Hungarian Embroidery Quilt

One of my life's dreams was to go to Hungary with my mother and grandmother.  They were both there and emigrated when my mother was only 5 years old.  I had that chance last summer and the memories are treasures I will never forget.  One thing I found fascinating about Hungary was the embroidery.  It's stunning.  I've seen Hungarian Embroidery and folk art before at my mother's knee, but I'd never seen so much at once!  I purchased some items at the Market Hall.

Down the street from the Market Hall we happened upon a store that sold Hungarian Embroidery kits!  I was thrilled.  The shop wasn't open, but a cousin of my mom's purchased this for me and gave it to me later.  I spent some time stitching it up and then what to do with it.  That's when I stumbled upon Kelly Cline's Quilting Vintage Facebook Group.  Then I knew the answer!  Turn it into a small quilt!

I chose a blue background because it complements the embroidery without taking away from it.

Now it was time to quilt!  I decided to quilt feathers in most of the white space and then stipple really close around the embroidery itself.  I quilt using an open toe foot and a couple of times it got caught in the embroidery.

Here you can see the feathers a little better.  I also did a simple stipple over the edge of the embroidery as well to hold it down.

The next thing to do was to decide how to quilt the rest.  I knew I wanted to do more feathers and that I didn't want to mark them.  I must admit that I am a bit of a perfectionist and I am trying to break out of that box with my feathers and not mark as many of them.  I decided this was a good opportunity to practice this idea.   So I drew some lines with my favorite Clover White Marking Pen.  The first set of lines is the outer boundary and reference lines.

The lines below are my spines for my feathers.

The start of the feathers!

Here it is all quilted up!  I couldn't be more pleased.  You can see that I've done some lines at the edge.  This will be under the binding and keep it the same density at the edge of the quilt.

I love feathers.   I will never get enough of them!

I like to add an outline around my feathers to make them stand out more.

Besides being a blast, Hungarian Embroidery was the inspiration for my new book Folk Art Quilted Traditions.  Check it out on Amazon or the American Quilter's Society Website!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy