Quilting Rue--post 3 of 4

Fill stitch I didn't like nor did Rue!

In my mind, I envisioned quilting different fill stitches in the hand stitched hexagons. I stitched one and thought. . .yuk! Rue started talking to me. So I asked myself what if I quilted pebbles in the center hexagon? I tried quilting pebbles. I liked that better as did Rue!

Quilted centers

As I pebbled the centers; I decided that I would pebble the background too. I wasn't sure if the larger hexagons would need some more stitching.

Hand stitched hexagons with fill stitches

After I had quilted a number of the centers, I stopped, stepped back and reviewed. I liked what I saw so I continued stitching. When I finished, I decided that the extra large and large hand stitched hexagons needed quilting.

Coming up with a variety of fills and then executing each fill stitch was a challenge. I stitched and then I unstitched and then I repeated that process numerous times!

I liked the openness of leaving the small and extra small hand stitched hexagons plain so I didn't embellish those with thread. I liked using the Westalee templates to create the fills. The practice was good for me.

Stitching the background pebbles

I wasn't excited about stitching more pebbles as I'm still "pebbled out" after finishing the chickens. Repetition is good in a quilting design so I decided that pebbles were a good choice. I talked myself into the stitching. I spent some afternoons, some early mornings and some late nights stitching pebbles.

I used the same 40wt polyester thread in both the top and bottom. Yes, this is an unusual step for me. I had planned to use silk; but, I wasn't that happy with the tension of the silk on the batik fabric on either the front or the back of the project.

Because a batik has a tighter weave, thread has a tendency to float on top of the fabric. The lighter the thread, the more it tends to float.

I wanted to be able to see some definition with the stitches and the 40wt polyester gave me what I wanted so that was why I used it.

Blocked and drying

Once the pebbling was complete it was on to the blocking stage. I needed to wet the quilt because I had used water soluble thread to anchor the polyester batting in place for the trapunto of the fabric hexagons. The thread dissolved easily. In the photo above you can see that I pieced the batting. Once I've finished the project; the pieced batting isn't noticeable. Piecing the batting is a good way to use up smaller pieces of batting.

In the next post, I'll share the finish steps. . .although, when the piecing is blocked and drying, I'm feeling terrific to have another project approaching the sleeve and label stage!