Mocha Trail

I have another one of Thelma’s gorgeous quilts to share…Mocha Trail!!  I remember Thelma mentioning that she wasn’t totally in love with this quilt.  She wasn’t sure how she felt about the star blocks.  That thought was my driving inspiration.  I wanted to quilt this quilt in a way so that Thelma would love it.  I quilted the way I would want it to be quilted if it was mine. (I wish.)  Guess what?  It worked!  Thelma LOVES her quilt!!  As do I.

The fabrics are from one of my most favorite fabric lines by French General, Maison de Garance.  Thelma’s piecing was impeccable!  Again, there is no shortage of photos here.  🙂

The combination of the fabric and quilt pattern makes for a bold quilt design.  I was really stumped at first on how I was going to quilt this so that you could see the quilting and how the quilting could add to the design. 

I was thrilled when I finally came up with a design that flowed with the quilt.  Here’s a closeup of the block designs.

 A lot of detail quilting, but worth every stitch!!  Of course, I had to add some feathers.  In the borders as well as the red rectangles.  Those are my favorite.  I had the feathers move in opposite directions in each row.  That way the quilt could be used in any direction.

 And the back…

 I love how well you can see the quilting from the back of the quilt.  It’s all about the details for me.  I know, big surprise.  I pieced the backing fabric.  It was important that I matched the pattern on the back as closely as I could so you wouldn’t be able to tell where the seam is.  You have to look really hard to find it! 🙂

A few specifics on this quilt.  All the quilting is freehand.  I used Hobbs 80/20.  I had 3 thread changes.  I used Isacord top and bobbin.

 I haven’t used Isacord in a while.  I forgot about how much I love this thread!!!  It has a little sheen to it.  Not as much as Glide.  It looked just perfect on this quilt!!  You can tell I used quite a bit of the tan.

Before quilting.

To read more details about this quilt, click on Thelma’s posts here.