A modern touch

This is a quilt created by my good friend Patricia O’Sullivan. I just loved the design and wanted to accent the colours and clean lines of her vertical modern design.

We selected Quilters Dream 80/20 as a stabilizer with Quilters Dream Wool to provide the beautiful trapunto effect. Stitch in the ditch was certainly called for but there is a huge challenge with adjacent black and white fabric. MonoPoly to the rescue and very slow precise stitching provide the perfect accent.

For the unique background I wanted to imitate the lanterns and have them tuck under as they move up the quilt. The composition was accomplished using Bernina’s Q-matic system to modify a simple square and develop the pattern. The challenge was the precision required when stitching long rows of straight lines that started and stopped right at the black sashing. Although computer guided each segment of each row of the background was individually quilted. To ensure the quilted lanterns remained parallel to the pieced lanterns the quilt would have to be loaded perfectly square. Luckily Patricia quilts with outstanding precision. I was able to use channel locks and a laser light to ditch stitch the sashing first and then work up to baste the top and sides. There was no room for error as each row along the quilt would have to be parallel to the lanterns. The end result was certainly worth the effort.