Hummingbird Hollow

 This quilt is the brainchild of my friend, Janet Noever, who passed away suddenly from a stroke in February 2020. One of the original Sunday Sew and Sews, Janet had a tremendous love of quiltmaking and an amazing stash of works in progress. Her Estate Sale is one for the record books. I have written about her and that sale before--use the Search box in the upper left to find those posts.

I got this--she came up with a simple way to make Afternoon Delight. Instead of many applique blocks, she found this fabric with large  hummingbird floral motifs that fit nicely in place of  applique blocks. Cut 7.5", and adding a 1" finished border to each motif made it fit with 9" finished Double 9 patch blocks. She had all the fabrics gathered in a big tote box and I was eager to make her vision come to be.

Now I am quilting it. Lots of ruler work, stitch in the ditch and scalloped borders with feathers. 

First pass, diagonal lines across the quilt top, in both directions:

It was clear that was not enough support quilting before any fancy work. I added stitch in the ditch, on all vertical and horizontal lines and around the yellow sashing on each floral motif. Much better. Then I added pumpkin seeds to the solid blocks in the Double 9 patches: 

In the floral motifs I first did a simple curved line in the corners and then swirls in the center of the flowers. I didn't care for that, you can't really see the stitching on the busy print so I revamped that idea to sort of continue the pumpkin seed idea. See how nothing quilted in those flowers will show:

Here is the back, showing both the rejected design on the floral motif (left side) and the revised one (right side). I am leaving the rejected design until September when I am giving a Ruler Work/Free Motion Quilting Demo class at a local shop. So students can see why the first choice isn't always the best and sometimes you have to change directions: 

Next up is the borders. First, I used variegated thread on the solid narrow inner border for a leaf vine I use a lot. It's one I am very comfortable with so it is easy to accomplish. I also love variegated thread BUT it is hard to use successfully. Since the narrow inner border is made from many solid colors, I thought it actually worked pretty well here: 

I have just begun the outer border on the print fabric. I changed back to the cream thread used in the body of the quilt and have gotten the two scalloped lines done all around the border. Next I will use straight lines on the outside of the scallop and feathers on the inside.

I watch lots of videos from great quilters. Natalia Bonner of Piece n Quilt is one of the best--her work speaks to me and it's the kind of quilting I want to do. 

Let's quilt.