This quilt was made by Darlene. I love the red colors.
Karen Kay Buckley designed Fiesta Mexico and Renae Haddadin did the
quilting. Boy, did I ever learn alot working on this quilt.
My comfort zone was smashed to bits. Because I upgraded to a digital
self quilting machine, I wanted to try out some of the cool designs available to
me.
Some of the quilting is similar to Renae’s but I wanted to put my own
spin on this quilt. Some of the motifs were fun to quilt and other ones
were causing me to pull my hair out.
All the fabric prints were alot of fun. There are so many ways that you can
quilt this quilt. The possibilities are endless; sometimes, it is hard to pick
a design.
I used a clear monofilament thread for all the ditch work. Then, once that
is done, the fun can begin.
Circles were quilted around the white circle but I added motifs in the corners.
I thought that the swirl motifs would add some interest to the quilt top.
In the white center area, I made half circles. It is pretty dense quilting in this area,
sometimes, you have to be careful with such dense quilting. The quilting really makes
the fabric stiff and it doesn’t lie flat. Ask me how I know this?
The background fabric in this block had waves and swirls printed all over it. Instead of fighting
the print, I thought that I would quilt waves and swirls. Once, it was quilted, the
texture was phenomenal. I really liked it alot.
I stitched in straight lines in and around this block.
The border area always causes me to doubt myself. On this quilt, I stitched in flowers all over the
border but I also stitched in wheat deisgns all over the bottom of the border. On the top of the
border, I quilted in a stipple. So, two different motifs quilted in the border area, that’s a first
for me.
I wanted a different design on the vase. Straight lines and circles were added, it works with
different areas of the quilt.
In the background area, cross hatching was added as well as a tight stipple.
I added several flowers in the area to mix it up a bit. The cross hatching is always a pain to
quilt but it looks fantastic once it is done.
This big block turned out nicely.
Ahh, the back of the quilt; it tells its own story.
There is alot of different thread colors because I matched threads to
the top and the backing. It helps to cut down on tension issues whe using
two different thread colors.
The quilting really stands out but you have to clean up the backing when you are finished
and hope and pray that all your stops and starts are well done.
The big center block. Lovely texture.
The vase from the back side.
I am pleased to tell you that this quilt has been accepted into the Paducah
Quilt Show, 2020. Darlene is so excited and so am I.Good luck Darlene!
Have a great week!
Love love love your work.
Stay healthy. I am hoping they do not cancel the show.
Darlene
Magnificent as always. So creative. Congratulations on making the cover of mccalls magazine.