Wedding Ring Quilt with Embroidery

Our Love Story was made by a client showcasing important dates and events in their family up to current day.  I love the blue and white color theme.

 

 

 This is a challenging piece to create for beginners or experienced quilters and this was made by a fairly new quilter.  I encourage people to carry on!  While this top did have some issues, in the grand scheme of things it is a beautiful quilt.  We had 3 main requests, Feathers, no stitching over the embroidery and of course the dreaded budget!   I did try to sell that this quilt would not be a problem stitching over the embroidery but I did not convince.   That So Fine #402 and these embroidery colors... you never would have seen it!  So Fine 402, working from memory maybe 434 in the rings?.   Cotton batting.

I like traditional designs on these and I was faced with 2 main challenges.   I needed a design that did not follow the ditch.   Easy!   Many traditional designs do not, a feather spray starts from one corner and returns.   Except the kicker, no stitching over the embroidery.   I wanted the motif to be similar in look so I created a frame that was filled for the non embroidery units and filled with very small version in the embroidery units.    I really, really, liked the look with the 4 skinny petals... and thought pebbling around the petals would be ideal.  But I could not carry the pebbling over to the other blocks for conformity.   Compromise, one echo on the petal to fill the space.  The client seemed very happy with the end results.

This is a challenge we face frequently, having our own personal preferences for a quilt as compared to quilting to YOUR preferences.  Most clients give a general idea but allow free range for me to quilt as desired as this client did.   But sometimes you have clients with a very clear image of what they want the quilting to say.  Sometimes they dictate the type of quilting for each element in the quilt.   I stress over those more!   Is this really what she wanted?   Did she want this type of curl or that type of curl.  Do the feathers really have to end that way?   In the end, I'm usually not satisfied with those quilts. I feel I don't have artistic license.  I have to shush the quilt top "talking" to me and quilt what I'm told - not what I feel!   After all, it is YOUR quilt.  Does that make sense?    There are even times when I look at a quilt and think oh Ill do this and this and this... but when it's turn comes up for quilting  - the top is telling me something very different when viewed with fresh eyes that day.   Speaking of fresh eyes - I better get on to the current quilt on the frame.

Thanks for the beautiful blue and white wedding ring!   I love it and hope your family will cherish for many years to come.