Quilting for AJ

A few weeks ago when I was looking for something to quilt, AJ came to the rescue. Here's what I did with her vibrant quilt, starting with some peeks from the back...

Lots of swirls...

Some were marked,

some I marked the main line,

and others were completely frreehand.

I pegged the quilt to my hanging rail and hung it on the line for these photos; because it's not bound and there's still spare batting around the edges, my usual photographing system wasn't going to work. The sun really helped show the texture of the quilting, but because it was hanging, the bottom appears wavy

I used yellow 50wt cotton make from Aurifil to do the freehand swirls across the pieced disappearing nine-patch centre.

I used the same thread for the curlicued wavy line in the main pink border. I used a pattern curlicue and drafted the curves myself to fit the quilt. The whole thing was marked with a blue water-soluble clover pen and FMQ'ed in a continuous line.

The main border was calling out for some contrast quilting, so I chose a deep magenta and took a deep breath. I drafted the wave shape, marked it and sewed it with the walking-foot in action and the feed dogs up, then did the feathers freehand FMQ. There are a few places they're uneven, but I love the overall effect. The only difficulty with the feathers was where they were quite wide on one side - next time I'll design feathered areas so the fronds are shorter. These were harder to keep smooth and even, and I'm not so keen on the look of the longer fronds.

I hope you like it AJ; I loved doing it for you.