Machine Quilting: Geisha Girls

The other Oriental Panel quilt I did for Anne was just as gorgeous but a bit more simple.

 The main feature was this panel. To jazz it up just a bit Anne added these fans on each corner and kept the borders simple. The fabrics themselves have so much going on, that the quilt didn't need much more visual elements with quilting.

 As with the other panel quilt I did for Anne, I kept the quilting as simple as possible outlining certain areas more for function to tack them down, and the quilting you could see was kept minimal to not take away from the overall appearance of the quilt. There's just enough in spots to tack down the quilt for hanging, but not so much that you actually see it all.

 It may not look like there's much quilting in there, but the flowers and leaves and girls and the crane are all outlined. This was another day or two where when my Hubby asked, "So how was your day? Did you get a lot done?" I showed him pictures and he said he couldn't see where I quilted anything. In this instance, that was exactly what I was going for.

 These panels are baffling to me before I get started. I say that because it makes choosing threads a challenge. Usually these panels have every color from black to white and somewhere in between. Whatever thread you use in dark areas will not work in the light areas and it may not work in all of the colors. Add in a sprinkling of metallics in there and it just gets more difficult. For this quilt I opted for neutrals which blended well between the colors and played nice with the metallics. I think I only used a medium brown and a tan for the top of this quilt and the combination worked out well.

When I was planning out this quilt, the border was not playing nice. It had every color in the quilt but squished into this little strip. Then it had this teeny tiny strip of blue and green on either side and at first I was thinking about treating each element of the border separately... Then in a moment of thinking about something else, I got the idea to treat it all as one (it was really too narrow to treat everything individually) and by quilting these straight lines, the quilting read more as a texture than another design and didn't conflict with the busy floral stripe. I used the brown thread on this section and it worked well with it's medium tone since it's not too dark on the lights and not too light on the darks. It still let the fabric shine without taking away from the impact of the fabric.

As I said before, I love working on these quilts and they really challenge my creativity because it's not my normal style to work in. I really do my research beforehand and try to get "in the right mindset" before I begin so I don't include any designs that would conflict with the tone of the quilt. Plus as I mentioned with the color aspect of each panel, not only do these panels challenge my creativity, they also challenge my workmanship and it's a challenge I will gladly accept.

I love when my clients trust me enough to bring me quilts like this that may be a challenge in one aspect or another. It keeps me from feeling in a rut and it helps me to grow and develop as a quilter which in turn gives my clients better and better results. It's a win-win if you ask me!

Thanks, Anne! Another gorgeous quilt as always!