Faeries and Fibres: Anne H's Anna quilt goes under the needle!

Anne H's Anna quilt is pinned and ready for quilting. The first thing I did was trim the excess batting to help reduce some of the bulk. I left about 1 1/2" of batting beyond the quilt. Every little bit helps to make the quilt lighter and more manageable.

I stitched in the ditch around every hexagon in the centre medallion. I used Superior Monopoly (invisible) thread on top and The Bottom Line in the bobbin. Once the stitch in the ditch was completed I echo quilted once around the entire medallion.

The centre is stabilized and I will go back and quilt all of the hexagons later. As always I need some time to think about what to quilt.

I've decided that feathers will be used to fill in the dark beige areas. They work up quickly and easily (never thought I would say that but really feathers are pretty easy once you know the basics). The first step was to draw the spine of the feathers and I pinned well on either side. This is a larger area and I don't want anything shifting so the pins will keep the top, backing and batting together.

I used a blue water soluble fabric marker to draw the spine and then quilted the spine and the plumes on the feathers. I next echoed around the feather plumes to make them pop! But it also makes the space around the feather pop and I didn't want that - I want the feather to look like trapunto. So I stippled the background to flatten it.

In this picture you can see the stippling above the feather. I had not yet stippled below so you can see the difference.

And here is the feather stippled above and below! This is exactly the look I was going for! The feather stands out - it almost looks like trapunto but it isn't!

And here's a view of the quilting from the back.

If you are interested in machine quilted trapunto, I read an excellent tutorial on Hilda's blog. It is very well explained with lots of photos. It looks pretty straight forward! You can read about Hilda's method here. I'm looking forward to seeing her progress on this Carolina Lily quilt.

Tomorrow I'll finish the rest of the feathers and then it will be on to the next border of elongated hexagons! Not sure what's going to happen there but it will come to me. First step will be stitch in the ditch.

It is very hot here today, 32C but it feels like 40+ with the humidex so it was a very quick stroll in the garden this morning! Even though it is hot, plants are wilting and blossoms fade fast, there are still some interesting sights to see!

Brugmansia (angel's trumpets)

This plant started in the garden but it hates good soil. It looks for tiny cracks. In the picture above it is growing between the sidewalk and a railway tie! That's Teetoo in the background. He does like to have his picture taken, silly cat!