Quilting Deep Water on the Loon Lake Quilt

 

 I was stuck on this project the last few weeks, wondering what to do with the underwater blocks.  I concluded that my first choice of water motif (a seaweed-y feathery design) was not going to work so well.   I realized the water surface and sky blocks seem to be to pressed down, not letting the puffy wool batt do it's thing, providing raised areas around the many objects in this quilt.  So I had to re-group and come up with Plan B.

Surfing the web one day, I stumbled across this commercial quilt, and I thought would be a good choice -- easy to do, and reflecting the water reeds and grasses.

 

So I laid out the quilt and took some thrums (leftover strings from weaving that are otherwise too short to keep, but still manage to be useful) and laid them out where I wanted the stitching.  

 

Then I chalked a line next to the strings.  Chalk is the best marking took in this case because it stays on long enough to get the stitching done, and easily brushes off afterwards, leaving no permanent marks.

 

The next task is to stitch on those chalked lines.  

Since these were more or less straight-ish lines with slight curves, I used a regular foot, though I think I would have been happioer with the good ol' free-motion foot. 

Here are some of the results:

 

Nice and open stitching, while allowing the wool batt to do it's thing underneath ...

 

... making it look 3D.

I also finished the gravel at the bottom of the quilt, so hopefully, I'll be able to do the binding during Christmas week!

Looking forward to another finish!