Falling Leaves

I have another quilt finish!  And once again I have to wait until the recipient receives it before I can share it online.  Almost all my quilts are made to be given away.

While accompanying me to the Houston Quilt Festival in 2014, my mother picked out a pattern she liked by Shabby Fabrics called Autumn Glitz.  My parents travel full time in an RV, so they don't have a lot of wall space.  They do have one small spot where they can hang quilts!  After finishing my niece's quilt I went to work on my mother's.

testing out a fabric for the binding

This is a small applique pattern, so it didn't take too long to finish the top.  I made one goof in the process.  I pieced the pinwheels first and sewed together the row (even though the directions didn't have you do that until the end).  Then I put together the applique section, using Heat n Bond Lite fusible.  Because I traced the applique on fusible, I knew the finished product would "mirror" the picture.  No problem...until I went to attach the applique & pinwheels together.  I forgot to switch the orange & green pinwheels, so the green leaf is by the green pinwheel.  Oops!  So THAT'S why they didn't want you to sew the pinwheel row together until the end. 

testing thread colors

I was able to select fabrics from my stash and bring them with me to Japan, but I wasn't happy with the binding fabric.  Luckily a quick trip to Yuzawaya helps me find one I like better.  Then on to the thread - I planned to match the applique thread to the fabric.  I knew I wanted to sew veins in the leaves with brown thread.  Last I only had to choose the quilting thread, but I wanted to just have one color for it because I knew at that point I'd be tired of switching out threads.

Once I finished the applique stitching and stitching in the ditch around the piecing and applique shapes I had to finalize my quilting design.  I wanted the colors of the pinwheels to pop more, so I sewed a loopy path on the lighter color pinwheel fabric.  I first thought about echo quilting around the leaves.

checking how echo quilting will look

But then I decided I really wanted to make it look like wind in the background of the leaves.  I practiced drawing a combination of McTavishing, swirls, and waves for several days.  Apparently, McTavishing is something I cannot do!  Even after days of practice it wasn't looking good.

first attempts

later attempts - trying to find ways to connect the "wind"

I finally settle on more of a curl versus a swirl, and try that out.  This is my favorite for the quilt, but once I sketch it out I feel it's too busy.  My mother doesn't like a lot of heavy quilting and I think it will distract from the applique. 

the quilting design...maybe

I like how the leaves extend into the "border."

I do like the idea of using the thread to make a "border" for the quilt - it would be more like a picture!  So I decide to go ahead and quilt that on, then make a final decision on the design that would go with the leaves.  I'm able to coordinate the loops on the pinwheels to the loops of the "border." 

The quilting does make a nice frame for the applique, and I decide not to put any more quilting on it.  The feathers in the background fabric kind of look like leaves blowing around and additional thread would block them from being seen.  I thought my thread would blend in more with the light beige fabric, but apparently not!  It disappears more in the yellow.

the finished quilt

Here's a partial shot of the back.  One of the reasons I love quilting in the ditch around an applique is because it forms the shape on the back. 

I found the perfect backing fabric!

And here's my mother with her quilt!

Look out the window - I love when the night sky turns this shade of blue!