Becky's Bicycle Quilt

In 2017, the Quincy Crazy Quilters retreat theme was Laura Heine. Laura does all those great collage quilt patterns. I chose to do Frieda the Fox; Becky chose the bicycle (a pattern that's no longer available). During the retreat she kept asking me how I would quilt it. Then at the 2018 retreat, she brought it with her and I got to bring it home!

Quilting this was challenging. Most of these quilts tend to  have just straight line quilting, something Becky could have easily done herself. I knew she was expecting more, so I did some playing in the background. I first decided to make some alternate focal points with "frames" around the hummingbirds, butterflies, and the plants at the bottom.

After that, it was just a matter of accenting the wheels, bike bits, and background. I did discover that stitching over the "appliqued" fabrics took slowing way down and cleaning the needle--a lot. The Steam-A-Seam was quite "gummy."

 

Here are a few pics of the back. Becky sent the quilt with one backing fabric and then decided she wanted me to pic another that would allow the quilting to show. As you can see, I did multiple designs in the background to keep it interesting and fun.

Thanks for looking!

Dory