12/18/14

On the Border

All the interior quilting for the Gardener's Journal is finished now. The only thing remaining is the outer border. I'm planning to leave the stop border open. This quilt is so densely quilted already, I figure I deserve a break on that little one-inch strip. Here's what I did today:

I quilted around the edges of the butterfly, and then filled in the square next to him with one of Angela Walters' designs.


Then I took my cue from the circles on the ladybug and pebbled around her.


The snail's shell made me decide to just follow that spiral around.


Here I did a sort of feathery fern. As you know, I'm not a fan of traditional feathers, but these ferny ones seem okay to me.


This next one is hard to see, and so I've turned down the brightness and bumped up the contrast some. It's a sunflower with pebbling in the center.


And just by happy accident, this flower ended up in the middle of the square beside it, so I just followed the lines on the fabric for that.


Here I did some back and forth chevrons, and just for grins, I switched direction halfway through.


This heart motif was easier to do than I thought it would be. Wish I'd thought of it earlier in the process.


The lady with the potted plants didn't get much quilting...a little cross-hatching in her hat and some cracks in her pots.


The last section was the garden shed where I quilted some siding into the walls and door just to give it some texture.


Also this morning, I finished up the bottom section of the blackwork project I started a few days ago. The pattern has the entire piece done in black floss, but I kind of like those little red accents.


I need to have this finished by the 27th. At the rate I'm going, I should have it finished in plenty of time.

So with only the border left to do on my quilt, I should have it finished by tomorrow at the latest. I wonder where my little cat will nap once it's off the quilting machine.


The next quilt up is too small for catnaps, but he'll probably find a way.

14 comments:

Sue said...

You are doing an awesome job on this quilt. The accents you have added to the embroidery blocks add something really special!

Larissa said...

Wow Barbara!! You're getting through the quilting on your Gardener's Journal quilt so quickly!!! It all looks fabulous - how marvellous that you're taking cues from both the fabric and stitchery designs in your design process!!! I look forward to seeing the finished quilt!!!

Shari said...

Your quilting looks great. I love the creativity you have changing up between the blocks.

Sharon said...

Cats and quilts just seem to go together. Leave a quilt laying anywhere, and they will find it to nap on.
Your quilting is looking really good. Those ferns look a lot like mine. I AM a fan of feathers, but I can't make them look good. I do a lot of simple leaves and twigs, so my ferns look okay with that.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

You are so close! You will have to put a 'waiting' quilt for Smitty to lay on while you work on a small piece - nice to have help isn't it.

Jeanie said...

I just freak out when it comes to the quilting part. I love how adventurous you are with your quilting lines and they just look great! Nice job!

Diane Wild said...

Awesome job. I know, that word is so overused but the quilting is wonderful. Small dogs are drawn to quilts as well. They tend to burrow under them.

Dana Gaffney said...

It's beautiful, you've done a great job with all of the different motifs. I'm quite sure Smitty will find a way to claim a quilt no matter how small.

Lou said...

You are doing a great job!!!!
Love that Smitty is making sure everything is done correctly:) haha!!!

Tami C said...

It's really coming along just lovely! Smitty sure looks right at home on that quilt.

quiltzyx said...

On the home stretch now!
Smitty is such a good quilt sitter.

Kate said...

Beautiful quilting and the embroidery is looking really good. You've been really productive!

Michele said...

It really is coming out beautiful.

Brown Family said...

Very pretty! I know Smitty will find a new nap spot!