Friday, June 11, 2010

Feel the Fear...And Do It Anyway*

This quilt has been on my HQ16 for the last couple of weeks and I haven't done a single stitch of quilting on it yet. It's made by a friend who has had me quilt a good number of her quilts in the past. She's the one who always lets me just play on her tops without restriction and I'm usually happy to do it, even if I am a bit afraid to try a new design.

This one has had me paralyzed for a while. The solid red sections have a chenille design, and at first, that was what worried me. But I soon realized that I could easily quilt around the chenille. The problem I have is deciding what color thread to use. I have a very nice red that would work quite well on both the red section and the pieced section, but the red thread will look awful on the cream colored backing (you can't see that in this photo). The backing really needs a cream-colored thread, but I'm afraid of having little dots of cream thread show through on the red fabric and little dots of red show through on the backing. And cream thread will look awful on the red if I used it on the top. In order to use red thread on top and cream thread on the bottom, the thread tension will have to be perfect. Hence my fear!

But this is silly -- I need to get over the fear, so I've decided to write the quotation from this post's heading on the white board above my machine and plan to tackle the quilting this weekend. If it works, you'll see a photo of the result on my blog sometime next week...
*The quotation is the title of a 1987 book by Susan Jeffers.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I am sure that you will make the right decision and it will turn out just beautifully! Go for it!

Stella Jones said...

I'm new to quilting and I don't see what that 'machine' is underneath the pieces of fabric. Is it some sort of frame?
Love the colours of this warm looking quilt.
Blessings, Star

grendelskin said...

I'm with Jackie - your work always comes out beautiful. You can do it!

Anonymous said...

Anya, I hear you! Tension is so important. So are choices, especially when it's not your quilt.
*sigh* I wonder if there is some "in between" thread color choice that would work with both? Tan?
Diane

NeverBored said...

Would a rosey pink thread work on both sides? Personally I don't mind the thread on the back of my quilts being in strong contrast to the backing fabric. It shows off the quiltiing designs and is like getting 2 quilts for the price of one: the pieced top, and a whole cloth quilt!

Barb said...

Anya, I don't doubt for a minute that you will make the RIGHT choice..and it will be gorgeous. Your quilting is always envied by me! You go girl, you can do it!! Now I am anxious to see the finished project, DO IT, DO IT!! Have a great weekend...humid here, storms predicted in my part of PA!

Anonymous said...

Please post finished work! would love to see how you did the chenille!