Ella’s Smitten Quilt
You guys, when Ella asked if I would be interested in quilting her Smitten quilt, I almost fainted! You might as well ask me if I could go for some chocolate or have any use for a gold bar!
I marvel at anyone who can do an entire EPP quilt! Ella’s piecing is phenomenal!! And the colors!!! I felt like this one wanted custom quilting with special designs for the hexies and diamonds. For the most part, I used one quilting design per hexy design. In some cases I switched it up a little if similar hexies were too close to each other and for most of the black and white striped fabric I just outlined each stripe.
I really wanted the piecing and fabrics to be the stars of the show, with the quilting giving it just a little boost. Because of all of the color changes even within a single hexy, it was nearly impossible for me to color match thread or pick one color for everything. For most of the quilt I used a medium gray, which blended really well for most fabrics and was totally hidden in some of the busier prints, and then I used white thread for the white fabrics where I thought the gray might be a little too obvious.
I was worried the gray thread might be too stark on the black, but I did a little test and it ended up being just enough that you could see the stitches without being too standout-ish.
For the background and borders, I matched the thread to let it blend in as much as possible. I used black thread to do the stripes on the background/inner black border and fiddlehead-type feathers along the outer border, then gray thread for the pebbles on the Tula linework border. This scheme let the threads blend in so in the light you can see the resulting texture and patterns, but it doesn’t draw the eye away from the piecing. (Have I mentioned how much I freaking love the piecing?!?!?!)
This quilt was such a treat to work on and I hope Ella loves it as much as I do!
Maker: Ella
Pattern: Smitten by Lulu Well for Sunspell
Custom quilting by me on my HandiQuilter Fusion, combination of free motion and rule work
Thread: Aurifil 50 wt cotton in gray, white, and black
