Fabulous all-purple quilt – part II

This week, the quilting on Aunt M’s quilt:

I quilted the spokes of the star by machine. I outlined each one, quilting approx. a quarter inch from the edge of each piece.

I only seem to have taken one close-up picture of this quilting, and unfortunately it showcases the bunching at the center points. I’m not great at lining up triangles and other seams. I should have probably tried to iron the center flatter or at least pinned it better so that the bunching didn’t happen, but I didn’t.

It looks better on the back.

This shows the quilting on the whole star/pinwheel.

My sewing machine has a decorative scalloped stitch, which I decided to use on the inner border, the very pale purple.

I think it looks really pretty on the back.

As you can probably see, the scallops aren’t evenly sized. It’s kind of difficult to control the movement of the quilt through the needle and the speed. It’s easier if it’s just one piece of fabric instead of three layers. People assured me that the variation looks intentional.

Having finished the machine quilting, I began the hand quilting. I started with a fleur de lis.

The paper fleur de lis pattern I used

front

back

Next I did a treble clef. Aunt M is very musical and sometimes still treats us to a little piano music.

I also quilted little musical notes, freehand.

I quilted concentric stars (can concentric be used to apply to non-circular objects? I’m not sure but I shall use it here):

I’ve always wanted to try sashiko quilting. I think it’s such a pretty style. I’ve never tried it before, but I had printed out a pattern that looked like it would adapt well to sashiko – and because I could draft it myself without too much difficulty.

The pattern I drafted on paper and then drew onto the quilt with pencil

The completed sashiko quilting

I’m really proud of it. It’s not traditional sashiko, I don’t think. I just adapted the technique as best I could.

Last but not least, I quilted all of our initials into the quilt. I quilted Aunt M’s initials and her husband and children’s initials on larger squares, and then the rest of us got squeezed onto smaller patches of solid fabric. Below is a selection:

Aunt M’s patch – she got a little heart, too

I made a quilt tag, which I’ve never done. I used a fabric pen and wrote the date of Aunt M’s birthday, her name, and my name, then I hand-appliqued the patch to the back. (I actually did this before I’d sewn the three layers of the quilt together, but I forgot about it when I made the first post two weeks ago.

I gave Aunt M the quilt for her birthday and insisted that she use it and not simply display it somewhere. I made it for her to use it. 🙂