Ready for basting:
Basted and ready for quilting:
I debated how to quilt this. In Carolyn Friedlander’s book, she has two quilts of this style. One of them, done in neutrals like mine, she quilts all over in a plant-inspired pattern. The other, she quilts all the triangles behind the bars each “sun”, leaving the bars and circles in the foreground unquilted.
Here is a photo of the former:
Here is a photo-grab of the latter approach:
(I really cannot recommend Carolyn’s book – Savor Each Stitch – enough, by the way. It is undoubtedly my favorite quilting book.)
In any case, the latter approach emphasizes the paper-pieced pattern to a much greater extent, whereas the allover quilting pattern goes with the much more subtle neutral palette of the white / beige quilt. Another consideration is that I think the second approach would be a lot more work because it would involve so much stopping and starting. In the end, I decided to do the allover quilting approach. I wanted to emulate the way Carolyn did her neutrals quilt, and I also was lazy and wanted to take the easy way out. I’m about 25% of the way through with the quilting. It definitely de-emphasizes the texture of the paper-piecing as expected, but I think it’ll be a nice effect in the end.
Quilting is exhausting! My arms are literally trembling from fatigue as I type this.
I love your neutral Facing East – so beautiful, so inspiring.
Thank you for your kind words!