Sarah's Scrappy Double 4-Patch Quilt + Plotting and Scheming My Next Stonefields Blocks

Happy Monday Tuesday morning, Friends!  Well, I’m delighted to report that I’ve finished all the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting on my Deco quilt, but alas — it doesn’t look any different than the last time I showed it to you.  Because, you know, invisible thread…

So I thought I’d show you this lovely double 4-patch quilt that I quilted for Sarah over a year ago, with a Baptist Fan quilting design that you CAN see.

Sarah's Double 4-Patch Quilt with Baptist Fan E2E 

I love Sarah’s carefully planned scrappy palette of fabrics, with such wonderful value contrast that makes the red and blue chain seem to shimmer.  And she had the sweetest fussy cut vintage fabrics like this little one with the children waving flags:

Baptist Fab Quilting Detail

Meanwhile, as we say in the South, I’ve been “FIXING” to start my next Stonefields Quilt blocks.  

Nanette's Brinton Hall Quilt + Charlotte Quilters Guild Happenings

Hello, Happy February, and Happy Belated Valentine's Day!  The quilt I'm sharing today was meticulously pieced by my client Nanette of Do It Right Quilter and you can read about her journey making Brinton Hall on her quilting blog here.  Check out the fabulous English paper pieced central portion of the quilt, featuring larger scale Asian floral print fabrics framed by hand stitched hexagons in glowing batik fabrics:

Detail of Baptist Fan Quilting on Nanette's Brinton Hall Quilt

The Brinton Hall Quilt is a pattern by Leigh Latimore that is based on an historic antique quilt made by Anna Brereton between 1803-1805.  Patterns for making the quilt were published in Quiltmania magazine issues #107 and #108 in 2015, and you can still purchase those back issues (either digital or print versions) from Quiltmania's web site here if you're interested in making your own version of Brinton Hall.  This is one of those quilts that can take on radically different personalities depending on the fabric prints and color palette selections.  Doesn't this look like a FUN project?  This is one of the chief dangers of professional long arm quilting -- I keep getting all of these gorgeous quilts from my clients and I think I wanna make THIS one and THIS one and THIS one..  😍

Nanette's 77 x 77 Brinton Hall Quilt with Baptist Fan Quilting

So, let's talk about the quilting!  

And Now, Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming: Linda's Exquisite Traditional Quilts

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of the mothers, grandmothers, sons of mothers, and daughters of mothers out there!  The last few quilts I've shared on the blog have been modern or contemporary in their fabrics and patchwork design, and I love those styles.  But I also adore really precise, well-executed traditional patchwork in timeless reproduction fabrics.  Fellow Charlotte Quilters' Guild member Linda Dassenko excels at traditional patchwork and I was delighted when she brought me two of her masterpieces for quilting.

Linda's Everyday Patchwork Sampler

Linda's 52 x 60 Everyday Patchwork Sampler

After seeing the Baptist Fan design I quilted on Cathy's quilt last year, Linda thought it might look good on her Everyday Patchwork Sampler and I wholeheartedly agreed.  While we often think of edge-to-edge quilting designs as only suitable for modern quilts, the Baptist Fan edge-to-edge design has been a staple of hand quilters for hundreds of years.  Originally, quilters would mark the Baptist Fan design on a quilt as they went along, using a string knotted at regular intervals and a pencil or piece of chalk, like a swing arm compass.  Each knot on the string corresponded with one fan arc.  This resulted in an allover quilting design that was fancier than just quilting along the patchwork seam lines, but still quick and easy enough to execute for utilitarian quilts.  Since the Baptist Fan design has been so popular throughout so much of the United States for hundreds of years, it's an excellent option for machine quilting traditional and reproduction quilt projects.

Ready For Her Close-Up: Look at Linda's Perfect Little Flying Geese Points!

Of course, I did not use knotted string or pencils to quilt the Baptist Fan design on Linda's sampler -- I resized the digital design to complement the scale of Linda's piecing and stitched it out with my computerized Bernina longarm machine.  I used So Fine 50 weight matte thread in color Mushroom (this post contains affiliate links) for the sampler quilt to minimize overstitched areas in the design and to ensure that the texture of the quilting design is what you notice, not the machine stitching.  The batting for this one is Quilters Dream 80/20 Cotton/Poly blend.

I'm Hosting TGIFF This Weekend! Let's Get This Finishing Party Started!

Hello, and happy (almost) Friday! I'm delighted to be hosting TGIFF (Thank Goodness It's Finally Finished) Friday linky party again this week. I feel like this is the Quilt Blogging Equivalent of hosting SNL (Saturday Night Live).  Just like the SNL guest hosts, I even have "musical guests" to announce, because both of my sons will be home from college for a 4-day "Fall Break" weekend and I've volunteered their bass voices up to my choir director.  At least I didn't volunteer them to be acolytes and crucifers at the early service...  Mwahahaha!!!  😇

However, unlike the guest hosts of SNL, I don't have a monologue full of witty political jokes and I'm not here to promote my newest film.  Lucky for all of you!  

Alright, so let's get on with it!  I have two beautiful client finishes plus one small personal finish to share with you today:

#1: Liz's Deco Baby Finish

46 x 52 Deco Baby Quilt with Orange Zest E2E Quilting

When Deco quilts (a new pattern from Lo & Behold Stitchery, available here) started popping up in my Instagram feed a month or two ago, I was instantly smitten with the unusual layout and dramatic impact of the Art Deco-inspired piecing design.  I am loving this quilt in EVERY colorway, EVERY rendition that I've seen so far.  So I was DELIGHTED when my client Liz (on Instagram as @lovelizziee) reached out to me to quilt her baby size Deco quilt for her.  

Orange Zest E2E Stitched in Glide Thread, Apricot Blush

The quilting design we chose is Orange Zest by Karlee Porter and I quilted it in Glide thread, Apricot Blush color.  The batting is Quilter's Dream Bamboo.