Quilt Stitches : :

My one BIG sewing goal for this Summer was to finish, finally, this quilt. My longest project in the making, my very first attempt at quilting, hand-quilting, yo-yo flowers, voile, and the beginnings of my sketch stitch artwork. phew. This quilt is so, very special to me, so taking my time and enjoying the process felt really important for this one!

Yesterday I sat down at my machine feeling ready to add those final quilt stitches, although I was a bit unsure of where to begin. With so many different techniques being used in this quilt, with an already happy result, I knew I wanted the quilting to be subtle, but not simple. I browsed through the stitches that my Janome offers, and I started to feel a little brave. Since the makings of this quilt has been one very long experiment from the beginning, finishing it up by trying some new quilting stitches just felt right. I used several different colors of Aurifil, some variegated, but kept my bobbin thread a color that would blend into my quilt backing fabric nicely. This morning, although it's overcast here today, I took some photos to share a close up look at some of those quilting stitches, along with some hand-quilting I added with a neutral colored floss!















What do you think?! It's impossible for me not to second guess what I've done just a little, since I've really tortured myself with this quilt from the very beginning! I am curious to know how many of you have tried out quilting with both colored thread and decorative quilt stitches? Typically I do prefer pretty dense, straight-line quilting just as I did on my last quilt, but branching out was so much fun and in the end always pays off!  Have you given these a try yet?

Now, all that's left is for me to make and add the binding, along with a new photo shoot -- I'm so excited!! 

Until then!   ♥ Maureen