Monday, November 12, 2007

Meandering on the Railroad

Thought you might enjoy seeing the progress on another of Karen's Civil War quilts, the Underground Railroad. She chose a ferny meander from Suzanne Earley's first Meandering Magic book. It is going very well so far, and the quilting gives a lovely sculptured texture to the quilt. She chose Mother Goose thread for this one, too. When you use Suzanne's method, you first create a very large meander across the quilt to form the stem for an overall feather design. Then you go back down the vine and add feathers, leaves, hearts, or whatever to fill in an overall design. Suzanne writes that she meanders the whole quilt first, then stitches the feathers on each side of the vine as she progresses down the stem. I prefer to do just two passes of meander across each row, then add the feathers before rolling. Sometimes I just have room to do the "upper feathers" on the second spine before rolling. It is nice to have the next meander spine in place so you can judge how far down to extend your feathers. I really recommend this book and have used several of her designs on quilts, including Forest Floor and one with hearts.

2 comments:

Vicki W said...

That's a perfect treatment for this quilt. I really like Suzanne's technique too.

Suzanne Earley said...

Nice job, Jeanne! I love hearing how people are taking my ideas and putting their own spin on it -- finding the way they work best.

Thanks for sharing!