Howdy!
This one was really a fun quilt to work on. I definitely had to doodle a bit to figure out what to do for these hats and boots, but it finally clicked for me.
One note I would like to make on this one is that the rope in the border was put on prior to quilting - this is
NOT the way to do this. It was very difficult to work with, and also caused the quilt itself to be distorted, especially in the corners. Any embellishments should always be added
AFTER quilting. (In case you are wondering, she made the "rope" by braiding two colored rick-racks together.)
The hats were actually a bigger challenge for me to do than the boots, and after looking at many pictures of cowboy hats, I opted to simply decorate the band a bit, and add in what I hoped looked like natural creases. Since the hats also had an additional white space below, a complimentary boot/hat border added a little extra charm here.
Some creases were also added to the boots, as well as continuous curve in the square blocks of the boot top, and they definitely needed some spurs!
Since the hats and boots did not have a lot of quilting actually in them, the background area around them was stippled for some extra texture.
The black border/sashing areas were stitched with loops and stars. To work with the "rope", a simple wavy pattern was used to compliment, and for the red corner blocks, a simple continuous curve.
Well quilting pardners, that's all for now. Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy
Verse for the day: "Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:4)
This one was really a fun quilt to work on. I definitely had to doodle a bit to figure out what to do for these hats and boots, but it finally clicked for me.
Merry Christmas!
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We really enjoyed our Thanksgiving, and I hope you enjoyed yours as well. Holidays are such a wonderful time for family gatherings, but unfortunately, our family is so scattered that we were not able to get everyone together. As a replacement, our wonderful daughter sent this photo, and I just had to show off two of our cute grandchildren! (Our daughter Sarah with Samantha and Emily)
The quilt border as a busy fabric, so the pattern would be hard to see. This is the back of the quilt, which allows you to see the Ivy pattern, and some of the feather sashing. 
Looking at the border, I decided the brown needed a little softening, so I used a turquoise thread and a spiked swirl pattern like a fill. The smaller inner borders I quilted as one unit in an alternating swirl pattern. I like to vary my textures so that there is both heavy and light quilting throughout the quilt. This adds more interest to the overall look and makes some parts of the quilt stand out more than others.
The blocks were of 3 basic styles. I used continuous curve in the triangle and square background areas (curved lines that go from point to point), swirls in other areas, and pointed ovals to look like buds in the flower areas. I hope you can see this in the blocks I have shown here.
For the background area, I wanted something tight so that the blocks would stand out, so I used a paisley fill. This swirly pattern was a nice contrast to all the points of the blocks, and allowed the block patterns to come forward. The finished quilt at the top of this post is the finished result.
