Berries and Flowers and Berries, Oh My!

There are definitely quilts I've come across in my quilting career that get a mental milestone for one factor or another. This quilt got several milestones like the most quilting  per square inch, the most intricate design and plan, and the most daunting. Yes, you read that right. Daunting. Just look at it.

I would be foolish not to be intimidated by such a quilt. Being a bit timid forced me to think slowly, plan as I knew best and quilt this sucker to the best of my ability. It was much harder and took much longer than I anticipated, but it was soooo worth it!

Basically the plan was to quilt around each and every applique and then fill the background with a double cross hatch.

Some of the applique pieces were several layers thick and at times all this bulk caused some issues with the rulers and even getting the hopping foot of the machine close enough to the applique. It's nothing that I can't work around, but there's only so much room with the tools you have to work with and I have to work within my means. There are some pieces I would have loved to quilt in a bit more, but we also had two layers of batting that added a lot of bulk you don't notice here except for the nice loft it gives the unquilted areas.

In the end the quilt turned out beautiful. The applique popped just as it should and Sue loved the quilt.

I'm not sure if you can see or if you noticed, but some of the vines of berries, the color gradually changes from a light to a dark red. Look for it in other photos too. It was a spectacular effect!

I know this quilt probably looks much larger than it is, but it was only about 60" square if my memory serves me correctly.

Here you can see the change in the berry color better. All of those berries are perfect. I can't applique a circle to save my soul and Sue did hundreds of them!

The pictures really don't do this quilt justice. The mixture of fabrics and colors and designs were spot on.

And with a pieced back, it was the icing on the cake for a quilt like this. I love how you can see all of the quilting detail. So so much fun.

Thank you, Sue! Your quilts are a fun and exciting challenge that I'm willing to take on any day!