I was asked to quilt a special quilt for someone turning 60 soon. I don’t know the person so didn’t know whether she would be more inclined toward traditional quilting (such as feathers) or more modern quilting (e.g. straight lines). The quilt design leant itself to either — the floral fabrics were quite traditional, but they were set off by white, which is more in line with ‘modern’ quilts. I asked the person who’d given me the task, and she wasn’t a lot of help 😉 — she said the recipient was both traditional and modern, and that if I could combine both styles, that would be good. Hmmm… a challenge…
I started by stitching in the ditch around all blocks and in between the 1″ sashing strips, and did straight ‘piano key’ stitching every half inch on the border fabrics. I did all this stitching in a plain white cotton thread. But what to do in the large floral and white squares? I thought of doing different motifs in each (in different colours), then thought that might be too ‘busy’ — I suspect this is a quilt to be used, not for show. So I decided to go with free form (no marking) feathers, in a soft pink variegated thread.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
Back:
Threads used:
- Top: Gutermann white cotton; Fil-Tec ‘Affinity’ (40 wt trilobal polyester, ‘Mauve’ colour 60149)
- Bobbin: Fil-Tec Glide pre-wound bobbin (cream)
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
a good solution Rhonda. I often have trouble picking a design and visiting here gives inspiration.
Very nice quilting. Love how it looks from the back.
Great choices. The mod/trad blend is perfect. Looks like you had fun, once you got going!!!! Hugs…………
Just gorgeous. How do you mark the pattern on the quilt? Or do you quilt it freehand? I’m new to this, with a Tiara machine that I’m trying hard to learn.
All free hand. For the feathers, I just start with a sweeping ‘S’ curve (or similar), then quilt the feathers up one side, then echo back down that side, then do the feathers on the other side.
For the straight lines, I used my Line Tamer ruler.
Very pretty. You did a great job (as usual!)
You turn pretty into beautiful !!