Under the needle

      I taught another beginning free motion quilting class on Monday, and had a couple of questions posed that were very good.  Both  questions made me stop and think about how I approach the quilting part of this whole process.    I like the piecing and sewing part, love the designing and colors, and enjoy enhancing the quilt with the quilting.

   So the first question concerned where to begin when you start quilting.  I had taken this small runner as an example of meandering / stippling. It turned out to be a good example.   I picked a spot near the main vine and leaf that is near the center as the beginning point.  Since I was quilting the background only and using a simple fill stitch, the actual spot did not matter.  If it was to be filled in with a geometric or gridded stitch pattern, planning and marking would be needed.

   Second question was how do I decide where to quilt, like on a log cabin quilt.  A log cabin is traditional stitched along the logs or in the ditch to enhance the pattern.  So my response right off was.....what part of the design to you want to accentuate?  Do you want the dark logs or the light logs to stand out?   A good rule of thumb---which is often broken here---is to quilt down the part you want to recede and leave the area you want to stand out un-quilted, or at least only lightly stitched down.

   All this relates to how was I going to quilt that scrap quilt from 5 " squares.  So enough words.....here's how I quilted it.

 

   I did not want to just do an all over pattern, which is my usual habit.  And there is no border on this one either.  So I asked those questions....what did I want to enhance, and what did I want to recede or ignore.

Since I liked the diagonal row effect of the pattern, I wanted to visually enhance that aspect. So I quilted long vines with loose curls and wavy leaves in each diagonal row that the pattern creates.
   You can see the stitching better on the corner of the back that I flipped over.

  I also alternated the direction of the vines with every row....some  go up and some come down.  It's a little different style for me....and I really like it.   Not what I would normally think to do....the vine was a border motif  I ran across and adapted.
   Anyway, it will be a good example for the next class on Monday when I teach the swirls and vines.  A little binding needs to be done, too....and the label.  And better photos when it is finished.

Happy stitching.