DQS8 - Snow Dance

My DQS8 quilt is finished, apart from the label, and will be ready to send, along with a couple of other quilts on Monday. I added the binding after taking these photos.

I was really stumped for what to make for my recipient this time. I had several ideas, but they all seemed too similar to some of my other quilts, and despite knowing my recipient would love them, I wanted to make something original for her.

Finally, and rapidly running out of time, I drew some of these teardrop shapes in EQ and played with the wreathmaker function for this. Luckily one of the peeks has elicited a positive comment from a certain someone a long way away, so I know I'm on the right track!

I used Kellie's applique technique to sew the shapes on after sandwiching the quilt, as it gives the back much better definition, and I do like a nice quilt back! I chose embroidery threads for the applique, partly because they were the best colour matches. But these threads don't always FMQ well, and I ended up doing lots of the applique with the walking foot. I can't imagine how many times I rotated the quilt under the needle - lucky it's small!

Then it was just a matter of Emming the background in white bottomline. This is probably the best Emming I've done yet. I examined Leah's McTavishing closely to see why I liked hers so much, and realised I needed to make some of my wavy lines a little curvier and more S-shaped. I think it worked!

Have I overdone the photos yet? (Bear in mind, I haven't even photographed it with the binding yet!)

As you can see, I made most of this quilt with the Winter Olympics on behind the sewing machine, and this was the inspiration for the quilt's name. I tried anagrams of "Winter Olympics", but while I loved "Icily Snow", the remaining letters weren't much use!