A finish: More is More

The More is More quilt for Alison's Soy Amada/o project is finished.  If you are not familiar with this project these quilts are going off to a children's home in Mexico City.

I loved the in-your-face pinkness of it so much that I had planned to throw everything at this quilt including applique and perle hand quilting in the white border but it turned out that less is more after all.  I tried out both and they just looked fussy rather than full on, so I unpicked!

Instead, for the pieced sections I did very simple quilting to echo the lines of the rows using a pink/orange/red/yellow variegated thread from Aurifil (No 4657) which went happily with all the fabrics - it's so pretty I would use a heavier weight next time to show it off more.

I used the same Aurifil in my sewing machine to free-motion satin stitch the words Soy amada (Spanish for "I am loved") in the corner of the quilt.  I don't have a fancy sewing machine but I can do this using a medium zig zag stitch on the tightest setting, just don't be too critical:-)

In the white border sections I used the star stitch on my machine to tie the quilt with white thread at regular (2 inch or so) intervals.  At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious I use the auto thread lock function to finish off one stitch at a time, pulling the quilt through the machine to the next section as you can see in this not very attractive photograph which shows the stitching from the back.

Once all the joining threads are snipped you end up with these little star shaped ties, and once you have got the hang of it you can actually be snipping the joining threads of one row of stitches while stitching the next.  I have already used this method of quilting for a whole quilt and as decoration in the border of another.  It is very forgiving of poor basting skills...

The stripey binding that I was going to use didn't work as the effect was totally lost, but I am so happy with this fantastically bright chartreuse kona which contrasts with the pink and satisfied my need for something with drama.

I love this quilt and have to confess to a sneaky regret that it's leaving!  It was fun to have a chance to play with colours so out of my normal comfort zone - I hope it makes someone happy and keeps them warm.

Quilt details:

Fabric - every single piece of pink in my stash, bar one.
Binding - kona in chartreuse
Batting - warm and natural
Thread - Aurifil 50 variegated No 4657, white Gutermann Sew All