This rail fence quilt features a quilted grid on the main layout and a wavy line in the 1" accent sashing. I was temporarily stumped on how to quilt the outer border until I realized it would be a perfect candidate for outline quilting. For busy prints such as this, outline quilting is good practice for learning to quilt in different directions and double-stitching on your domestic machine. I also outline quilt applique shapes to get them to lay flat and reinforce the applique stitches, but there's no applique on this quilt!
Using the same orange thread throughout (Presencia's 50/3 100% cotton), I stitched around the outer edge of this flower. Sometimes I would stitch the inner parts of the flower and other times I would elect to travel to an adjacent flower to continue quilting.
Filling in open spaces with loops and meandering lines is a means to travel and bridge the quilting design from one flower or leaf to the next. I also stitched-in-the-ditch along the sashing/border to move up the edge, then continued stitching out into the open area to outline quilt additional prints.
By outline quilting the flowers and some leaves, the quilting density is a bit heavier. This gives the outer border more stability than quilting loops alone. Also, the orange thread both blends into the background and highlights the flowers. I'm very pleased with the final result!
Copyright ©2013, Sharon Baggs
