Friday 28 March 2008

Red and White and Butterflies All Over

This quilt has reached its destination where the new owner's mother is reluctant to let her daughter sit on or sleep under it.
Red and White and Butterflies All Over was designed using a selection of red and white prints Ellie sent me, along with her wishlist of reds, white and a few others on eQuilter. The butterflies are my favourite, but I loved working with such a crisp palette.
It took a while to come up with a workable design, and in the end I made several adjustments to the borders to get suitable dimensions for a single bed without compromising her preferred central layout.
The quilting was a rather drawn-out process, with innumerable thread tails to finish off (I even lost count!) and a lot of quilt bulk to manipulate through the throat of the machine (I am longing for a long-arm quilting machine!). But I am in love with the fan effect the quilting created, and am glad I tried something a bit different from the plain in-the-ditch quilting I would have done only a year ago. I've got a few new books on the actual quilting part of the process, and they have me inspired - but taking baby-steps! I still believe it's the piecing that makes the quilt, not the quilting (especially at my level), but the quilting can certainly add a lot.

And with some of the remaining fabric, I made a couple of matching piped cushion covers.

8 comments:

Helen said...

Wow Em, its stunning. Love the fan effect, adds another dimension to it. Hope the Mum lets Ellie's Mum lets her use it soon! :)

Lily Mulholland said...

Emma it's gorgeous. I love red and white too. I can feel a new quilt coming on. And the fan quilting is superb!

Ellie said...

I'm to scared to put it on her bed...lol

It is even more stunning in real life.

Will get some photos up soonish (once i get over my phobia of letting Ruby touch it) and I make the bed up properly. Now I really need to pull my finger out and finish all the other little red things I need to do to her room.

Louise said...

What a lucky girl to have such a beautiful quilt :) I really love the quilting you've done on it, I would never really have considered the actual quilting part being as creative as the piecing, but it does take it to a new level doesn't it? And the colour scheme is fantastic, lovely and simple.

Anonymous said...

That is such a beautiful quilt. I love the butterflies.

Mands said...

Emma - the quilting on this one is fantastic! Love your work as always. Mands x

Peahen said...

My Goodness Emma, you are AMAZING. Seriously. The detail is almost unbelievable. Your quilts leave me speachless.

Cylie said...

You are such a clever chook!!

It just looks beautiful.