Sunday Blues

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