Jelly Parfait - the journey continues

When last I left Jelly Parfait, it was in April 2011.  I was using it to distract me from a bigger quilt.  :-)   Jelly Parfait (the top) was completed and put on the Pile of Tops to be Quilted.

Well, guess what popped to the top of the stack??  :-)  I was fortunate enough to not only have the exact amount of 108" wide unbleached muslin available for the backing, but I also had a hunk of batting that was also *exactly* the right size.  In short order, it was loaded onto Lizzie.

I buy a bolt of 108" wide muslin (and try to use a discount coupon, too), wash the entire thing (ugh ... very tedious) so that I have a seamless backing available when I need it.   I'm not sure what content the batting is though .. it was on top of a Bamboo packaging bag, but that doesn't necessarily mean it *is* bamboo batting.  It really annoys me when I don't keep track of what batting is what.

I printed out a picture of the entire top and began to think about what kind of quilting I wanted to do.  This remains the most difficult part of quilting for me.  While I'm a good technician, I'm not artistic and generally don't have that special "spark" that generates a fantastic quilting design.  I have lots of books and reference pictures and diagrams to use as inspiration and instruction.  However, I find that have TOO many choices is just as bad as not having enough.

Eventually, I decided that I would use Carla Barrett's Berry Swirl for the outside border  (Berry Swirl is part of her Swirly Designs for Borders and Sashings diagrams).  I just love, love, love Carla Barrett's designs.  The inner border, made from the gingham "ribbon" stripe, gets a string of beads design.  (That design is actually called String of Pearls but mine aren't coming out nice enough to be called "pearls", so I'm going with just beads.  :-)  )

I'm now at the point where I have stitched in the ditch around all the large solid fabric and pieced triangles of the first row.  I'm doing the continuous curve around all the diamonds in the pieced triangle.  I really, really like the look of continuous curves in squares/diamonds and use Carla Barrett's directions for the stitching path so that it really IS one continuous line of curves.  (Don't be mislead by the title of the page ... the continuous curve diagram is about one-quarter down the page.)

While the Berry Swirl and String of Beads was done freehand (yeah, and it looks it), I am using a curved template for the continuous curve stitching.  And what curved template do I use??  Why it's Deloa Jone's Appliguide!  It wasn't designed to be used as a curved template but I have found that it has EXACTLY the size curve I need for small spaces.  I like it when tools are multi-functional, even when they weren't originally meant to be.  :-)   Oh .. and the Appliguide is a *wonderful* tool for its intended purpose too: helping you do outline stitching around appliqued designs.

I'll do all of the continuous curves in the pieced triangles before I move onto the solid triangles.  I've already drawn out a full-scale curvy feather on paper.  I'll be holding my breath and hope that I correctly translate the drawn design into a stitched design!  :-)