This quilt has been on hold for the past 2 years. Sometimes on a colossal project like this, you need to set it aside and take a break until the joy comes back. Today was blessedly cool enough that I could be upstairs in my sewing studio doing the free-motion quilting on it again ... Also I'm between projects, so it's a good time to pick this one back up again.
Today I stitched the red ribbons in the background of all the applique blocks. The side triangles were already about half done, so I finished those today with a little more stitching -- mostly black pearls in the background -- very stealth. The object was to make the applique POP! The background stitching is subtle, and very hard to photograph. It looks much better in person. Here the threads look washed out when in reality, the thread is red, purple and blue to match the applique. You can't really see it, but I used black thread to stitch pearls / bubbles around the red ribbon--again I wanted the black to stand down so that the red ribbon would stand out more.
I'm still not quite sure what to do with the corner blocks. Perhaps some echo stitching around the flowers? I don't think it needs to be as dense as the side triangles. I am not fond of sleeping under a quilt that is so densely quilted that it might be mistaken for a carpet.
Large corner applique block, with ribbons. The space needed something to showcase the applique, without taking away from it.
While I think about how to finish those corner applique blocks, I worked on the first "row" of the border. I used the diamond motif in the fabric. The small square in the middle pops out once it's all said and done. You can't really see it in the photograph, so here it is from the back:
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