I spent 3 weeks last month in Texas visiting with a friend who winters in the Rio Grande Valley. I flew down, but drove back with her. We planned on the drive back to go through the Hill Country of Texas. This is located north and west of San Antonio. It is where President Lyndon B Johnson lived and ran the country from the Western White House (approximately 25% of his tenure he was there rather than in DC...hmm, don't remember the press getting their undies in a bunch over that fact!).
Any way, you know we had to find a quilt shop! And we found a fantastic one! Creations of Kerrville was so fantastic that we visited it twice! It is located in a beautiful old home, with the various rooms dedicated to various fabric types, notions, books, patterns, etc!
I found this pattern for machine embroidery of Texas Wildflowers! As we came to the Hill Country to see blue bonnets, I had to buy a permanent remembrance of those beautiful flowers (which weren't really blooming yet when we were there!) The directions for doing this multiple hooping piece were different than I had done before, but I quickly figured it out and got the machine embroidery done. I decided to accent the blue bonnets by having two different blues in my border fabrics.
I quilted undulating feathers in the outer border, using a thread (Superior Magnifico) that exactly matched the fabric. Bad idea, as you couldn't see the quilting unless you are up close and personal.
So I decided to try a technique I learned from quilting guru Patsy Thompson: hyperquilting! Hyperquilting is going back over your quilting design with a different color thread, and adding an interesting accent to your design. In my case, I used an earthy green that I had used in the embroidery. It also was Superior's Magnifico.
The corner closeup shows the finished result. I think it adds just a nice touch of color, and a bit of a pop to that border that was missing something!
