Aprille with Chaucer…slow but steady progress

I probably quilted more than 40 hours for both the past two weeks, and all of it was on my silk Chaucer quilt.  I estimate at least another 50 hours of quilting plus the painting, beading, and binding that comes after that.  Do my quilting muscles hurt?  Truly!  Am I having fun?  Absolutely!  I have been making quilting decisions as I go along.

Some of you have asked how I was doing the text box, so I thought I’d show you.  I first digitized it in my Bernina v6 software, embroidered it on a piece of black Radiance, and pieced it into the quilt.  Yesterday I finished the quilting around all the words and the rest of the text box, adding some soon-to-be-painted flourishes on each side of the text.  Here is the result so far:

textbox quilted

As you see I also have a 1 1/4 inch faux sashing.  I plan to edge this by couching some Ricky Tim’s Razzle Dazzle on either side, but I have not figured how I’m going to quilt it yet.

All the stitching around the embroidered vine and the appliques is complete, but I haven’t done much with the background stitching, nor have I completed the quilting of the appliques themselves.  I had to do a lot of frogging and restitching to get it up close like I wanted it.  I still see a few places where I still need to do this.  But here’s a sampling of the center:

Applique sampling

I still have a lot of stippling around the border and, after much thought and searching through books and Electric Quilt, I figured out generally what I will use for the background stippling of the central theme.  Originally I was going to do a diagonal decorative stitch  from my Bernina, but decided it just won’t work with all that stopping and starting.  So I THINK I’m going to use a nice vine/leaf style I found on one of my EQ designs.  I have to practice first to see if that works before I stitch that part.

I have been happy to see the waves and wrinkly parts go away the more I quilt, as I had thought they would.  Here’s a view across the quilt.

Across the quilt

Sew I am making slow but steady progress on this challenge to myself.  I’ve also been enjoying a lot of music and audiobooks on my ipod as I quilt.  I just “read” the final in Elizabeth Moon’s Paksenarian series “Crown of Renewal”.  I give it about 4 stars.  I thought the ending could be better, but I won’t say how here because I don’t want to spoil it for you in case you are reading it.

Sew happy my friends!  Teach the young and old alike to quilt and sew, men, boys, girls, women, dogs, cats!  😀