Challenge 2017 - #14 Fiesta Fruit Cocktail

What a fun name for a fun quilt!

I belong to the Calgary Longarm Quilt Group. We meet on a monthly basis. Each year we submit quilts to the Festival of Quilt at Heritage Park. For the 2017 festival we decided to submit Hunter Star quilts. We had a class and learned how to sew the block and each of us has quilted the quilt to display our work.

I had a bundle of really bright batiks and thought this would be a good way to use them. I had the quilt top all ready to be quilted....so I thought! When I pulled it out of the box, there was a pile of fabric and no borders on the quilt!

I auditioned a yellow and 2 pinky reds to see which I liked best. The red on the right was a better choice, but the yellow was not quite right. I ended up with a dark green batik from my stash. I think it works much better.

I was on a roll using the Feather Curl that I used in Evie's Quilt, Challenge 2017's #13 Finish and decided to use this again with a slightly different curl. I stitched a ribbon curl and LOVE IT!!!!!

I stitched continuous curves in the star points........

..... and ribbon curls in each of the triangle units.

The only downside was that I needed to stitch each section separately and cut the thread. I have another Hunter Star quilt that I'll use to try and change the path so that I can quilt it without any stopping and starting.

When I quilt, I like to stitch a couple of elements and repeat them throughout the quilt. In this case I stitched a continuous curl in the white border. It compliments nicely with the curls in the blocks and in the border. My only "dislike" is the stitching in the dark green border. I don't think it works as well as I envisioned. I still think I may unpick and re-stitch.

I really like how this ribbon curl looks. I stitch a little bump at the end instead of just curling in. I make sure that I overlap the stitching lines to give the 3 dimensional effect.

I quilted with WonderFil's Fabulux FB08, Ocean Breeze. This is a lovely bright variegated thread with blue, yellow, pink and a bit of green. The pink doesn't show up at all on the border. So, Instead of changing thread, I kept the design simple.

Wow, Quilt #14. I have a few big projects coming up, so I may slow down a bit! Be patient.