Well, it’s that time of year again. Time to nestle into the studio and get into the designing mode. The deadline was bumped up a month so I have to start a little sooner this season. In the mean time, I am still waiting for the final strike-offs for the spring line. This is the first time I’ve have simultaneous lines to juggle… a bit tricky for a girl with tunnel vision.
But it occurred to me that I haven’t shown you the finished Illinois Album quilt which had its debut at
Art Quilt Tahoe. So here are a few details for my fabric fondling friends.
Here it is in full view. It is a continuation of the “totem” series. The shapes are all representations of natural objects in my Midwestern environment. The characters are arranged symmetrically which affects the movement and rhythm of the composition.
A detail of the border shows the black quilted leaves. Different brands of black thread are not all the same black, which I think is more interesting for a tone-on-tone design.
I often like to use blocks of embroidery stitches for quilting which creates a different texture that continuous line quilting. In this case, you will see blocks of satin stitch in the top wing. The feather stitched vine with leaves are also quilting motifs.
These pods also utilize another embroidery stitch that I have found useful in many quilts. This little sequential radiating stitch creates a glowing center inside each unit.
In the center of the quilt you may notice that the simple satin stitch changes width according to the shape it is applied to. Hopefully, this variety will make a machine stitch look more organic and less mechanical. The trick is finding the right stitch for the job. This quilt was made on my Bernina 730 which has obviously become a very loyal and obedient friend.
The back side was made with my Night Life fabric from the FreeSpirit collection called Prairie Gothic
from a few years ago. I think it nicely carries the nature theme all the way through the piece.
OK, back to the drawing board!!
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I am so eager to see all the wonderful designs that are to come from this time spent in “hibernation”.
A beautiful quilt, I love the symmetry of it and all the extra “bits” like the feather stitched vine, it must be a joy to see in real life.
Wow! The blacks on black border is excellent. I once knitted a stripy jumper for a friend who wore only black using all kinds of black wools-startling how different they all were.
Loving the lizards and the fancy stitches.
Such an amazing and beautiful quilt. Thank you for showing all of those close ups of your stitches. Enjoy your design time.
What a wonderful quilt! I especially like the way you machine quilted it.
Was there a Fall line this year? I've been watching for news….
Gorgeous!
I realize that this is an old post, but I just found your blog and was scrolling through- this quilt is beautiful! I am going to try and learn how to quilt but I know I could never make anything this beautiful! I love the style of it!
Kelly