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 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.

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.

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.

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.