I finished Jeanne's little quilt. It is super sweet with the rainbow position nine patches and the background to match as it travel around the circle. The pattern is Rainbow Nest by Editya Sitar.
The quilting...that's the part I love! Lets start with the batting an the thread. Two layers of batting, Quilters Dream 80/20 under Wool. Look at that Applique, it has such definition with the two layer. Almost looks like trapunto doesn't it? Thread, well you know I like to use a lot of thread. So I use Glide 60 wt top and bottom.
Now for the quilting designs. My first decision was to treat the 9 patches as a large border rather than individual blocks. Once I got past that, things fell into place rather quickly. I knew there had to be a frame for the bird in the nest and of course what goes well with birds? Why feathers of course! I got my Rhonda S Ruler and used that for the frame. I wanted each side to have the feel of a birds wing. There are mirror images used by simply flipping the ruler to the other side.
I also wanted to spotlight the nest and the bird. So I found my Lsheia Kaye from quitingit.com 13 inch circle and we had that covered.
Lastly, I wanted the finaly borders to have a tree like, bush like something natural along those. I marked an S curve using Julia Quiltoff's 5 ruler. I had this going up the side and long the bottom, then in the other corner going across the top and down the side. I used a feather, leafy, loopy natural thing (yep that's the technical name).
To finish off I used three different fills. For the center circle I did McTavishing, I just think it gives such movement and really highlights the piecing. the inside border (between the feather border and the feather frame) I used an dense leaf feel to add to the natural design. Finally finished with a little less dense curls design.
Next up is a beautiful tradtional quilt. I've been craving traditional for some time. Check out the linky parties in the side bar, lots of inspiration out there!