McGargantuette

Can I embellish the back of my already-quilted sandwich?

I’ve just finished quilting my daughter’s quilt, using straight stitching lines that are about 3/ 4” apart on the quilt itself. There’s also a 4” border that I quilted in gentle curves with the walking foot. Used Aurifil 50 wt thread for all quilting and piecing. The back is “lightly” pieced.

I did not pre-wash the fabric or batting.

At this late stage, I’ve decided that I’d really like to embellish the back of the quilt a little by embroidering a few meaningful words here and there, as well as daughter’s name, my name, and the year. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?!?

So now I’m wondering how much trouble I’m asking for if I decide to hand embroider the text on just the back only. I’ve never done that before. Heck, I’ve hardly even done much embroidering in my life! I’d prefer to use a simple, thin, script – clean looking, not fussy.

If I try to embroider it now, after quilting is complete, will it be impossible/very difficult to work around/through my ¾” apart quilted lines (wouldn’t you know it, the text would look best if it ran against, rather than with, the lines of quilting)? If I proceed with this plan, should I pass the embroidery thread through the backing fabric and the batting together, or just through the backing fabric? Should I wash the quilt before I embroider it, so that the fabric shrinks? Or do you wash it after embroidering, so that it all shrinks together? (I’m thinking of using pearl cotton …)

Thanks for any guidance you have to offer (and feel free to tell me not to do this if it’s a bad idea!)

Judy