Double Wedding Ring -Awesome!

Just had to share this quilt from one of my favorite clients. Merci did a great job on this quilt and it quilted up so pretty. Her fabric choices to create the shading in the rings are perfect. .

We used  So Fine White in the body of the quilt and So Fine 713 variegated green in the border.

 The multicolored green ranged from light, leafy, medium to dark, no white, all shades of green. It was Merci's idea and really sets off the quilt.

The quilt patterns are feathers in the centers and melons and a curved crosshatch in the setting triangle blocks.  I find the straight lines of the crosshatch pair well with the feather motifs. They compliment each other so nicely.

 The border is a small feather with some little curly sprays. it looked super stitched out.

I recently gave a talk to my local Longarm Guild and showed this quilt. It got lots of " oohs & ahs".

 

Double wedding ring and Dresden Plate are some of my favorite quilt styles and look so good when quilted. They really come alive.As you know, this is not an easy pattern to piece. You will find a lot of these tops in trunks uncompleted. So give yourself a high five Merci. This one is gorgeous!

Irish Chain off the Frame Today, Whew!

This big ,90 x 104, Irish Chain just came off the frame.  Yes, every little 2 inch square is quilted. Well almost. I did a continuous curve in all the red squares and left the white ones empty. This holds all edges down and makes the white ones "pop" to emphasis the chain.

Feathered Irish Chain

My client chose a feathered design to quilt in the centers and we used a orange/gold Omni thread to pick up the color in the black fabric. I love this design in the quilt, it looks so good with the straight lines in the chains to complement it.

4 borders !

This Irish Chain is to be a gift and needed to be bigger than the pattern size. Four borders were added and a corner  nine patch. It was challenging to come up with border treatments that worked, but I think the Ribbon Candy border and the Fancy Squares really make this a special quilt.  In the nine patch I quilted a block called "Fancy Feathered  Nine Patch". Fitting

I learned a few lessons with this. I could have turned the quilt and loaded it sideways, the long way. It would have saved some time. At the time I was focused on the feature fabric, the black, with it's directional print and didn't want to end up with it having upside down quilting. As it turned out, none of the quilting designs were directional!  It's always a trade off. Sometimes if you turn it sideways the straight of grain in going vertically and not as easy to control. You can end up fighting pleats and puckers on the back. Especially with a pieced back , as this was. I prefer to load with the grain going horizontally when I can.

We chose a gold thread for this, but it would also look good in charcoal, red or even a variegated.  The batting was the clients Warm & Natural and has a very low loft for the traditional look wanted

Pretty quilt, pretty quilting! I'm sure the lucky recipient will enjoy it!.