Gretchen is a pro at her applique and hand quilting and addresses the blank spaces of a quilt.
"I always cringe when I view a quilt that has a pretty quilting design, but the background is left unquilted. To me (this is my opinion, you don't have to share it) the quilt looks unfinished, it's baggy and spoiled. That is why diagonal background lines are added to my quilts."
I tend to agree with her... I used this same technique on the borders of the first quilt I made. You can see the pictures here. In all honesty the cross-stitched blocks of the quilt could have use some background help. ;) I'm not fixing it now, though!
I achieved all of my (unwritten) goals early in the week. I offered a mid-week update that you can read here. But the progress continued!
I'm making this process up as I go and am certain that there are others out there that would challenge my decisions and choices... but I'm too far in to change direction now! LOL. (Besides... there are no quilt police.) I have the outside hexagon edges all secured and it is ready to be a "travel project" without any concern of the border pieces slipping out of place.
The backing is a large print tulip print that came from some deep stash. It is a very pale yellow with some light green and grey. (I'll show you when finished) and I will use a grey print as the binding. I had originally thought that I would use some rainbow stripe as the binding... but the quilt told me "no."
 |
| The inspiration for my hop project |
While I was sandwiching, I continued the process with the Paper Lanterns Quilt. I am nearly done with the quilting.
I changed up my plan for quilting... I decided that I wasn't up for feathers in the "white space" and I wasn't all that thrilled with the FMQ that I had done in the lanterns and wanted to do something a little more geometric... My reasoning? Well, this fabric has a modern look to it (more so than my original PL - you can see what I mean by following the link above.) and it seemed to be asking for something straight and modern.
Here's what I have so far. I need a few more lines of quilting in the lanterns and then I can trim and bind it.
As I worked on this quilt I was listening to Little House in the Big Woods.
In the story Laura told about her Ma and Pa making cheese. It occurred to me that in all of the stories I heard from my Dad about his parents... butchering chickens, making sausage, crock pickles, butter and homemade beer I never heard about them making cheese.
I asked Mom if she had ever heard about them making cheese. She said "No, but your Dad knew how to make cheese."
It is at little times like this that I realize how much I miss him. :( I am fortunate blessed that I still have my Mom (she will be 85 soon!) and that she is still living independently. Her move last year opened up a whole new realm for her. She let me know the other day that she was going for a ride with several other ladies from the building to see what few yellow aspen leaves remained and to have lunch to celebrate the landlady's 70th birthday. I LOVE it! Karen, the landlady, is also a quilter, so we have an extra special bond. :)
Dave and I will be going for a "ride" to meet up with our friends in Red River. It was one of the reasons I wanted to get the Color Wash quilt to a point that it was ready for travel.
Let's get the party started!
But before you go... tell me...
What sort of questions would you have for your parents (or grandparents) if you could sit down with them?
Leave a comment... I'd love to hear from you!
Keep Piecing,
Melva
Linking with:
m
There are many things I would love to ask my grandparents! One grandfather died when my mom was a child. Her mom died when I was young. My other grandparents lived until I was a young adult. But I was one of over 30 grandkids and I never had much one on one time with them. I would love to hear stories of their youth!
ReplyDeleteNo quilt police here! I'm just always curious about different ways to construct quilts. Are you quilting the sashing down as you quilt around the edge of the hexies? I think that's a neat idea, and that way you won't have to cut off the hexies. My dad died quite young at 63, and I never asked him many things about his family and life growing up. Now that I have done quite a bit of genealogy research about his side of the family, I would love to be able to talk to him about his parents and grandparents. Because of my mom's dementia I'm not able to ask her anything anymore.
ReplyDeleteThank you for highlighting my quilt and thank you for agreeing with me. I really like the quilting design you've developed for lanterns, it looks very nice. I often think of a question to ask my parents but I can't think of anything right now. Blessings & Happy Stitching!
ReplyDeleteI like your quilting design for the lanterns. The angled straight lines make the quilt feel more modern! I'd ask my grandma to talk about her trip from Bend, Oregon to San Diego, California which she drove by herself in the early 30's. . .she was just out of high school!--TerryK@OnGoingProjects
ReplyDeleteI love the lanterns quilting! Looking forward to maybe seeing some pics of your upcoming Red River trip. Almost every day I think of something I'd ask Mom, Daddy, or one of my two brothers. Going through old photos yesterday I wanted to turn and ask Mom why she saved this or that photo, because I have no clue who the folks are in it. She was pretty good about writing on the backs of photos, but some are blank. There are times I feel so lonely being the only one left from my family!
ReplyDeleteYour color wash quilt is looking good. You picked a great border fabric. Enjoy your trip to see friends and happy travel stitching.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear everything is working out great for you mom in this new place. See ya tomorrow during the hop;)
ReplyDeleteThe color wash is very cool!! I really like the quilting design changed you used on your lanterns quilt.
ReplyDeleteI so agree with Gretchen about quilting the background. In the photo it looks like it even highlights the hand applique! I love your idea about attaching borders in the manner you did! Thank you for sharing! Your quilt looks lovely as well! I love how you share your thought process as I learn from you. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI am in awe of your hexies quilt top and so happy for you to get to this step. What an accomplishment. And I like your quilting in the white spaces. A girl can change her mind!
ReplyDeleteMelva your method of setting up that order for hand stitching/appliqué is perfect in my opinion. It really does make Color Wash shine. Love your quilting on PL #2. Thank you for hosting us at Sew & Tell and for linking with To Do Tuesday if you do. 😉
ReplyDeleteIf my parents and grandparents were still alive I’d ask for more stories of how each couple met. My maternal grandmother passed before my sister was born so we never knew her and Grampa couldn’t talk about her or it upset his second wife. I’d love to hear more stories of my parents as children and more stories of my parents courting days. With my recent birthday I’ve realized I need to write more of my history down for my children, grands and great grands to know me as a child and then a young mother.
Oh yes - Gretchen is a pro at the applique. Such skill with a needle! Your color wash hexies are coming together beautifully. If my parents and grandparents were still alive I would be asking lots of genealogy questions, as they ALL took too many family secrets to the grave.
ReplyDelete