Once my Winter Playground quilt (designed by Lynette Anderson) had been layered up ready for quilting, I deliberated for a few days over the quilting - for me, this is always the tricky part! I started off with a couple of hand quilting ideas, but they didn't work out, so I free machine quilted it in small sections. Using Aurifil 40wt threads in colours to match the fabrics for the top, and a different colour in the bobbin than matches the backing fabric, I quilted it very simply to start with. Firstly, using a walking foot, I quilted it "stitch-in-the ditch" around each block, then using a dark green Aurifil thread I quilted a very simple cross hatch design on the small squares on the inner borders. Then I machine quilted aound all the applique - this was very time consuming, but it's really made the applique "pop" - and finally I had a bit of fun, and free motion quilted lots of swirls and curls on the background fabric...
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...for the pieced borders, I machine quilted a simple cross-hatch design acros sall the small squares, but for the plain parts of the brorders I decided to do something a bit different. Using freezer paper, I cut out a selection of starrs - these were laid out on the borders, with the shiney side of the freezer paper on the fabric. Once I was happy with the layout, they were gently pressed into place with a warm iron - then I was able to machine quilt around the stars...
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...I delved into my box of Lynette fabrics for the binding - this teal coloured check was perfect! Usung the double fold method, I stitched this onto the front of the quilt, using a quarter inch seam - again using a walking foot...
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...the corners were mitred, and once the binding had been machined into place, the folded edge was turned over to the back of the quilt and hand stitched in place using ladder stitch. A quilt sleeve was made using a piece of leftover backing fabric, and this was also hand stsitched into place...
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...and here's the completed quilt - I really am so pleased with this one! Now I just need to design a label to go on the back of the quilt - I've already been doodling some ideas, and will hopefully get it completed ready to dislay over the Christmas period!
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