Sorry to have been absent for so long. I have been very busy finishing up my customers quilt and haven't had the time to say hello in 3 weeks. I haven't had much time for anything other then quilting this labor of love- and deciding as my customer is a blog follower and I wanted an element of surprise I haven't had anything else to share either. But now that she has received her finished quilt and given it to a very lucky high school graduate I can share breathe again and share my progress. I was sad to see this quilt go and apparently it was hard for her to part with as well- here's hoping that the new recipient cherishes it and can feel all the love that it's creator and it's quilter put into it. My customer had this quilt in mind for a year before giving it, and found a very special pattern with encouraging words in it- perfect for a young girl starting a new chapter in life. She chose Kate Spain's Terrain fabric for the piecing and highlighted it with a special sea turtle batik which is the graduates favorite animal. I love how personal she got with this and how much it honors it's new owner. The back was a giant family tree panel which was another personal choice and ultimately it is a celebration of the graduate and surely will be something she grows to love even more as she goes through her journey in life.
I took my cues from the sea turtles and decided to quilt watery designs to enhance that theme. I chose a different design for each of the 6 different fabrics and quilted them on a fairly small scale which gave the quilt a very textured look. While typically I would prefer to match the threads to the fabrics on this I had the back family tree to think about so I had to use a color that would work for both sides. I chose a cream thread that blended very well with the back and worked well on the front too. This made things a bit more stressful though as my quilting was very visible on most of the fabrics on the front. I do love a challenge though and did my best to quilt it precisely so all that visible quilting would enhance the design of the quilt. It took more time then I originally intended but I got it done just under the wire of the deadline and was so pleased with myself for finishing it on time. The designs I used included a mussel shell design, bubbles, fish scales, small scale stippling combined with quilting around the letters, swirling water, and a looser stipple. I had a hard time choosing which designs to quilt and ultimately think my choices worked pretty well. I hope you all enjoy seeing this quilt and promise not to stay away so long in the future!
