I love my original quilting plan for Garden Peony, but for this version I wanted to free motion quilt an all over motif. That meant that I needed to settle on using a single thread for the quilting. I pieced the quilt top using 50wt Aurifil 4093 (Jade), which was a close color match to the background fabric, but I didn’t want to quilt on top of the prints with a green thread. Looking at the options in my thread stash, I chose 3 thread colors that blended in well with most of the prints in the quilt top: 2326 (Sand), 2214 (Golden Honey), and 2210 (Caramel).
Garden Peony – Quilting Thread Test
Because these colors will stand out the most against the background, I made a quick quilt sandwich using background fabric scraps to see how the threads looked quilted against the Kona Enchanted. It’s super subtle, and I have to admit I stared at the results for a bit before ultimately settling on using 2210 (Caramel).
Garden Peony – Basted
With a decision made about what thread I’ll be using to quilt with, I got the quilt top basted. I rotated every other pin and also pinned the excess batting that extends beyond the quilt top to the backing (Quilt Basting Tips).
After getting the quilt basted, I took the time to set up my machine and practice the free motion quilting motif that I had planned for Garden Peony.
Garden Peony – Quilting
For the quilting, I went with one of my favorite textural motifs: a swirl flower. The quilting starts by making a partial swirl shape, then it bounces back along the swirl with arcs that mimic flower petals. I like to echo back and forth 2-3 times until I am positioned and ready to spiral out to start the next swirl.
Garden Peony – Quilting Detail
The quilting thread blends in really well with the orange, pink, and yellow prints, and doesn’t stand out too much on the background and white print. I *love* the texture this has given to the quilt! In all, it took me about 4 hours to do all of the quilting and I used about 3.25 bobbins on the 40″ square quilt top. It’s time to trim the quilt square and get the binding on. Fingers crossed for good weather this afternoon so I can share the finished quilt with you tomorrow!
Beautiful fmq motif! Choosing thread color is tough but you made a great choice.
Great choice for the thread, and the free motion design works really well (and looks so nice)!
I really appreciate you explaining your process for figuring out your thread choice. The quilting looks great! I had to look up Kona Enchanted since it’s not in my Kona Swatch cards bought long ago, and I saw it was their 2020 color.
The quilting looks gorgeous! The caramel colored thread worked out really well.
I love your thread choice and you really got it done! Congrats.
I appreciate how you share your quilting processes. Wonderful learning opportunities! Great thread color and motif choices.
Wow, your quilting is amazing, perfectly balanced and the density is so evenly distributed. I am in awe of your talent to do this freehand. Well done!
At the top of the post, my first question was: what color did Yvonne use to quilt it? And happily, you dived right in and talked about it. Thank you for talking about your process. I think it’s the perfect color.! And I love the motif you chose; beautiful!