Finally, after too many years, the Big Quilt for my daughter is finished! I originally bought the pansy fabric in about 1999, then spent a couple of years trying to decide how to use it without cutting up the pansys. Eventually, I bought 16 Moda Marbles for the cornerstones and trellis rectangles. It is queen sized.
The backing is hand dyed fabric from Primrose Gradations, Two Harbors, MN., a company no longer in business. It feels almost like flannel and looks like suede. The top was all put together in 2000, but then the big procrastination set in. Mostly, I had to learn better techniques of free motion quilting. And I had to figure out why I was having trouble with the tension of the quilting thread. The secret is to turn the top tension way, way down, I finally decided. But the biggest "technique" I learned was to use the Galloping Horse Technique: If you can't see the mistakes from a galloping horse, they won't be noticed by most people.
The design, fabric choices, and fabric arrangement of this quilt is original. The quilting design was partly based on a quilting stencil I purchased. The name of the quilt is Faithful Pansys.
I don't have to worry about it not being used, as we had so many people sleeping over at our house last weekend that it was put to use immediately. See my other blog for that info.
