This is the last quilt that I will be completing for 2016. Yes, I am
cutting it close but at least it is finished and before the end of the
year.
Sherri’s Modern Quilt
Sherri brought me this quilt and told me” Play! Do what you want,”
Those words struck both fear and exhilaration in me. Fear because
I had no clue about what to stitch on it and exhilaration because I
felt that I could try something new.
To be quite honest, I kind of went nuts on this one. At one
point, I was waiting for a customer to arrive and I got so
involved in what I was doing that I didn’t hear her come in.
My son opened the door and let her in while I was quilting
away. I started complaining about how I didn’t like what I
had just stitched out; thinking that my son was in the room
with me but was ignoring me, I said it again. When I looked
up, to my horror, there was the customer. She said’ You
looked like you were really concentrating on what you were doing.”
The whole thing made me laugh uncontrollably.
Pebbles and straight lines
Sherri only gave me one stipulation, I had to use pebbles and
straight lines. To be quite honest, I love pebbles and straight
lines so my only thought was “how many ways can I stitch out
pebbles and straight lines?”
These pictures give you a small glimpse of that.
Usually, I like to design or come up with 3-5 designs
of what I will stitch onto the top, even before I put one
stitch into the quilt.
Sometimes though, I fly by the seat of my pants. I start with all the
SID work . By the time this is completed, I have stared at the
same quilt so long that some type of inspiration hits me. I prefer
the first method instead of the second one; it is less stressful and
I know what the end result will look like.
I chose to cut loose, play, and have some fun. Because there
were so many circles on the printed fabric, I knew that I had to
incorporate some circles into the stitching. And the piecing
depicted boxes or squares, so I had to add some of those as
well.
Because the background is white, the stitching would show up
really well so I decided to place these shapes randomly, all over
the quilt.
The inside “crosses” all received the same treatment and the outer
border was stitched using pebbles and boxes/squares. I thought that
it would help calm the quilt top and stitching down a little.
I do have alot of pictures of this quilt. I apologize for that but
there is so much to look at. Sherri hasn’t seen it yet so I hope
that she likes it.
Some of the designs were taken from several of my favorite
long armers: Judi Madsen, Jodi Robinson, and Cindy Needham.
The middle section
I used monofilament thread for all the SID work and a thin
Bottom Line for all the quilting. It is so thin that you don’t get
alot of thread build up and the texture is amazing.
I love, love, love the texture of this quilt. With all this stitching, the
quilt does get somewhat stiff but it does soften up eventually.
The prints were so graphic that I knew I had to make the
stitching match and support it.
More texture and matchsticks.
I think that the circle on the right looks like a pepperoni
pizza to me. I must have been hungry when I stitched that in.
The overall quilt.
More pebbles.
And who can forget the back? Again, more graphic fabric;
this is a great choice if you don’t want to see the stitching and
all those stops and starts.
On a different note, here are some Christmas fabric postcards
that I received. I love getting these in the mail.
Hope you are ready for Christmas Day. I only have to pack
some Christmas cookie tins and wrap some presents.
Have a Merry Christmas! Maybe I see you again this year
but definitely I’ll see you next year.
Stitching Impressions 
