July 2015 FMQ Challenge

For this month Quiltshopgal presented Paula Reid as the expert FMQ and I chose to complete Option1 for this challenge.

I decided to try myself again at Trapunto, something I have played a bit with in the past but have not quite got the hang of it. I enlarged the stencil provided just a little bit, traced it on the fabric and also marked my grid with my new June Taylor grid marker (easy as). 

Then I went around the outline with water soluble thread having backed it with a fluffy wool batting that I had left over from something.

After carefully cutting away the excess batting behind the wreath (no holes, yah!) I basted the quilt top as per normal, using cotton batting. So far, so good...I decided to use my all time favourite thread, Aurifil 50/2 Mako.

Aurifil 50/2 #1126

This is by far the most fantastic colour I have ever come across...it reminds me of a blue flower (Kornblumen?). It comes from Sheena Norquay's Autumn collection and was the perfect choice for this pillow. Even though I do not usually FMQ with a darker thread, I just had to use this.

The wreath came out a treat...nicely raised and prominent. I went around it twice to make it really pop out, then went ahead and stitched out the grid. This took a long time...you would think that I had enough of grids after all these pillow challenges, but I think I am a bit addicted to them by now. Find it quite therapeutic to just sit there following the lines. Again chose the cathedral window design.
It was quite cold here in Australia over the last few weeks...and I mean, really cold...so this took double the time as I could not sew in the evening. Try doing FMQ with very cold hands...just does not work, so I had to wait for my day off and the weekend.

Got there in the end

Close up

Trapunto Wreath

Linking up to the July Linky Party over at Quiltshopgal.

Karin