From the Vault - Climbing Lanterns Quilt

Since I haven't made much progress on my Paint Quilt. I thought I would dig out an older quilt for you to look at.

I started this quilt in late 2011 and finished it in January 2012.  It's approximately 48" square, and is from a free Michael Miller pattern called Climbing Lanterns, designed by Marinda Stewart.

The background is 6" squares and the tree is fused over the top. 

The pattern called for an additional applique element, Chinese Lanterns, at the tips of some of the branches.  That's how the pattern got the name, Climbing Lanterns.  

I guess I didn't bother with them because one of the fabrics I chose had navy blue circles and it almost gave the same effect from a distance.  Adding another element there would have just looked more cluttered.

Usually when I fuse something down, I just scribble stitch around the edges.  But on this quilt I carefully satin stitched every single part of the tree.

This satin stitch was done only on the quilt top, not through the entire sandwich.

I spent A LONG TIME on the quilting, and I did three kinds:

1. stitch in the ditch on all the seams of the 6" blocks, being careful not to stitch over the branches
2. edge stitching in brown thread around all the tree parts, just to the outside of the satin stitch
3. free motion leaves in the background

You know what?  I used to do a lot more, and better, quilting before I started this blog.  Now I seem to rush to get projects done so I have something to show.  Maybe I need to rethink that.

This is the label, a miniature version of the front.  

The backing fabric on the quilt is the brown that I used in this tree.

This is probably my favorite quilt.  I've had it on the wall in one place or another ever since I made it.