Santorini - Landscape Quilting Part 2

Back for another day in Santorini - such a beautiful place!

My quilting adventure continues, and this time the discussion is about the stitching. The first round adds stitching to every butted up seam, which will hold all the layers together, and stabilize the piece. Since I was working with clear poly thread, the iron bars in the window and on the gate got some detail stitching too.

Notice a free motion foot in the above picture. Holy smokes - I'm actually doing sit down free motion work! It has been years since I did any. So why now? It all comes down to needle size.

I commented last week that some of the zigzag stitching could be seen, even with a 8/60 size needle. Imagine the hole that a huge, fat 100/16 longarm needle would leave! A lot of fused fabrics aren't pliable enough to bend back into shape to make the hole small again. So, my dear Innova friend, Tess, you're not invited to this party!

And that's okay. I'm rather enjoying this free motion process, though it's far from perfect. I'm certainly no Diane Gaudynski, and quilt judges will have a field day with my stitching. Whatever. It's getting quilted and I'm enjoying it. That's what matters, right?

Anyhoo, one day Massdrop had a deal on a Superior Threads Kimono Silk Thread pack, with neutrals that would be perfect for Santorini. Plus I wanted thin thread for fine details.

Though it took awhile to arrive, that's ok, because it gave me time to ponder how to quilt Santorini. 

My go-to process is to put vinyl on the top, and start drawing with a dry erase pen.

Referring to the original picture, I started filling in, and getting a sense of what I wanted to do.

After that much drawing, I figured it was enough to get me started. Once I had those parts done, the rest would fall into place, in both texture and density. I didn't need to spend the time to draw it all out, as plans change.

Notice that the stitch designs are rather simple: pebbles, stippling, and directional stippling. In the Lovely Landscape Quilts book, Cathy states that "simple stipple or meander adds texture and is often more appropriate for landscape quilts, versus fans, feathers or geometric circular motifs." Yeah - no need to get fancy here!

So now I'm off to stipple and pebble. More stitching talk later this week.

Happy Quilting!