I finally finished the tulip quilt just last week. It even has a label and a sleeve for hanging. This is my first machine quilted "masterpiece". The center was quilted on the painted black lines and then echo quilted. The fence was stitched in the ditch and stippled between the rails and picketts. The blue border was quilted in spirals to give the impression of wind. I used a fiber that I got from the local cross stitch store. It came on a card and is called Highlights. I don't remember the company that makes it. I wound the fiber onto a bobbin and quilted from the backside. I am pleased with the effect.

Some of my friends might recognize the painted center block as the work of our friend Canuck.

Close but no cigar

The tulip quilt is sooo close to being done. I got some awesome thread from the cross stitch store yesterday and quilted the last border today to give the feeling of wind. The thread is a blue with blue metallic and looks very subtle with whisps of shine.

Only problem is that I bought 40 yards of thread and ran out about 10 yards short!

Back to the cross stitch store tomorrow.

Finally finished the fence!

Well, here it is! I finally got all the little bitty parts between the fence posts quilted! And boy was it a chore. the pieces are as small as 0.75" square and so the stippling had to be very tiny. I use a very small needle and a fine polyester thread.

Stuck on the quilting

I am at an impass. I am just not sure how I want to quilt the rest of this tulip quilt

I have come up with two all over quilting patterns that I am interested in using, but I am not sure about them. I like these curlies for the blue "sky" part of the quilt.
And I thought about using these flowers for the fence part, but I don't think that is a dense enough pattern for this quilt.

I tried to do a pattern that looked like wood knots for the fence posts but it just didn't look right.

So I have decided to take suggestions. All of your lurkers out there, it is time to post a comment. Help me decide what to quilt for the rest of this tulip top.

the echo has died out

I finally finished echo quilting those tulips. I thought it would have to wait until tomorrow when I broke 3 needles in 20 minutes but I took a break and found another package of needles in my stash. These things happen when you are using a size 60/8 sharps machine needle.

Isn't it stunning?

Keep on Truckin'

I finally got back to quilting that tulip quilt today. I finished the flower outlining and now I am working on echo quilting the area around the flowers. You might wonder how I am marking my quilt top. I am using a yellow Sanford Verithin pencil (sharpened to a good point) and a flexible ruler that is made for tracing off curves. I am marking the echoes one ruler width from each other. I am using a domestic electronic Kenmore machine and an open toe darning foot while free motion quilting.

I may have mentioned that I have trilobal polyester thread from Coats and Clark in my bobbin. The black thread I used for outlining was also a trilobal polyester and is from Mettler. The thread I am using in the needle for the echo quilting is a butter cream color. It is a rayon machine embroidery thread from Coats and Clark.