I also finished hand quilting the leaves on the Fall Maple Quilt and started working on the background.
I was going to do the background in a tight little stipple by machine. But I've enjoyed the hand quilting so much in the evenings that I'm going to do it by hand instead. I'm not in a hurry to have it done (I have another fall quilt already hanging up that I finished about a year ago), and I've decided that I'd like to always have something available to work on by hand, at home or away. This is a good project for that.
If you look at where the yellow and orange come together, you can see a tiny bit of quilting in the blue triangle below them. I started that last night. It was kind of a slow process because I couldn't see where I was going. I kept turning the quilt over to check it on the back. And then I had an inspiration. I can quilt the background from the back side! Because the leaves are all finished, I can see exactly where I need to go. Genius, right? I can save my eyesight and get the texture I want on the front.
See those squiggles? Now I'm so glad I used the pale gray on the back.
Tomorrow I'll get out the Big Quilt to work on again. But today I got started on a new project. And I got out the fabrics I needed before I blocked my fabric drawers. (Remember what happened here?) My daughter has asked me to make her a new quilt for her office. She loves Lake Michigan, so it was an easy decision to make a landscape quilt. I made a tiny one as a Christmas ornament for her family last year.
I usually make these quilts (based on Accidental Landscapes by Karen Eckmeier) quite small, but I'm going to try one approximately 30 inches tall. Today I threw some fabric up on the wall to audition.
There will be lots of rearranging and viewing in grayscale before I start cutting and pinning the layered curves. And I'm sure there will be some embroidery, too. The rulers are there to help me visualize straight edges. I'm considering some foliage-looking fabrics as sort of side borders to give the scene some depth. I'll have to figure out how to do that.
And now I'll leave you with a picture of my granddaughter coloring. (The grandkiddies were here with their parents over the weekend.) I don't usually put photos of the grands on my blog, but I thought this was so cute, and it protects her privacy. She found this old straw hat on my treadle and thought it made the perfect accessory. As she colored, she explained color mixing. Did you know that red and blue make purple? Hmmm, maybe someday she'll want to mix some fabric colors.
I'm linking up this week with Freemotion by the River, Freshly Pieced, Sew Fresh Quilts and My Quilt Infatuation for their linky parties. Buttons are on the right.
Have a good week. And have fun with your take-along projects.
7 comments:
She's too cute. You have so many fun projects going on! Congrats on the finish and the almost here grandbaby!
I love the play of all those thread colors on the back of your fall quilt! It's so nice to have something to stitch on in the evenings. Glad you're having fun with it!
She's a Sunbonnet Sue!! Aren't they just the best? Lake Michigan-ahh, many a trip along US 2 on our travels between Alberta and Ontario. I, too, just love the northern border, those dunes, Mackinac, mmm, need to get back up there soon! One day I hope to see the east edge and the west, have seen the south from the plane, lol, landing in Chicago. Your landscape is so apt. Your handquilting is so gorgeous!
I am sure you had a great time with your Sunbonnet Sue (as Sandra said). Looking forward to the finished quilt. I can relate to quilting from the back. Working with a striped backing - just made sense to use the stripes as a guide.
Beautiful hand quilting!
Your quilting is so pretty Janine. Quilting from the back..... Sometimes it is the simplest things that make all the difference!
I love that mini so it will be interesting to see you work on a bigger version. Quilting from the back is such a clever idea and so obvious once you've pointed it out!
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