Basket Quilt by Cindy B !!!

Cindy B. brought this into the studio on March 24, 2014. It is absolutely beautiful and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. She had sewn it from a kit and pattern from Fons and Porter in the September/October 2010 issue of their magazine. It appears to be perfectly pieced----Cindy does things like that---and it lays flat and square. She brought a copy of the 'suggested' quilting pattern with the top, so that I would have a 'jumping off' point to work with. There was a feather daisy in the handle area that she particularly liked and wants me to use. 

Of course this came in at a very busy time and she was in no rush for the quilting, so I put it in line with the other custom quilts.

Fast forward to Thursday, May 22, 2014 and look what is happening:

I have it partially loaded. I say partially, because on something this size and involved, I baste the whole quilt in before I take the first stitch. That way, I don't get to the bottom of the quilt and have big surprises waiting for me. You know, like, very wavy borders or backing that is to short. Yes, even though I measure and take all of the necessary precautions, I can reach the bottom edge of the quilt and have surprises. That is why I totally baste something like this totally down. I will be rolling this quilt back and forth on the rollers and I don't want anything to shift. This process will take most of today.............yes, I said most of today....4 to 8 hours. If it is to be done right.........that's what it takes. (Why does custom quilting cost so much?)

Dream Wool batting is being used on this project. Absolutely love Dream Wool. I will be using Superior threads. Bottom Line in the bobbin and Omni (my favorite) in the top.

I will post as I go so that you can see the process that I go through. Right now, back to basting and pinning.