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Mardi Gras 2023

Mardi Gras Submission Gotch

Mardi Gras is my 2023 Show Quilt. Every year or so, I work on a more detailed project so I can help represent our little corner of Texas in local shows. Earlier this Spring, Mardi Gras made it to the Dallas Show and will be in the Plano show later this Summer

Mardi Gras Submission Gotch

As with many quilts, the inspiration for Mari Gras comes from fabric. After creating a Harry Potter quilt, a customer mentioned Mardi Gras. I found the fabrics below and when she didn’t move forward, I just couldn’t resist.

Mardi Gras Fabric

Quilt Design

From these fabrics, I saw so many fun concepts to work with in this custom quilt.
 
Of course, I needed to incorporate some fun elements like a custom design in EQ8:
Mardi Gras EQ2
This quilt needed to feel like a party! For this, I added lots of colors, custom embroidery, and space for peacock feathers to be quilted.
 
It took a while to settle on a design and many MANY hours of design work, but in the end, I was satisfied.  Even the embroidered designs were custom digitized, I wanted everything to be my own.
 
The final element was to add some bling in the form of golden embellishments here and there.
 

Custom Quilting

As I tested some different designs and elements, I actually ended up with some extra bits and parts. This was very fortunate as it allowed me to do some test quilting.

Mardi Gras Test Run

I am still not sure what I will do with this, but it served a great purpose. I got to see how the quilting played with the embroidery and other sections. Below is a YouTube video of the pebble work on this test section:

Now that I had the test section worked on, it was time to quilt this for real. See below for some examples of the different areas of custom quilting.
 
The batting I chose was both Wool and Warm and Natural 80/20 so the quilt had more loft and structure.
Mardi Gras Feather close 1
Mardi Gras Close 3
Mardi Gras close 2

Quilt Back and Label

I found the perfect backing fabric at Sandy’s Quilt Shop in Joshua TX. You can see the quilting but also “it’s a party back there too!”

Mardi Gras Label
Mardi Gras Label 2
I love my embroidery machine, it makes so many projects more special.
 
So, will you be entering in a show soon?

Quilt Stats

Quilt Name: Mardi Gras 2023
Quilt Size: 100×100
Quilting Pattern: Custom
Thread: Black and Military Gold Glide
Batting: Warm and Natural 80/20-Wool
 
If you want to see more projects 
  1. Visit the Blog Page on my Website
  2. Join the Facebook group Sewing and Quilting with Robyn.  Here you can not only see what I am up to, but also share your own projects!
 
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