More of the shop sample

I’m finding lately that trying new to me quilting patterns gives me a lot of pleasure.  The brown swirls on the green fabric is new to me.  I have seen this patterning on fabric many times and have been doodling to try and figure out how to do something similar.  So far I like what happens.  I will eventually add little bits here and there to make it sweeter and as I’m more comfortable with how this goes.

I love this butternut or circles technique.  Since I first watched Gina Perkes demonstrate this technique on The Quilt Show I’ve been hooked.  It’s simple and looks complicated and adds so much to a quilt.  I’m working with my friend Anne on a quilt for the Hoffman Challenge – she doesn’t know it yet, but this will be one of the techniques I use in the quilting.  We spent about 90 minutes yesterday discussing the design of our quilt and I’m liking the direction it’s taking.  

I’m also, thanks to Sally Bramald, trying to use more than one thread in a piece to give it that little bit of pop when something seems a bit lackluster.  While I like the look of the brown on the black I really like the combination of the green with the brown.  There are a couple of places where it looks really frenetic, but that’s okay, as this is meant to catch the eye of potential students.

In this picture the quilting in the center is the swirling feathers.

One thing I try to do sometimes is use up bobbins that I’ve used for another project and am finished with.  This gives the back a bit more interest and color.   This picture of the center of the quilt is earlier than yesterdays picture I added a bit more quilting to make the center lay flat, I was getting a bit of a belly button, we don’t like belly buttons on our quilt.

Stippling or meandering is a technique that every beginner quilter wants to learn, so I added this to the piece.  It’s quick, easier to learn and helps beginners learn control and speed.  I chose not to use the green here as I’d stitched fairly closely and  it would have been too tight.  

One thing this piece is helping me to see is how quilting will show on the piece I’m working on with Anne.  This will be fun to quilt.

Happy Quilting!

Teri