Thread Tales From A Scrappy Quilter

This is a quilt top that I picked up off the table for one of the guild's that I belong to.   The quilt had nice soft colors and I knew that quilting would show up so pretty on this one. I thought about the design I liked, I really love the custom, modern styles of quilting and thought this quilt would be a good candidate to showcase that style of quilting.  On the flip side, meandering feathers would be awesome on this one too!   I started my plan with just a quick sketch of the medallion going through the center.  Then I knew that I wanted to add feathers as well so I choose to quilt in a nice squared feather wreath in those small centers.   What I did not realize when I planned this was how difficult it would be to see the thread I choose for this quilt!   The thread in the blocks just melted in for the most part and I had to just go with  the rhythm of the quilting and hope for the best.   Because I could not see the thread that well for backtracking, I decided to quilt sw

This beautiful quilt is a client's, she participates every year in a Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt and she even got me going along on a few of those.  She finishes hers though... mine are in a plastic box!  Bonnie hosts one late fall every year and this was the 2012 mystery.   I really love how this one has a nice contrast to the different elements.   Star points show as stars, the inner checkerboard areas are distinct.   I've seen a few examples that really blend and you loose the pattern.   That's the thing with a mystery, when choosing your fabrics you really have no idea which fabric touches what so sometimes we get surprises. Busy designs and fabrics like this usually get an all over quilting design.  The smaller compact designs gives motion and the repetition of those designs all over the body of the quilt usually show up nicely in the texture if you can find a thread that works well with all the colors.   I really loved all those HST and squares on point.   I suggest

Last night at Monday sew-in, I cut and almost finished my binding prep for my red and green round robin.  I found the same green that someone used in that narrow outer border and I'm using the Faux Piped technique to create a stuffed piped effect with my 2 color binding. I have info on my blog about how to do this but a quick overview. ..  I cut my piping color strips @ 1 5/8"  and the binding color at 1 3/8".  When joined this creates 2 1/2" binding.  Press that seam allowance toward the piping color to create bulk when folded in half.  That step creates the piped look and feel.  Or if you want a flat flange you would press toward the binding color.  

Another old UFO quilt of my own finished.  Overall it is pretty but does have some unusual effects.  5 of us worked on this.  My portion is the center star.  Each person added a border.  #2 had to set the quilt on point and #3 had to take it back to regular set.  Somehow over the years, the celtic knot applique faded from a red to a fuschia!  It has not even been in the sunlight.   I could not come up with a traditional medalion set due to the rather odd blocks in the quilt and unusual border edges.  I decided to work with fills and texture.    Unfortunately I quilted this over 2 weeks with 2 weekend trips in between and  apparently I forgot one of my design elements!   But....  it's done and it is mine.  I'll live with it and not rip out.  I tried to make this a practice quilt, lots of ditch stitching and just "winged" it as I went along.   My main plan was quilt it - no ripping!   I used a 100 wt Invisifil for some of ditch work plus red, green, and beige G