Rhapsody in Blue went into the hand quilting frame in August, I gave you a preview in the August 31 post. Normally, when I'm hand quilting, I give you a week by week progress report. I'm not doing that with this quilt, I'll give you a monthly progress report.
I had a quilting goal which was to have the first border quilted before I left for my vacation at the end of September, that goal was accomplished!
The background fabric is a light gray fabric but looks darker in the pictures. I use overhead led light while I quilt but they're not so good for taking pictures. These pictures were taken using regular lighting, the quilting shows but the background fabric looks darker than it is.
The pictures are from the left side to the right side. There is some overlap of the design but that's how it is. All of the applique has been stitched in the ditch.
I always cringe when I view a quilt that has a pretty quilting design but the background is left unquilted. To me (this is my opinion, you don't have to share it) the quilt looks unfinished, it's baggy and spoiled. That is why diagonal background lines are added to my quilts.
The next section to be quilted is the blue/gray patchwork. The plan is to diagonal stitch both directions in the light gray fabric, this will make the blue chain more predominate.
Rhapsody in Blue is a collaboration between my friend Elaine and I. Elaine stitched all of the applique.
I thought about making all the pictures extra large but that takes up so much space. You should be able to click on the individual pictures to enlarge them.
I don't quilt every evening, I aim for 5 nights a week and quilt approximately 2 hours. Sometimes it's less than that, sometimes longer, I don't keep track of the hours of quilting. In my location hand quilters charge by the yards of thread used in the quilting. I've started with a 500 yard spool of white YLI thread. I'll let you know when the spool is empty.
YLI hand quilting thread is available from Red Rock Threads.
Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday
6 comments:
Your quilting is just stunning. You and Elaine have made a masterpiece! I agree with you about blank backgrounds.
Rhapsody is a absolutely beautiful!
Filling in the background with quilting helps the appliqué to pop. Lovely collaborative project! Gail at the cozy quilter
It's a lot of work, but it's coming along beautifully!
Rhapsody in Blue is gorgeous, and your quilting takes it way over the top! I can't imaging giving away something I had quilted by hand.
It's beautiful! Thanks for sharing the tip on the background diagonals. I'm starting to really like to quilt strait lines. :). Hope you had a great vacation. I bet your prep work for your sew-to-go bag was stuffed to the brim.
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