A beaut

Here are some photos of a quilt I was lucky enough to work on recently. It's by Lynne ( Hi Lynne!) made from a Judy Niemeyer pattern called Arrowhead Crossing made using primarily batiks.

I asked Lynne about posting pictures of her quilt and she graciously gave her permission.

Some of the photos I've got here are progress photos...I tend to take many 'working pictures', especially while working on something as complex as this. As you can see in the first photo, the border has many pieces - but they do follow a set repeat pattern. The second photo is of the underside of the quilt while working. I'll often take photos as I go so that I can refer to them rather than roll and unroll the quilt.

You may notice the white lines on the quilt top. Wherever possible I mark with chalkboard chalk as it is really easy to remove the marks and they generally stay in place long enough to get the stitching where I want it - and it will always come off with a quick pass of the vacuum's upholstery attachment!

I've included here my reference photo for the corners as well. I wanted to ensure that all four of the corners had good continuity to them. The roses were incorporated into the design at Lynne's request, and had to be sized carefully to fit. They were stitched freehand, along with the other background work.

The first pass of the quilt was done all in dark burgundy thread. This included doing the outer border, the lion's share of the 'Stitch in the Ditch' (SID) and 'Continuous Curve' (CC) work. This was primarily done with the aid of rulers (you can see one of my 'Sew Clear' rulers in the photo at left). The second pass of the quilt was done from bottom back up to top, doing all the background work with a lovely variegated Signature cotton thread.

The last few times over the quilt were with different colours chosen to blend for the CC work in the flying geese, or the compasses.

The final quilt is very striking. Lynne requested a wool batting which looks amazing in the end. It really shows all of her tremendously accurate piecing and allows the quilting texture to show, adding a subtle dimension to the whole piece.

Big and beautiful, I hope this quilt can be something to snuggle under and enjoy for years to come.

Thanks for the chance to work on it, Lynne.





Happy Stitching,

Lisa