First of all, a Big
Shoutout to Gene Schamber for recommending my quilting to this new
customer. Gene is the husband of Master Quilter, Sharon Schamber, and
positively a wonderful guy to know. Our husbands (our Quilting
Supporters) are how we are able to do the crazy creative things we
do!
This exquisitely
hand-appliqued piece comes out of Southern California. She described
herself to me on the phone as a Baltimore Album kid of gal. But, you
have to admit, the tropical colors in this beauty are anything but
East Coast!
At first, I was thrown by
the fact that there were no sashings between the floral blocks. What
would I need to do to fill those open areas where the block seams
join? Then, online I saw a Dresden Plate quilt, also without
sashings, and saw how quilter Angela Walters placed a scroll design
between the blocks to somewhat simulate sashings.
So, I measured and
measured and measured the appliques. The floral designs in some
blocks cover more of the area than on other blocks, and I needed to
design something that worked on them all. I penciled out a swirling
scroll, and cut out cardstock templates. Then, I redesigned the
scroll to fit into the open areas of the quilt's four corners.
Tight outlining of
applique pieces is really not my best work. It is painfully slow
work, and without a stitch regular on my machine, it is just darned
hard to do. Not to mention, really hard to pull out if it got out of
control. (I might be a little OCD about this, but I feel outline
stitch should NEVER show. It's like Stitch in the Ditch, it should
stay in the ditch!) I explained this to my customer and recommended a
dense fill background that would accomplish the same purpose. That
is, to make her 3-D applique really POP.
And, it does! I
really love how her 3-D flowers become even more 3-D! And, the
swirling McTavish-style fill gives the whole piece a lot of movement.
Joy, joy, joy!
“Be kind whenever
possible.
It is
always possible.”
Mother
Teresa
