Ingrid Whitcher

I had the privilege to work on this beautiful vintage quilt. It is HUGE (80×100 inches) and all hand pieced. Some of the fabric is breaking down, so I decided to help support this quilt. I have done this a few times with vintage quilts and it has worked well – I add a layer of muslin behind the quilt top so as the top fabric breaks down and disappears the quilt is still usable.

I am loving all the white space to quilt on. It also has the typical curved edge.

I was able to work out a design that is continuous – no thread breaks and just a little back tracking. I used Bottom Line thread (Superior) in both the top and bobbin. I did not want the thread to be noticed – just the quilting.

I had so much fine coming up with this simple design. I always struggle cutting up cute prints and wanted a way to maybe be able to add a “borders” class to my list.

I find that quilters do not know how to properly add borders to their quilt. It is important to measure across the middle of the quilt – some say three times and take an average of that number – and then cut the border to the appropriate size, instead of just piecing on a length of fabric. Just piecing on a length of fabric results in wavy borders, a quilt that is difficult to quilt and a quilt that does not lay flat.

Anyway…........ I love this quilt. I put a fleece on the back with a thin polyester batting between. I will definitely be using this pattern again.

I started this top probably two years ago. I had some of the pieces left over from other quilts and then added a few to the mix. It was nice to use up the orphan blocks. I have had the backing fabric in my stash for some time – as in many years – and it was so nice to put it to use.

Emilie helped me get the photos of the quilt outside, she was being a little stinker so I will put this up of her ….....

I love the finished quilt. Quilting it with a polyester batting made it so soft and the drape is lovely. I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet….

I LOVE the quilting on the back of this quilt. With each new block, I was able to see the layers come together. I used two colors of thread – with the bobbing color matching – a cream and a light teal/blue. I really like the subtle contrast of the thread in the quilting.