"Would Benefit From More Quilting"

So that was the comment on my Kokeshi Dolls quilt when I got it back from the County Fair.  I decided since it is about to be submitted to another show that I should actually take the judge's advice and actually do more quilting on this one. 

I originally decided that I would try a different quilting pattern in each set of 3 blocks that constitute an actual single block of the quilt.  I meandered in one, then tried 'shells', kind of like what Leah Day calls 'Paisley Division', but with only 3 loops per paisley.  Then I did little loops that made a pebbly design, but not tight enough to be actual pebbles, or what Jill Schumacher calls 'seed pearls'.  I tried making little rainbows, which came out really cool, and which I based on Leah Day's 'Echo Shells'.  Then I created my own design, which is based loosely on meandering, but which I call 'Anne's echinoderms', a sort of 'worm-like' version of a meander.  Then I tried the one that intimidated me the most - McTavishing.  I'm not sure I got it right, but I did the best I could with it.  Pivoting designs like that really challenge me because I always want to keep going in the same direction. 

Here's a picture showing some of the new quilting:  Starting at the upper left and going clockwise, the quilting patterns are: Anne's echinoderms, shells, McTavishing, spirals and rainbows.

The finished quilt now looks like this:

From this photo it's really hard to tell that THAT much additional work was done on it, but trust me, it was hours of extra quilting, plus I had to go in and do detail quilting on the appliques as well, since heavily quilting around them made them all poofy without being trapuntoed and they sagged a little.

I have to say the judge at the County Fair was right - the quilt DOES benefit from additional quilting - thank you judge!!!