French Braid Quilt

Sharon also sent me this fun French Braid quilt to work my magic on. I have to tell you sometimes quilts come to me in waves - all big quilts, all baby quilts - usually matching the seasons. However last year I had never worked on so many purple quilts all in a row. I think I had six at the same time that were mostly purple. I think in the years I've been long arming I have only quilted six purple quilts until this year.

Okay, back to the quilt.

 Yes it's sideways, but that's how it was quilted and it was the only way I could get the whole quilt in the photo! French braid quilts are so interesting to me. They're all kinda the same but may have different personalities between the choice of colors, an accent piece or not, whether the colors fade, which direction they might fade, etc.

 We decided to keep this one simple-ish. I know it doesn't look like it in the photo, but I'll walk you through it. The dahlia worked well in the center square and the side setting triangles at the end of the strips. The braids were filled with large bubbles in various sizes leaving the cheddar accents alone so they stood out more. Then a double bubble chain filled the center sashing strip.

Last but not least, trying not to overwhelm the quilt with another "design", to tack down the border more for function and to leave the large leaf print to stand on it's own, straight lines were quilted into the borders. That way the fabric can still be the focus and the straight lines act more as a texture than another quilting design.

This was definitely a quilt that I probably put more thought into the plan than the time I actually put into the quilting. I just let this quilt sit out and speak to me for awhile and it helped to see the various fabrics in different light while planning. Sometimes the fabrics seem to change during the day or on a cloudy day versus a bright sunny day. Sometimes I see variations and details in different lighting that helps to plan the quilting. It really is a long thought process if you don't just pick a design out of a catalog and go to town.

Thank you, Sharon, for sending me your quilts! Your color choices were fantastic and I loved working on them!

If you're interesting in my quilting services, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com or check out the Machine Quilting Information page here on the blog. I'm not doing a bunch of quilting right now, but I hope to get back into it slowly after Easter or so (depends on when Little Miss arrives).

Have a great weekend! -Rebecca