Wow…. this has been an epic quilt! I was so happy when I finished the quilt top near the end of 2018….(having started it in April 2017! To see the previous posts about it click here.) I had big plans to quilt it early in 2019… but that just didn’t happen.
Lily the longarm was new to me and I wanted to do this quilt justice… not just an all over design, but some decent custom free motion quilting.
And I just wasn’t ready to do that in early 2019. And then I got REALLY busy quilting for other people!
So, finally, over this Xmas break I pulled up those big girl panties and loaded her up onto Lily.
I still couldn’t decide what I was going to do in each of the sections. Then I just realised I just needed to START! I wasn’t going to be able to work out every tiny little detail before I started….. if I tried I would NEVER start. So in I went!
The one thing I had decided on was that I didn’t want it quilted to death. This is a quilt that will go on our bed. It will be used and snuggled under. So when I was in doubt, I erred on the side of less quilting.
I got out my trusty 50wt Aurifil Threads (in ALL the gorgeous colours!) to find the best matches for each of the areas of the quilt.
The centre design I did decide on before I started… as this is such a focal point of the quilt I wanted to get it right. Some dot to dot ruler work and a few of Angela Walter’s wavy triangles. And I fell in love with the Alison Glass fabrics all over again.
The next round of the girt by sea medallion were the Windmills…. so I did a swirly pattern called Wind.
The next row of the medallion was supposed to be needleturn applique circles to represent grapes… but I couldn’t face any more handsewing (the EPP centre had broken me!) so I pieced hearts instead. And my husband suggested quilting little hearts in there too.
The next two rounds of the medallion represented our mountains and our waves…. I finally decided on some ruler work on the mountains and I went a bit ‘out there’ and did a representation of a boomerang with pebbles in the middle above the mountains.
And when I started quilting the waves I was in the very citrus colours, so I thought they actually looked like wedges of an orange… so wedges it was!
The final border on the Girt By Sea was the friendship braid. I kept this very simple in the quilting with just some arcs along the various lines.
So that is a lot of the detail….. and here is the full quilt all quilted and bound (in a rainbow scrappy binding of course!) and on our guest bed.
Oh and this was a fun pic I took of my Binding Betty helping me with the binding
As you might have guessed by all the photos, I love this quilt. It was a looooong process. But wow, that finished quilt is a stunner. Can’t wait for winter so I can have an excuse for some quality time underneath it looking at all the details all over again.
Hehe… I found some more pictures! The backing is the stunning mermaid print from Alison Glass Diving Board. I had been keeping this fabric for a special quilt and this one is definitely that!
And the Quilt Barn needed to be in a picture …. with a John Deere on a lovely summer’s evening….
And the final picture…..
Wow that is one gorgeous looking quilt!
Its stunning and looks perfect on the bed! Congratulations on the finish and I’m sure it will be enjoyed for years and years.
Thanks Yvonne! It was soooooo good to finally finish this one! And I’m glad I didn’t try and quilt it back in 2018 on my domestic…. waiting until now on my longarm with enough skills to do it justice was the right thing and the right time. 🙂
Wow! So many things to love about this quilt, the color the piecing, the quilting! GORGEOUS!! What fun creation to have on your bed.