ORANGE CRUSH

“Orange Crush” – a quilt accepted into an Exhibition entitled “Stitch in Time” at Paris Gibson Square Museum Fall of 2009, in Great Falls, Montana.

This piece began with a lovely gradient fabric by Caryl Bryer Fallert, bordered with a simple, beautiful  summery batik print.  Because the main fabric was such a striking color on it’s own, I wanted the quilting to really enhance it, and not overpower it… so I chose feathers; specifically the style I just love, learned from Patsy Thompson’s videos on Free Motion Feathers (worth every penny!).  I began with a soft green rayon thread from YLI “Designer 6” and quilted the feathers with bobbin quilting, from the back side, after chalking myself a soft, curving, undulating line.  I then added multiple quilting motifs in a coordinating orange variegated thread to compliment the background, and enhance the feathers.  The next detail was to add silver metallic thread (my favorite one of all is Yenmet brand) in the center of the threads for just a bit of “sunshine” in the feathers!  One thing I had to be a bit careful of, was when I was bobbin quilting with the thick green thread, and not building it up too much in the spine, which has a tendency to warp the entire quilt quite quickly!  (Ask me how I know this!) The final “framing touch” as I call it, is to add a lovely hand-dyed yarn to the binding edge, free motion style, of course!

This quilt became a wedding gift to a dear young woman, who’s wedding colors were “burnt orange” and “chocolate brown” this past September 2010.