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Friday, February 15, 2019

Mediterranean Rose Update

Hooray! The Mediterranean Rose quilt is almost done!


Mediterranean Rose quilting by QuiltFabrication

And it's about time too.

I think I loaded this quilt onto the Innova frame Sunday, February 3, and finally started quilting it on Tuesday, February 12. Wow! Nine days of just sitting there. Seems like a long time to me, though I know others have longer records out there.

The important point is, I finally started, mainly because now I need the quilt frame! The Show Your Wings blog hop quilt is pushing this one along, moving it from the design wall and then on to the frame. And now the blog hop quilt needs quilting. If I had zipper leaders, no problem - could have just swapped them out. But no, which means the time finally arrived to quilt the Med Rose.

I will admit to dragging my feet on it because I wasn't sure what to put in the background. I wasn't keen on SID around all that applique. The compromise? A small stipple within 3/8" of the applique, then becoming a peacock feather fill.


background quilting of a small stipple and peacock feather fill

Hard to see huh? Yep, a lot of work for quilting that just disappears - gotta love quilting on black. Well, at least if it does get noticed, it's pretty.

Yesterday, I set in finishing up the white areas with freehand SID around the applique (black arrows in the photo), 


freehand stitch in the ditch quilting

then a bit of straight line stitching (upper left of the photo below). The final touch will be to add some detail in the applique.


straight line stitching in the white background


Oh - here's a few hints for freehand SID around applique:
go at a slow, consistent stitch pace, and look ahead of the needle. Don't look at the where the needle currently is - look at where it needs to go. It's just like driving a car - you look where your going, not directly at the road in front of you.

That's your little nugget of quilting advice for today - have a great weekend quilting!



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7 comments:

  1. This is really beautiful and obviously a lot of work...wow! Your quilting always looks amazing.

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  2. Lovely! The quilting on black will shine as light throughout the day will highlight it in various ways making the texture fluid. Nice job!

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  3. That's a lot of quilting...tiny quilting. Good luck.

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  4. Such a beautiful quilt. I try so hard to look ahead but find myself following that stupid needle!!!!!

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  5. Oh my, your Mediterranean Rose quilt is a vision splendid! The pattern is sublime and your quilting 'maketh' your quilt. Love the black and white polka dot fabric meandering through the pattern.

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  6. Beautiful quilting.... I'm glad Show your Wings gave you a shove. Great tip for stitching around appliqué.And thanks for sharing how you dealt with filling in the areas around the appliqués on the black.... for some reason I had never thought to try mixing motifs like that.

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  7. Your quilt is looking beautiful, I'll bet you xamt wait until it's 100% finished.

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Thank you so much for commenting...you just made my day!