Katherine's Hourglass and Applique

This is a quilt Katherine made for her nieces wedding.  Lucky Niece.

 This quilt is all about the intricate piecing (both hand and machine) and applique.  So, we decided on simple quilt to allow the top to shine.  That star block above is a 3" block.  By not stitching in the star itself, see how the star kind of puffs out?  That was what I wanted to happen.

 And a few hundred 3" hourglass blocks, freehand continious curves.  I loved this quilt so much I now have a 3" hourglass block planned (but no handpieced medallions or applique for mine--plus, it's not going to be bed sized )

The medallion above is hand pieced.  It got special treatment, which shows better on the back

.and the 4 corner applique blocks also got special treatment

I just love love love the texture the quilting gives the hourglass blocks.  This is what convinced me I need to make an hourglass block quilt.  Mind you, usually what happens when I decide I need to piece a quilt BECAUSE I know just how to quilt it--I change my mind and quilt it differently.

The backing is a lovely soft brushed flannel, and a wool batting was used.

Here's a pre-quilting photo for comparison purposes

and a photo of how I auditioned some quilting designs for the medallion--I use a large plexiglass, and you'll note the bright tape around the edge so I NEVER draw off the edge of the plexiglass.  That's the most important step.