Wedding Ring : Quilting the White Spaces

I'm so happy with the way this came out!  Not nearly so hard as I thought it was going to be.
It probably helped that Auntie Rosita was looking over my shoulder the whole time to give me directions--and reminding me not to sweat the small stuff.  She wouldn't!

 

Here's the motif I chose for the football shapes.  Above, you see it sized and traced onto Quilt (similar to tracing) Paper, then stitched down to the quilt.  This is just before I tore off the Quilt Paper.  The black lines are not visible on the finished quilt -- just made it easier for me to see the design as I stitched.

I tried doing this with the walking foot, but it was just too much turning and changing direction.  Much easier with the free-motion foot.  That was the way to go -- totally!

 

Here's the view from the back --nicely stitched in neutrals.

I decided to go with a simpler motif for the larger white spaces.  Heart Flower Squared Stencil from RGA Designs.  I stretched and morphed it a bit to make it fit the distorted square shape I had to fill.

I had a different one in mind, more loops and feathers, but finally decided it would be too much with the thread overlap.  Besides, I like sewing loop-de-loops. 

 

Here's the modified Heart Flower stencil traced onto the Quilt Paper, and beginning to stitch with the free-motion foot.  This went to smoothly and easily, I'm surprised it didn't take as long as it might have.  It helped that this was a simpler design with less overlapping stitched.  That also helps the quilt paper rip off easier.  With too many over-lapping stitches, I have to spend more time picking out the paper stuck underneath the stitches.   

 

Detail of the Quilt Paper Motif stitched onto the block, but not yet ripped off.

The black lines are only on the quilt paper, and make it easy for me to see where to stitch.

The black lines are not part of the finished quilt.

 

Here it is after ripping off the quilt paper.   So nice!

 

View from the back showing the completed quilting.   

But not yet washed.   I was a little concerned that some of the white X shapes had some fullness to them, but that tamped down and behaved nicely as soon as I quilted it down.

Detail of quilting on a single block from the back. 

 

Wider view of the quilting from the back.

The full quilt -- after washing it up.  That's when the fabrics and batting shrinks a bit.  The Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Poly Batting gives such a beautiful crinkly antique look to it.  

That's why I love this particular batting!

My favorite moment is when it comes out the dryer after it's first wash-and-dry -- still warm and fluffed from the dryer.  You can see all that wonderful texture from the batting and fabrics settling into their final resting places.  The Ahhh moment!

Please indulge me some more pictures -- I'll be giving this one away in a few weeks, so I want to have a nice photo record.

Another view of the full quilt.  

Hard to see how nice it turned out from this distance.  That's why I'm including so many detail shots. 

Detail of the football knot motif.

 

This one shows off samples of the quilting on both the square and the football white spaces.

 

From the back.  

Ahh--I suspect the Bride will be pleased to have pieces of her Gramma in this one, even if someone else had to finish it.   ;-)

I remember when I got married, the quilts given at weddings from that generation of the family were just 2 pieces of fabric and some batting tied together with yarn.  Simple but functional, and still special.  When I got married in 1999, my own Gramma Matucheski was no longer able to sew, and off living in a nursing home by then.  As one of her last grandhildren from that generation, I didn't think I'd be getting one of Gramma's quilts, but My Auntie Marge came to the rescue.  She made a quilt for us from Gramma.  It's on our bed right now -- slept under it last night, even.   ;-)