Snowflakes!

Hello!  This past week we had our first real snowfall for the season here in Butler, PA, and I was quilting snowflakes, too!  This beautiful quilt belongs to my Aunt Brenda.  I'm very happy with this finished quilt for a couple of different reasons (besides that it's just really pretty) which I'll share with you.

Reason #1:  Brenda took my advice and purchased black batting for this quilt.  Why is this so important??  Because the backing fabric is a dark color.  Every quilt that I've done for someone who chose black or a dark colored backing fabric had little "pokies" of white batting coming through the back in the stitching holes.  It REALLY shows up against the dark colored fabric.  When this happens it makes me feel awful because I do everything I can to do the best possible job on people's quilts.  This is beyond my control, but I just feel so badly that it happens.  The first time this problem occurred I contacted some quilting experts and teachers that I know, and they confirmed that I couldn't do much to prevent it - just change the needle so that it's nice and sharp and use black batting.  I have advised clients about this problem and recommended to use black batting, but usually they have already purchased what they needed for the quilt and tell me to go ahead with the white or off-white batting.  You can see in the picture below how nice the stitching is and NO batting can be seen coming through.  This made me so happy!

If you are making a quilt with mostly darker colors on the front and a dark fabric for backing, please consider using black batting.  Purchase it from your local quilt shop or find it online.  It will make a big difference!

Reason #2:  I got to use this snowflake pantograph called Snow Winds for the first time.  I bought it last year, and no client had requested it yet.  It's a nice larger scale design and it was perfect on Brenda's quilt.

The fabrics in this quilt are all batiks, even the snowflakes in the center of the squares!  I bought some of this fabric the same time Brenda did, but I haven't used mine yet.  As I worked on this quilt I did dig my piece out and contemplate what I might do with it.  I'm still thinking...

Thank you, Aunt Brenda, for letting me quilt for you!

I'm sharing this finish over at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday.
​Thanks for visiting and have a great week!