Peaceful Embroidery

 

In my experience, the quilting process on each work tends to morph as I go along. Rarely do I have a specific design in mine and keep with my plan without deviation. Sometimes the changes come about for aesthetic reasons. Other times, there are technical problems. In the case of  “Peace, Love, & Haight Ashbury”. I wasn’t really sure where I was headed. Sort of appropriate for the piece, I suppose.

When I finally decided upon quilting with peace signs, hearts, flowers, and words of that episode in time, my interest piqued a bit. But not over the top with enthusiasm.

Initially, the quilting was nearly eclipsed by the bright batiks. I toyed with the idea of doing some intense quilting around the motifs, but I couldn’t see that there would be much improvement.

This is a “before” picture.

My solution: Set the quilt aside and think about it while I worked on “Rainy Garden Windows”.

The result of my brainstorm: Embroider around the motifs with bright, variegated threads. It not only adds some definition but adds that wonderfully Hippie flair to it.

A closer view… Much better, I think.

This is a darker peace sign that I am outlining with yellowish orange thread.

I haven’t begun embroidering this heart, but I am kind of excited about the possibilities.

Before I do much more embroidering, I need to actually finish my quilting. At least I finally know where I am going. I guess.