Stitch stitch stitching

Enough dragging of the feet, I have begun stitching the willow branches/leaves. It is pretty dense stuff so one thought was to create at least some of them as separate units that could be overlapped and attached with minimal stitching to the quilt top. Here is one sample, testing thread color and technique. I used the Super Solvy stabilizer over tulle, which worked pretty well - no hooping.


Still hesitant to stitch directly on the quilt, I couched some perle cotton as extensions to the appliqued branches.


But ultimately I had to push down my fears and start quilting those wispy branches. The rayon twist thread I chose didn't have enough oomph and while I was wishing I had a heavier one, I remembered the trick of blending two threads through the needle. A dark green rayon was just what I needed to make the lighter green/yellow rayon stand out better. Click on the picture for a larger view to see the quilting in the water.


Here you can see how I laid down the branch, then added the leaves over it. The first batch of leaves are a bit in shadow.


Here I've added leaves that are catching the sunlight. This is a King Tut variegated cotton thread.

Much much much more stitching to do, and I do think I'll be doing more of the stand alone branches/leaves to layer over the quilted ones. I'm definitely going to have some distortion issues here.