Winter Nine Patch

Love it!  I finished my Winter Nine Patch today in time to wash and photograph it on this cold be sunny day.

This quilt is best seen in person, because the fancy quilted snowflakes probably don’t show well in the pictures.  In  person, though, they are a subtle frosting all over the quilt.  The term “surface embellishment” comes to my mind with these.  No beads or buttons or spangles, just slightly shiny, etherial snowflakes.

I quilted this by stitching in all the ditches on the front with Superior’s Bottom Line thread.  This gave me a nice, stable, flat, square quilt.

Then I flipped it over and quilted from the back.  I quilted the large batiked snowflakes of the backing fabric, and added smaller ones in the gaps between.  I used Bottom Line in the top, and a very heavy, shiny, white rayon thread for the bobbin work.  I think it is YLI, but the bottom cap and label are missing, so I’ll never be sure.  The thickness is similar to Superior’s Razzle Dazzle.  I got very lucky in sewing with this.  I left my top tension alone (4), and loosened the bobbin a half turn, and my first sample was perfect.  I wasn’t really sewing with the rayon, I was just letting it ride on the surface while I caught it with the top thread.  Even with the top-stitch needle, this thread was way too heavy to ever really form stitches with.  That’s okay, it showed more this way.

The batik snowflakes were harder to quilt than I had guessed.  They were irregular and unsymmetrical.  To do it over, I would use a marker to trace better patterns over top of the prints.  Instead, I improvised and “improved” them as I went along.  I am happy.

You know what I’ll be snuggling under on this wintery evening!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF at Celtic Thistle Stitches.