A Quilt for Mary

I was contacted by Mary not long ago, asking if I could do some quilting for her.  Mary does BEAUTIFUL hand work, but is the first to admit that she and sewing machines don't get along well.  She's pretty funny.  She custom embroiders pillows.  You can see some of her work here, and she is usually at the Ogden Farmer's Market on Saturdays if you are in northern Utah.  I actually haven't been to that one yet, I should check it out.

She brought me two quilts, and this is the first one.  The blocks are alternating girls in sunbonnets and hearts, with floral squares in between.

She gave me free reign on the quilting, but didn't expect dense quilting, so I kept it pretty simple.  I really wanted to highlight her work and not detract from it.  Her corners didn't all match up, so rather than stitching in the ditch, I did a 1/4" outline on each embroidered block, then I treated the embroidery like appliques and just did a close outline.  You really can't tell in the pictures, but it gives it just a little bit of texture.

 With my limited hand embroidery experience, I can appreciate how even her stitches are.  Isn't her work gorgeous?

In the floral squares my quilting completely disappears on the front.  The fabric is so busy that you can't tell I did anything.  I should have realized that before I got started!  I drew from the hearts and the little flowers next to the girls, and decided to quilt alternating rows of hearts with little swirls in them and flowers.

Here's the back side of a girl with a watering can:

The back of a flower.

I know it looks like I just posted pictures of solid light blue fabric....

This was fun to machine quilt and I'm pleased with how it turned out!  I'm working on a rush order right now, and I'll finish Mary's other quilt early next week.  I hope she likes it!