting so I felt like I needed to do the in-lining in a solid color just to “ground” the heart. See close-up below:
If you want to stitch a feathered heart, they’re pretty easy to mark for. Just like with a regular curvaceous feather, all you need to mark is the spine guideline. If you want it to be completely symmetric, begin as in the picture below by placing a pin in the very center of the block and then bend your flexible curve ruler into a 1/2 heart shape that appears aesthetically pleasing and also fits your space. (Remember to leave enough room around both sides of this guideline to stitch out your plumes):
Once you’ve traced your chalkline around your curve, inspect the ruler markings where your line begins and ends. Remembering those ruler markings, lift up the ruler and flip it onto the opposite side of your block and match up the ruler markers exactly as you did before with the beginnings and ends of your previous chalk line:
Trace the curve and you’re ready to roll!
Here’s a shot of the corner feathers in the outside borders:
And here’s a close-up of the background filler design. It’s the irregular swirl from the innies and outies family. I stitched it with Bottom Line Bobbin-fill thread because it’s so lightweight that the thread really isn’t noticeable, but I really LOVE the cool texture that this quilting design creates:
Patsy, that’s just GORGEOUS!! I’m slowly watching your wonderful feathers DVD – slowly because I get so excited I have to stop and go stitch all the time, LOL!
I really like the way you’ve used non traditional Amish colours but kept an Amish pattern feel to this quilt. Yum!
Hmm, I left a comment before but it hasn’t shown up. Wonder what’s happening?
Your quilting is wonderful!
That quilt is wonderful. I would love to learn how to make such beautiful feathers. I guess I need to practice, practice.