Let the quilting begin!
Sorry the pictures have such a yellowish cast: they were taken late at night under artificial light, but you get the idea…
I’ve sandwiched two of the long side panels and marked one of them up for quilting, using the ‘fish scale’ template I made. (You can just see it at the top of the picture above.) It’s 4 inches wide x 4 inches high, which will produce a nice soft quilted effect, puffing up between the stitching without making the quilt stiff. I much prefer light quilting, as I find close quilting tends to stiffen the drape of the quilt, even if it does look amazing.
You could actually quilt this design by machine, using a walking foot. If you click on the image, you can see that the template repeat produces a gently wiggly line running diagonally, something a walking foot is quite capable of negotiating if you sew fairly slowly.
I really love the bright pink thread: it’s the Gütermann hand quilting weight, in colour 2955. It looks brilliant against the orange backing fabric 🙂
It shouldn’t take too long to work each panel. They’re not too large, and the job is broken down into manageable chunks, so I’m confident of getting the sides and corners done by the end of October.
Then I just have to worry about what I’m doing for the centre…
talltalesfromchiconia 
It looks like the colors of Fall here in Colorado
Except maybe there aren’t many leaves quite that shade of shocking pink! But yes, the golden look…
But we do have bright red and shades of red…
Yes, some even heading in the pink direction. It’s a beautiful combination and range of colours. You can see something similar here in Australia on the New England Plateau, down in northern New South Wales when it’s autumn down there, April/May time. Lots of golds, bronzes and reds. Gorgeous!
My colours of happiness 💖
Sewn with pink thread 🙂 It’s been great to get going on this job again after days of other work. I’ve missed the colour!
Gorgeous palette! One of my favorite color combinations. Love to wear, paint in abstract paintings. Gulf of Mexico flaming sunsets. August gardens. september harvests. Love!
Tropical sunrises, a bowl of mandarins, mangoes and dragonfruit, yes! And for me, those little pings of green and turquoise really bring an extra dimension.
Those little pings of (Florida Keys) water & palm fronds & sea grape just set the flaming Gulf of Mexico sunsets off brilliantly. You are so right, Kate!
By the time you get to the center, it will be all worked out in your head!
True! In fact, I was thinking that I should use the same basic shape but maybe elongated into petals… or something!
Wonderful colors in spite of the artificial lighting, and I will have to try that quilting design now that you have shown us all the easy way to accomplish it!
It’s a whole lot easier if you’re working on a square grid like this panel, though!
Agree!
You’re certainly speeding along with this – it looks lovely, even with a yellow bloom.
My hand quilting is coming along slowly – aka not coming along at all – I seem to find alternative things to do all the time and it’s just getting moved around my sewing room. I have the Gutermann hand quilting thread but, when left alone, the thread appears to have come alive and unravelled from the spool and got itself in knots. Is that a ‘thing’ with the hand quilting thread or have I got a rogue spool?
Hand quilting thread is springy, no doubt about that, but the advantage of that is that it doesn’t tangle as easily as the regular stuff. OK, the trick with the thread is to pull out an arm’s length, trap the reel end of the thread in the slot at one end of the reel, and then cut the thread. That way, the end is always trapped.
Beautiful! Gütermann hand quilting thread is my favorite for hand quilting and that shade of pink is one I use frequently…….
It’s good stuff, isn’t it, a firm thread but lovely and smooth and easy to use. I also have some beautiful jade green, lilac, navy and white, but this pink is smashing!
this will be a joy to quilt, especially with the pink thread you’ve chosen
The pink makes it even more fun!
Love the colours, pink thread will look wonderful 🙂
I’m really liking it!
Those batiks are gorgeous and incredibly HAPPY. Love it!
It’s going to be a really cheerful and cosy quilt for dark, chilly Melbourne winters 🙂 Mind you, summer’s nearly here… Never mind, it brings sunshine 🙂
Looking great! Right now I´m freehand quilting a quilt on my sewing machine. I have finally learned how to do that, but I still need a lot of practicing 🙂
I guess I’ll learn to do that some day, but for now, I like either simple machine quilting or hand quilting.
Some times the quilt doesn´t need FHQ, but I´m glad I can managed the technique!
One of these days, I’ll get round to practising. One day…
🙂
Gorgeous color combos!
I do love a good excuse to rev up the colour 🙂