Just so you know...I often have ideas about how to construct a quilt that may or may not be a help to me. This particular quilt is quite long and narrow. I decided to do some preliminary quilting on it to stabalize the piece and prevent a big quilting project when it is finished. This is an unusual choice for me. But since I've been sharing the project I'll let you see this too. Why did I choose to do this?
- Large pieces are getting harder and harder for me to quilt. It's a physical challenge.
- This quilting will be mostly covered with the considerable overlay of applique.
- I'm working toward a specific size; I want most of the shrinkage to happen before the applique is applied
- The opportunity to divide the quilt at this point is available, making the whole project way easier to quilt.
Will I be sorry for this choice? That remains to be seen. I hope that when I put the 2 pieces together I can join them well...hmmm.
Quilting as of now - remember, it should get better as we go. Here are a couple of shots of how I'm doing it.
First, I'm using large head pins to baste at about 6" intervals. Since this leafy section is mostly to be covered, I'm not doing much detail and decided on lines as a quilting choice...masking tape helps to have a line to follow. Sometimes it gets in the way.
The house section will be quilted with this Superior Rainbows color and of course Bottom line for bobbin thread.
The flowery background is quilted with an easy flower design, which I hope will peek out here and there and look like some dogwood pedals.