Quilting Lily Rose

They were adding up! Five tops needing quilting! Now I know there are quilters out there with 10 or 20 tops waiting to be quilting but Yikes! I usually sandwich and quilt two tops at a time, but here I was with two baby/lap size quilts, two Lily Rose tops and a Christmas themed top. I used double bamboo batting on the Lily Rose tops so my FMQ will have good definition.

I spent a day on the kitchen floor getting them pinned. My last post was top #1, trying out my new stencil and getting back into the FMQ swing. It has been months since I last quilted!

Next up was Lily Rose made with the Japanese style prints from Kaufman’s Empress line of fabrics. As is my new habit, I outlined the applique elements and did ditch stitching with MonoPoly, and also quilted around the scalloped lace trim very closely. Then I went over the little flowers on the trim with the MonoPoly to make sure they stay flat against the oval. (The scalloped edge was hand sewn when I attached it to the oval.)

Now it was time to do was the background for the flowers and vase. McTavish type stitching served me well in the past with applique projects. I find that denser quilting around the elements really helps the applique to come into focus. I used So Fine 50 wt in a cream variegated color for this background stitching. But first I did a scallop echo around the lace trim to emphasize their scallop shape and give the eye some resting space.

I knew I wanted feathers around the oval and decided to go with the gold metallic that I used for applique stitching for most of the flowers. My favorite feather is the double headed feather that I used here.

For the border I wanted to try something new. The plait border is a favorite of my friend Sandra’s and is featured in the Fun With Free Motion Quilting video. She has been encouraging me to use this motif and this seemed like a good project for it. I had thought about more feathers on the border, but I wanted to compliment rather than complete with my gold metallic feathers. The plait is subtle, but really frames the center well. And the center is the star of this project.

Usually I prefer a dark binding to frame my quilts, but again I wanted the center to remain the focus. I auditioned a couple colors, but decided that using the border fabric for binding was a better choice. I cut my binding a little narrower than usual to make the binding blend right into the border.

I sewed the border onto the front and finished with hand stitching on the back of the piece.

I really love this pattern and this turned out to be one of the nicest things I have made to date.

Happy stitching to all! Lennea