Planning

The International Challenge quilt is on the basting rack and has been thread basted.  It is ready to quilt.

I know that I am going to make a small stipple with white thread around the embroideries.  A decision will have to be made about the thread and the quilting for the green and red blocks.

I had some extra blocks so I found a feather quilting pattern that would fit.  I used green Aurifil thread.  It is very nice, but when I set it on the quilt to see how it would look, it was distracting.  There were too many circles.

      I did some ruler work on the other blocks with different colored thread.  Also some free motion quilting.  I still don’t like ruler work.  Maybe some day I’ll enjoy it, but I’ll have to practice a long time to get to that point.  I’m glad that I practiced on other blocks and didn’t jump in and quilt something that I didn’t like.  The red center of one block was very nice quilted with dark green thread.  It had a very small border and free motion quilting.

I have a lot of solid fabric so I pieced strips with the colors of the blocks.  Then I embroidered quilting patterns, stopping and changing colors to see how the quilting would look with the different colored thread.  None of the quilting patterns looked right.  I did decide that the light green fabric should be quilted with light green thread and the darker green fabric should be quilted with darker green thread.  I did like how the red fabric looked with the darker green thread.

I found a quilting pattern that had a center flower and thought that I could change colors to make it fit on the block.  It is a nice quilting pattern, but it was not right for this quilt.  Making it did give me an idea for making another quilt.  I could  make quilted 8″ squares with solid fabric and put them into a quilt.  Very fast and easy.  That’s for another day.

The final decision is that the thread color should match the fabric, except for the red fabric.  That will be toned down with dark green thread.  The embroideries are so busy that seeing a quilting pattern on the other block is distracting.  Using the same color thread in free motion quilting will give texture and not take away from the embroidery block. I won’t stipple quilt, but will make a leafy meander or another background filler.  The spaces are small so the filler should be a small one.

Have a great day and happy quilting.