It's mine.

 A quilted block

Rainy days have given me time to work on my "December" machine quilting. So, what do I have to report?

1.  I love the herringbone stitch I used to hand baste this quilt.  See my blog post for details.  It's great not to have to deal with safety pins.  As I'm quilting, all I need to do is clip the basting stitches;  the rest of the basting stitch stays in place until I get there.

Clipping basting stitches

2.  I am quilting with 40 weight Rayon machine embroidery thread which is the same thread I use for all my machine appliqué and I'm using 60 weight Bottom Line thread in my bobbin, matching the color to my top thread.  No tension problems at all.


3.  I had no plans to do this, but I am adding detail stitching and some 'thread painting' to my appliqué motifs.  At the AQS Paducah, Kentucky show this spring, I saw many thread painted quilts which were just beautiful and I stuck this in my "have to try this" memory. Using embroidery thread for thread painting is perfect as it matches my appliqué stitches.

Detail stitching

4.  After detail stitching my appliqués in off white thread,  I'm outline quilting them in dark grey thread and this is going well.  I think after spending so much time drawing and stitching all these designs, I know them by heart and it's easy to go ahead with my quilting, even those teeny circles.

Outline stitching

5.  I really didn't plan this either, but I am creating an interesting stitching design on the back of my quilt.  You will see snowflakes on the front and the back!  My backing fabric is a gorgeous black mottled Stonhenge.

Back of quilt 

6.  And finally:  I don't plan to add a ton of quilting, like tiny filler stitching in the background which is already textured and dark.  The trend in machine quilting seems to be over-the-top, quilt-it-to-death.  

There is still plenty of quilting going on here, but this quilt is really about my appliqué and after all, this is my quilt and I'm going my own way here.  

It's much more fun that way.