Customer quilt

A while back, Amelia asked me if I would quilt one of her tops, and we made arrangements to meet and discuss the design. Her quilt is based on her sister Kate's Charm Bracelets design, and she wanted the quilting to reflect the name.

Each row is a continuous chain, with a circle of pearls around each block, and a wavy connector of pearls between them.

In the blocks with a feature print I quilted around the main parts of the print. And, inspired by charm bracelets, in the remaining blocks I quilted a swirly heart dangling in the centre of the circle.

Between the rows I quilted swirls of open feathers. While I really like these, they do tend to stand out a lot. We'd hoped to make the bracelet quilting the dominant feature, and I tried to emphasise it further by using finer thread for the feathers, but in the end, quilting stands out far more on solid fabrics. While I knew this on some level, I hadn't realised just how much difference it makes (I don't generally use many solids) and it's certainly a lesson I'll carry forward.

This quilt was also my first time working with both voile (the backing) and double-gauze (the main prints). The voile is gorgeously soft, holds its shape well, and glides on the machine bed beautifully. I confess I'm not so taken by the double-gauze though, as it puffs-out more than regular quilting cottons and would probably benefit from denser quilting in comparison to the rest of the quilt, rather than the lighter quilting dictated by the prints and overall design.

I have some voiles in my stash, and after quilting this quilt, I'm really looking forward to making my own summer quilt from them.