Jun 21 14
And Now a Quilt With Some Color!
I got in 20-30 minutes of machine quilting in the wee hours of the early morning each day this week before work. I picked up an old quilt that I started quilting about a year ago and it has been lost in the shuffle ever since. This is a machine embroidery applique quilt and all the shapes were cut from Appli-K-Kutz dies using my Sizzix Big Shot except for the large heart at the bottom. (I cut him the “old fashioned way…with scissors!) Here’s the top section of it and that’s where I’m working now:
(Sorry…I rushed to grab some photos, so they’re not the best. You can see there are pins and a few long thread tails that I haven’t dealt with yet!) This top section is a fairly large piece; I think it measures around 44 inches x 28 inches. The heart at the base is pretty large. If I do another of this panel any time down the road, I think I’ll use more understated colors inside the heart because there’s an awful lot going on in there! Here’s a closeup and you can see what I mean:
I sure do like how much thread work can add to an applique shape, though! There are 2 mirror image birds with 3 tail feathers each:
I didn’t want the entire thing to just hold background fill quilting, so I threw 2 quilted feathers off of each bird’s tail feathers. They are hyperquilted with a gold thread and you almost can’t see the “real” feather outline because the thread was green:
There are also 3 appliqued swirl shapes above each bird. In this shot of the swirls, you can see the background fill quilting pretty well. That is being done with a gently variegated green trilobal polyester thread:
I also threw a headdress onto each bird that kind of “springs” from the appliqued headdress. Here’s the one on the left bird:
…and here’s the one on the right bird:
That last bird seems pretty understated…I think I may need to go back in there and add some pizzazz. I ‘m hoping to get to the lower section of this quilt this coming week…
Your quilting is simply perfection! I so enjoy seeing the finesse with which you quilt your designs. The background fill you’re using in this one is really neat! I’ve already been practicing it on paper. Thank you for sharing!