This week, I'm back to the Tropical Bird stitchy-quilty project I mentioned a couple weeks ago . I removed the overly bold (in my opinion) border fabric (shown in the linked post) and replaced it with an equally bold, but solid pair of fabrics that compliment the colors in the stitching a little better. Still very bold, but a little less distracting, maybe. (Photo of full quilt later in this post.)
No more delays, it's time to sandwich and quilt this one.
This small wall hanging is scheduled to be in a quilt show in May, so I'm running out of time for any further delays.
I started with careful in-the-ditch stitching around the stitch/quilt border seams.
Then, I ventured out into the orange inner borders with some free motion quilting. I have to admit that I'm a bit nervous about quilting in the cross-stitched areas, but I have a plan. And as I complete each section, I'm gaining the confidence I'll need to execute that plan. Working on everything except the center is allowing me to get comfortable.
As I start filling in the borders and adding a bit more ditch stitching, I noticed the quilt sandwich suddenly isn't laying as smoothly on the sewing machine bed as it was. Sure enough, I quilted in a tiny piece of the backing fabric edge in to the quilt center. A couple careful snips from the back and a pair of tweezers got me back on track quickly.
At this writing, things are moving along nicely and I only have the center stitchy area . .
. . . and the outer bright pink replacement border to quilt.
I have a quilt plan for the border, too.
It's gonna take a bit of fortitude to start quilting in that center space, OVER the cross stitching.
What if I mess it up? What if something snags? What if I don't like it?
What if I just don't finish it? (I have a million other things I could do!)
If I did that, then I won't be able to hang it up and enjoy it after spending all that time making each and every colorful stitch.
And that would be a shame.
Happy Stitching!
Head Hummingbird
Hummingbird-Highway.com
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