Kay's 9 Posies Quilt

Kay's Quilt brought it's own set of challenges.  She wanted custom stitching surrounding the large raw edge applique's and separate border patterns.  I chose Anne Bright's "Joanie's Posies" for the pattern and was very pleased with the way the front of the quilt turned out.  I thought the pattern was perfect for the quilt top.  I learned the technique for stopping and starting at the edge of the applique so that the stitching didn't go into the raw edge applique itself. For the majority of the quilt the thread color was cream but when I tried the cream in the black border, I felt it was too busy so I used black thread in that border.   The design I used for the striped border was a swirl and I freehanded the small green stop border.

I was so pleased with the quilt top.  Until I took it off the frame.  Half of the back of the quilt was the same fabric as the large black border and the other half was scrappy with a combination of the lighter fabrics used on the front.  The back had a single large pink flower (raw edge applique) on it.  Since I had no control over where the stitching landed on the appliqued flower on the back, it looked funny.  Since there were so many stops and starts around the appliques on the front, I tried to do an outline stitch around and underneath the petals to secure the threads where the stitching jumped over the applique. Because I had to keep moving the raw edges of the fabric out of the way it was not smooth but again, didn't show underneath the petal edges the front but looked jumpy on the back.  I was not pleased with the way the back looked.  Because the back was scrappy on one half, the black thread showed up in the border on that half but disappeared on the black fabric half of the back.  I was very disappointed.  

In retrospect I should have done some stitching within the petals so that the stops and starts wouldn't have been so obvious on the backside.  I am not sure if the border would have been any better stitched in cream because again, it would have made the black border so busy and disappeared in the scrappy half of the back side of the quilt just like the black thread disappeared in the black half.  I do think this quilt would be absolutely darling on a wall in a playroom.  

I called and offered to remount the quilt and stitch inside the petals and if she wanted to unpick the black border I would restitch it in cream.  I also tore up her check and considered this a learning experience.  

Lessons I learned:  Stitch inside the applique or explain the gaps in stitching that will be apparent on the back side.  If there is an applique on the back of the quilt, then suggest it be removed until after the quilting is finished or stitch the top with a false back and then tack the real back in place.

I have also invested in a digitizing program that will allow me to photograph an appliqued quilt block, digitize the outline of the applique and the area surrounding the applique and then assign a fill pattern and stitch it out without the continuous stops and starts.

Kay's Raw Edge Applique Quilt

The Background Posies looked really cute