This incredible First Quilt is about 6 years old here. It is lovingly created from a photo of Koi Fish in a pond. The fabrics include the quilter's cloths, you can see satin and cotton velveteen.
I was told this quilt was rejected by every machine quilter that was asked to quilt it...until a guild Friend in Quilting ask if I would quilt it. When told I said yes...the quilter cried tears of joy, finally!!!
As you can see there were many hours of fixing seams here and there. Most of the hexi corners were sewn to the raw edge of the fabric and not to the 1/4" mark, a beginner error. I probably have about 10 hours of hand work and get it ready to load SibbyNell.
On the frame the 62" x 42" quilt top was not laying flat. Undaunted I started machine quilting. As they say "it is what it is"...
They wanted water...so swirls and diagonal meanders and bubbles where needed and miraculously started gathering up the extra fabric.
Almost every area that defined the Koi had a different texture and a thread change if needed.
It was fun, fun, fun to work with different textures and thread. A truly rewarding challenge when you see the finished quilt.
Now for the binding...5 days later.
And with 15 thread changes, this work of love hangs 2 1/2" lower on the right side than the left. When cutting the wavy border as requested I accented the angle to make it truly look planned. If I had cut it a bit more straight it would not look like a design element.
It was a joy to quilt. It lays flat and hangs flat. By using different densities of patterns it was able to gather up puckers and lots of extra fabric.
Truly you can see the quilter's vision of her first quilt, two Koi gently swimming in a pond. I hope she is happy :)
