A friend of mine embroidered the squares in this quilt for her grand daughter and then asked if I would be willing to finish the quilt. So I got it put together, and now I am completely unsure of how to quilt it. I know I can't go over the embroidery, so I'm going to stitch in the ditch around each block, but after that I'm not sure. I've considered in the ditch on the whole thing, which might be best, but I'm not the best in the ditch quilter. I'd love to hear your suggestions.
How nice of you to finish this quilt for your friend! It will be a lovely heirloom for her granddaughter.
ReplyDeleteThat's so sweet and vintage looking, my first thought was what about typing it? I think that would look great in combination with the in the ditch quilting around each square.
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ReplyDeleteI hear you on not loving ditch stitching. I'd be tempted to do a swirly, spirally free-motion in all the sashing. It wouldn't exactly be in keeping with the vintage vibe of the embroidered blocks but it might update and energize the finished project.
ReplyDeleteDid your friend give you any input on what she wanted?
You could ditch quilt it and then add some straight hand quilting around the larger squares. Alternatively tying would definitely fit in with the vintage vibe and would look great.
ReplyDeleteWhat about a cable stitch in the sashing?
ReplyDeleteI did a similar quilt for a friend. (who had ALOT more faith in my skills than I did) I stitched in the ditch around each square and then just ran several lines of stitching along the sashings and around the outside.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about stitching in the ditch -- I was always told in my quilt classes not to do that because it can look bad unless you sew right in the seam which is difficult to do. I think it is calls for hand quilting since it is kind of a vintage looking quilt. Maybe do with pearl cotton to give it an updated and colorful modern look? Also hand quilting would go with the hand embroidery nicely. As to the pattern, I can't advise you. Ok everyone, please don't pelt the hand quilter!
ReplyDeleteI don't know about stitching in the ditch -- I was always told in my quilt classes not to do that because it can look bad unless you sew right in the seam which is difficult to do. I think it is calls for hand quilting since it is kind of a vintage looking quilt. Maybe do with pearl cotton to give it an updated and colorful modern look? Also hand quilting would go with the hand embroidery nicely. As to the pattern, I can't advise you. Ok everyone, please don't pelt the hand quilter!
ReplyDeleteI don't know about stitching in the ditch -- I was always told in my quilt classes not to do that because it can look bad unless you sew right in the seam which is difficult to do. I think it is calls for hand quilting since it is kind of a vintage looking quilt. Maybe do with pearl cotton to give it an updated and colorful modern look? Also hand quilting would go with the hand embroidery nicely. As to the pattern, I can't advise you. Ok everyone, please don't pelt the hand quilter!
ReplyDeleteI don't know about stitching in the ditch -- I was always told in my quilt classes not to do that because it can look bad unless you sew right in the seam which is difficult to do. I think it is calls for hand quilting since it is kind of a vintage looking quilt. Maybe do with pearl cotton to give it an updated and colorful modern look? Also hand quilting would go with the hand embroidery nicely. As to the pattern, I can't advise you. Ok everyone, please don't pelt the hand quilter!
ReplyDeletethe hand quilter who clearly doesn't know how to post comments! haha
ReplyDeleteSomething like pebbles in the dark pink might look nice - sort of like cobblestones. But I'd do something with straight lines (near the ditch - echoing the square) in the lighter pink sashing.
ReplyDeleteCould you do straight line quilting in the sashing and have it go both through the rows and columns? Or maybe you could stitch a quarter inch on either side of the dark pink sashing. That's a tough one. My walking foot has a guide for ditch stitching. Does yours?
ReplyDeleteso many hours of love in that top!!
ReplyDeleteI think it requires minimal quilting, since you'll have the embroidered areas unquilted. (so make sure your batting allows for that)
If it were mine, I would stitch in the ditch around the blocks, like you suggested, and then just do a row of hand-quilting in brown size 8 perle cotton along the center of all the sashing.
I'd try to find a small floral print that contained all of the embroidery colors to use for the binding (which I would def sew down by hand)
and - don't shoot me - since it will be minimally quilted, and won't be crinkling like we all love so much, maybe even consider a batting with a decent amount of poly in it? Or wool. Wool would be lovely to work with.....
It occurs to me - if you aren't a big fan of hand-quilting, you could do the ditch quilting and attach the binding, and your friend could finish up the hand-quilting and sew down the binding - those are basically embroidery stitches :-)
ReplyDeleteWhatever route you choose to take, I'm sure it will be lovely
I think if I was doing the quilt, I would stitch a quarter inch around each embroidery square and maybe a quarter inch inside the next square (the paler pink), and then tie at at each intersection. Or maybe a quarter inch down the pink on each side also.
ReplyDeleteI've also believe stitching in the ditch only looks good if you are able to do it exactly, which is very hard to do. I'd stitch about a quarter of an inch around the blocks,leaving the embroidered areas alone. Hand quilting with pearl cotton would look awesome.
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