Monday, April 4, 2011

Not so Wavy Anymore

Today I worked hard on the quilt I showed you yesterday - you know, the red and green one that was wavy? I am VERY pleased to say that it is finished and even better, it's not wavy anymore!


I did some very dense quilting on it, hoping that would control the waves.


Quilting does draw the fabric in, so my hope was that a lot of quilting would draw a lot of fabric in. What do you know, it worked! Before the quilting though, I basted it very thoroughly, and that was the best thing I could have done. Until I saw it basted I was still worried about the waviness.

For me there was never any question on how it should be quilted. I knew it needed plain echo quilting following the green strips. This quilt is a third the size (26x44 inches) of the sampler quilt I quilted last week, but it took me three times as long to quilt! However, I LOVE echo quilting. I find when I stipple and make patterns, I have to really concentrate on what I'm doing and plan the design a few steps ahead of where I am. But with echo quilting, the design is already decided and I can just relax and follow the lines. It took me the whole Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Dancing with the Stars, but it was worth it :)

I quilted the middle part with the leaves a little differently, but I like the subtle difference.


I also added veining to the leaves with the quilting.


Moral of the story? Never give up. If you have a crazy idea in your head, follow through and you might get something beautiful from that crazy idea!

4 comments:

Rachel & Todd said...

Looks amazing!

Sheila said...

These veined leaves and pieced stems are brill - Anna at Noodlehead has done something similar this week.

Elzaan said...

Great piece. Looks plan, but catchy.
Will draw the eyes the moment you walk into a room.
Elzaan

Barb said...

great quilt. I did this wavy quilting and had to draw a line of stitching all the way round to avoid the wavy binding - yours looks like it turned out great.