Black Hat Quilter: Jane's Quilt

Oh so happy, or should I say "sew" happy!!! I am so excited to be able to finally talk about this quilt and post pictures of it. I have been working on this particular quilt for a customer for longer then I want to admit. As you can see, it is a fairly large quilt and it has many different accessories on it. You usually don't find this on quilts today. I was told that she made this quilt over several years ago. She made it in a class at a quilt shop. She finished it and had plans on hand quilting this herself. Well........life is life. The quilt found it's way into a closet all these years. I met Jane through our Guild. We are members of the Northern Chautauqua Quilting Companions Guild. She has seen some of the goodies I have shown during show and tell, along with some of the quilts I have done for the Guild or other members. She approached me at a meeting and told me about her quilt. Of course I was interested! I received it a few weeks later. Wow oh wow!!! I could not believe my eyes. It is unique, beautiful, special, and one of a kind. You can clearly see that she poured much love and effort into the construction of this quilt top. There is decorative stitching, ribbons, buttons, lace, applique, and doilies all sewn on it. She had already had some batting attached to the back- a trapunto effect. When I spoke with her about this, she told me to take my time, that she was not in a hurry. I looked at this quilt top many mornings and evenings planning on my approach for stitching. She wanted loft-but also she gave me freedom to do what ever I was guided to do. My first rule of thumb is to always have the stitching compliment the quilt top first, then let the stitching be seen. The top has such a ribbon/lacy/Victorian feel to it. I had so many ideas go through my head. I wanted to stick with the older feel to it with the stitching. I decided on a meander for most of the back ground because it felt good and it also preserved the loft in it. Any other filler background was too dense and it was distracting. In the large green areas I put in curling/scrolling feathers. Difficult to see due to my poor photography skills. I have to admit, I worked on this quilt top for weeks. It was very slow going. A great deal of stitch in the ditch, ruler work, and free motion. I used Glide thread: Christmas Pine and Cool Grey. They are lovely. I will be seeing her at our meeting tonight, so I plan on giving it to her then. I am so excited- I can't wait for her to see it!