Pebbles...

I recently had the opportunity to play with "pebbles" on a modern quilt.  I have used them in the past as a fill in blocks, borders and even sashing but have not had a good candidate to pebble an all over texture.  Julie's cross quilt using the Zen Chic line from Moda was perfect.

  First, I marked the locations for two big swoops of echo stitching  on the quilt before I loaded up the top.  I wanted them at a slight angle to mimic the angles in the blocks.  Once I quilted down to the chalk marks, I quilted in a couple lines of echo stitching then went back and filled in pebbles down to the top line.

  I then quilted about 6" of echo stitches.

Then continued on with more pebbles.

I found I liked the look of looser quilting on the pebbles.  I also liked seeing circles and ovals of all different sizes.  The texture was wonderful.

  

It was a ton of fun to quilt but I really went through the thread.  I was very glad I had more than one cone to work with...I was constantly filling bobbins.

And I was even pleased to see that one of the swoops fit perfectly across the inset of blocks in the back.

Today I am back to more traditional quilting.  I love that I get to work on so many great quilts and I am stretched in so many directions.  I have the perfect job!