Out of Season

Out of Season is finished, except its label. Can I bring myself to part with it? I'm going to make another, a first for me. I might use a different fabric for the tree (I bought about 8 options!). But I'd better get a move-on.

This is a true-colour photo once the quilting was complete, but before binding:
Being straight-on (and inside with a flash, due to more rain) it doersn't show-off the quilting I'm so proud of. But I also like the fact that at this angle the quilting does as it should, and fades into the background, leaving the quilt's design as the main fetaure (and even the subtle background fabric prints visible).

I tried an angle-shot...

And here's an equivalent photo from the back, which shows the darker quilting around the applique, and the heavily quilted background. The tree, leaves and apples themselves are unquilted, as is the green border (other than where branches or roots cross it). The other thing helping the green border to stand-out is that I deliberately pressed the seams on both sides of it towards the green.

For a recent birthday. Simon got me a halogen worklight with a clip and strong, bendable neck; it's one of the best things he's ever bought me, and I use it all the time for sewing. I've also found it handy to provide side-light for photographing the quilting on my quilts. These next few were taken without flash, so the colours are wrong, even after some serious photo-shopping! And something weird happened to the left-hand-side of the first photo when I uploaded it from the camera, but it does show the quilting well.

I'm getting better aat McTavishing and managing more swirls, fewer messy spots and less-repetitious lines. I'm also doing as Karen said in her book, and developing my own style. She suggests renaming it after your own last name and adding the 'ing' but 'Howing' just sounds weird, and 'Emmaing' equally so. Any suggestions?

Here is a detail of how the technique fits so well in the gaps between the branches - it fits much better than stippling and suits it better as well, it gives such movement and a feeling of wind (which would be why there are so few leaves left on the tree!).

And more detail, because I can!

I also took a few inside photos of the finished quilt with the blood-red binding. I ned some free daylight hours without rain for some decent photos, but we've had what is for us a wet winter (and quite frankly, the more rain we get before our hot, dry summer hits, the better!)

And a side-lit photo of the finished quilt:

I've loved making this quilt, not least because of all the positive comments from other quilters in the Doll Quilt Swap Flickr Group. And it's got me thinking about where to take my quilting next. I have some ideas...