Basket Panel Background Quilting

I chose black thread to do the background quilting on the basket panel quilt.  I used a design similar to McTavishing, developed by Karen McTavish, to give it texture.  I used Isacord black thread in the top and light gold colored Bottom Line in the bobbin to match my backing.  I wanted texture without adding a colored thread so chose the black color for my free hand McTavishing.  McTavishing is also very forgiving quilting design as well.

My machine does not have any problem quilting with this combination of threads.  I was surprised that I didn’t have to do a little adjustment on the tension to keep black dots of thread from showing on the back and gold colored dots showing on the top but will take the gift of perfect tension anytime.The little 1” gold border was first quilted with end to end leaves with a medium tan polyester embroidery thread in the top and the same gold Bottom Line thread in the bottom.  I marked the outside of the leaf shapes with one of those mechanical chalk pencils by Fons and Porter using white chalk lead.  It brushes off easily so use it a lot, plus it makes a skinny line.Since I heavily quilted the rest of the quilt I felt this narrow border needed more quilting too so added another line of quilting with gold thread to match the fabric.  As you can see I echo quilted close to the leaf and just made circle loops to fill in the space.  It flattens the border without mudding the leaf design too much.

This quilt has been so much fun to quilt.  Not sure why but maybe because I did not feel rushed to finish it.  Savoring the process has it’s perks I guess.

Lynn