I finished this piece that was started in class last week with Ann Fahl, which I’ve tentatively decided to call “Square Dance. If you click on the image at right, you can see the quilting. I used a wild variety of quilting motifs on this, deliberately ignoring the lines of piecing. It was a fun exercise, but I really had to concentrate on what I was doing and think a couple of steps ahead as I was quilting. This is truly “drawing with my needle and thread”!

I used a shiny rayon variegated thread instead of the cotton I usually use and result was very different. The thread is more difficult to use and a little bit temperamental, so I have to decide if I want to continue to work with it so I learn its ways.

Although I have tried this technique of using lots of different motifs in one piece before, I learned a lot from doing it again in a more concentrated way. It’s a very personal style, almost like handwriting, and no two quilters will do it the same way–I might not even be able to do exactly the same thing again. One important idea I got out of this is to group the motifs so there are recognizable chunks of each design in each space, instead of changing more frequently. That’s the way it appeals to me most. I’ll definitely be working on this concept more this summer, because I think it plays to my strengths–color in the design and the quilting line. Stay tuned.