Looking Glass

Katherine made this tiles quilt, from an Edyta Sitar pattern Looking Glass, which is based on an 1870 antique quilt.

 Katherine wanted a traditional baptist fan on this quilt, and the only way to get that to line up correctly is to use templates (or rulers).    It made me happy that the block was 15 1/2" on point and my largest arc was 15 1/2" finished.  Nice symmetry. 

Did you know you can mark registration lines on your templates with sharpie and it will later come off with rubbing alcohol?   I needed a line that didn't exist on the template, so was able to mark it in.

 Katherine used the left over bits from piecing in the back, and pieced her label right in. 

 

Wool batting really helps the texture show. 

 I love quilting for Katherine, because of the fabrics she uses.  I'd have a hard time believing that they go together and yet they do, beautifully.   I also love the patterns she uses, she has inspired me more than once.

 

When seams are pressed open it's almost as pretty on the back :) 

Heather's Sampler - Baptist Fan

 This is Heather T's sampler.  Lots of hand applique and hand piecing in this quilt, but for how Heather wants to use it, an edge to edge design seemed like the best choice, and Baptist Fan is always a classic.

 Even some Broderie Perse techniques on this quilt. 

 As she so often does, Heather has used a beautiful border print.

Batik Sampler

Crystal made this batik sampler, and gifted it to her mother and husband for their wedding.  We decided on the baptist fan pantograph, as traditional quilting for a sampler.

 however, the blocks and the batik fabrics made me feel less traditional--and I chose a bold blue thread for this quilt.

 Mind you, maybe that is more traditional too.  I've heard that some antique quilts have black quilting thread, to make sure the quilting showed.

Although I haven't shown a photo of it here, Crystal embroidered names and the wedding date on this quilt.  What a special gift.

Cheryl's Half-Square Triangles

Cheryl has been working on these half-square triangle units for a long time.  She brought me this quilt as it was larger than she wanted to quilt herself. 

We decided on the baptist fan pantograph, as the quilt has quite a traditional feel to it. This quilt was lovely to work with, flat and square, which is hard to achieve with 1) all HST (half-square triangle) units and 2) pieced border.

 The baptist fan added some lovely curved texture to all those triangles.

 I forget if Cheryl said this was a kit or just a pattern she had bought, but she had enough HST units left over to make 3 small lap quilts!!

And these musical angels grace the back of the quilt.

Baptist Fan Anew

This Yellow Brick Road quilt was made by Patty, for her mother-in-law.  She used lovely florals, and we decided to use the pantograph Baptist Fan Anew. 

I think this is a great alternative to the full out custom treatment of baptist fan using circle rulers.

And I took Kathy's Quilt Photography 101 advice and took the photo of the entire quilt at an angle and that was great advice, I like it...but I don't have a lovely dock or iced over lake to put beneath it, so the picture still just isn't as exciting as one of Kathy's.

That raspberry zinger is very yummy.  We used warm and natural cotton batting, so it'll shrink up a little for an antique-y look.  I think Patty is shooting for 'favourite daughter-in-law' :)

Baptist Fan with Circle Rulers

When I decided to start longarm quilting, I figured I could devote 1 day/week, and sure enough, a whole week went by between quilting days.

Once again, someone elses quilt came before mine, but that's OK, because I choose to do it.  A good friend of mine had a quilt that she had layered and spray basted back in January, but then had sewing machine issues and didn't get this quilted.  So, it had backing 1" greater in size than the quilt, but it's spray basted, so it's not going anywhere.  I added some length with scrap pieces, so I'd have room to load the quilt.  My plan for the 2nd quilt was to try some ruler work, which I never did on my short-arm.  I was inspired by a facebook post by Karen Walker, who had learned a baptist fan technique from Mari-Lee Seei at MQX West.  It's time consuming, so if I were to do this on a larger quilt, I'd need bigger circles.  The fan that Mari-Lee shows on a video uses 4 circles,  but I only have 3, so that's what I used.  I used a 2", 4" and 6" circle template (Deloa's).  I decided I *should* practice first, as I hadn't done ruler work before.

 Two rows was enough to have some confidence and to learn a little about when to place the ruler.  I don't have much patience for practice...I want to do the real thing!

Just a teaser of the front, until the quilt makes it to its final owner.

 The fans show up really nicely on the back.  Wonderfil Mirage thread on top. So fine on bottom, and warm and white for batting.  As always from this quilter, perfectly pieced and flat, which is a real advantage when the backing is too small.