Thursday, March 5, 2020

Swoon

When I'm about halfway done machine quilting a quilt, I start thinking about what quilt top to quilt next. While I was quilting Color Pop, a slew of candidates came to mind. So I was very surprised that when I went to my rather alarmingly large stash of quilt tops, I pulled out Swoon. It was not even on the candidate list!

But it was calling to me, asking to be quilted, while some of my other quilt tops seem rather reluctant to leave the shelf. Swoon is a pretty new quilt top for me, as it's only several months old, instead of several years old like some. But it was a quilt that I was incredibly unsure about due to my wild fabric choices, so I wanted to finish it to put that uncertainty to rest, one way or another.

I wrestled with two choices for quilting Swoon: treating the negative space as one backdrop and doing a lot of improv style quilting over it, or dividing up the negative space to create secondary spaces and filling them. I chose the latter because it is easier for my mind to process.

The Greek cross-like shapes in between the blocks provided a big backdrop for lots of fun fillers, and I used that space to showcase lots of nature motifs such as leaves and feather swirls.

For all of the other negative spaces, I filled it with feathers and wishbones. I wanted quick and easy designs in those areas that had a predictable flow.

The Swoon blocks themselves were quilted very simply with geometric designs. I almost always do this (Urban Mod was a rare exception), because I've found that straight line designs always look good with prints, while more complex designs can be a bit of a hit or miss. This also allows the fabric to pop forward and take center stage.

After so much uncertainty about this quilt, I'm happy to report that I really, really love the end result! It has such a Mediterranean vibe that goes so well with the nature motifs, and I'm not sure if I like the blocks themselves, or the quilting I did in the negative space more. Either way, I'm super happy with how it turned out!

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Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Powered by Quilting, and Meadow Mist Designs.

10 comments:

  1. As always, I love how beautiful your quilting is on the back side with a solid backing. Lovely work!

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  2. Beautiful finish, Liz! This quilt truly came to life with your amazing quilting. And thanks for sharing your insight on using straight line quilting over prints. I think it is almost universally true and worth keeping in mind :)

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  3. Dividing up the background as you did, turned a very pretty quilt top into an amazingly beautiful quilt. Congratulations

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  4. I saw your post in my inbox and immediately thought - oh goodie! You never fail to amaze me with your beautiful quilts, both in construction and that beautiful quilting. Swoon is a beauty!

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  5. lovely quilt... enjoy reading about your thought process for quilting it

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  6. I love this block and your quilting makes this a beautiful quilt. Love your fabric choices!

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  7. wow!!! Stunning. Thank you for sharing.

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  8. Are there enough adjectives to describe this beauty? WOW!!!! Just curious what you plan to do with it? Do you have a recipient in mind? Do you sell your quilts on Etsy?

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  9. Beautiful quilt top-beautifully quilted! Breath-taking.

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