"Haathi" is Hindi for elephant. I've been working off and on on this quilt all fall. I don't know if it rightly belongs on this blog, where I post my art quilts, or on my other blog Alice's Looking Glass, where I usually post traditional quilts plus accounts of travels and books I've read, etc.
But I am posting here because it was quilted in a non-traditional manner! I had intended to embroider the center medallion and then machine quilt the three borders. But then, getting frustrated with my first attempt at machine quilting, I had an Eureka moment: Why not hand quilt with embroidery stitches? I confess that I do not enjoy machine quilting, and hand quilting with tiny stitches and regular thread is beyond my capabilities, now, with my arthritic hands. And so I used Perle embroidery thread (in several different weights) and several different embroidery stitches.
I made this quilt for a dear friend who has been so generous and hospitable to us out in California. I look forward to presenting it to her when we are there for Christmas!
I used several different embroidery stitches in this quilt. Under the close-up pictures I will name the stitches used.
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| around ball: running stitches; lines within ball: back stitches; "smiley face" lines: stem stitches; round shapes above them: star stitches Around the elephant I first embroidered a running stitch, and then I wove a second, heavier thread through those stitches, forming the "laced running stitch" |
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| The decorative stitches here on the elephant's blanket are all running stitches |
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| ....but, alas, the tips of the Friendship Stars in the cornerstone got cut off when the binding was done. I'm not happy about this....but, it's a minor thing! |
