Flowering Gum Quilt - Part 3
Time to load her up on the machine. I am going to freehand custom quilt this one. Drawing on some inspiration of finished quilts I found on Instagram and adding my own touch as well.
This quilt was purpose made to hand at the entry hall to my home. I live in a bush setting on acreage in an area with some gorgeous old growth large trees and this quilt is a tribute to them.
As it was to hang on the wall, I wanted some substance and structure to the quilt, so I used a double layer of batting. Behind is 80;20 wool;cotton and on top is wool. This will give the structure and depth I require for this quilt to show the quilting and hang flat on the wall. I would not use double batting for a quilt that is for a bed, or for snuggling.
Choosing thread was fun. I wanted to use some thread with sheen to lift the flatness of the solid fabrics. I chose a bunch of isacord threads to go with the quilt.
I started out outlining all of the flowers and leaves with the background thread. Next, I used one colour at a time and rolled the quilt back and forth to do all the pieces with that colour before changing thread to the next colour. I could do this because the quilt was stabilised by the outlining of the pieces and there would not be any puckering happening underneath.
I drew inspiration for the leaf quilting from some gum leaves that I found on the ground outside. Not quite true-to-life, but rather an artistic interpretation thereof.
I also am using a gum leaf design for the backing. This is by Jocelyn Proust for Spotlight. I bought this by mail order ( my nearest Spotlight is 3 hours away) I don’t know if I would have bought it in person because the quality of the fabric base is a bit meh. Still, I had now and did not want it to go to waste. I was happy to match my piecing for the back quite well.
