Quilting Jane, the Bottom Triangle Row

When the two side feather borders of Jane were quilted, up to the 6th row, I started on the bottom triangle row. I’m not doing anything special in the pieced triangle blocks, mainly stitching in the ditch and then outlining in the larger pieces. I’m using the same idea for quilting the white alternate triangles that Jane did in her quilt, inverted V’s. From what I can see, she had 3 V’s in her quilt so she must have marked for 3/4″ lines. I’ve marked mine at 1/2″ so I have 4 V’s.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

 

Here is my progress so far. Bottom left corner and 1st Bottom  Row triangle

 

 

Bottom Row triangles – 2, 3 and 4

 

 

Bottom Row triangles – 5, 6 and 7

 

 

Bottom Row triangles – 8, 9 and 10

 

 

Bottom Row triangles – 11, 12 and 13.

 

Bottom Right Corner

Some of the triangles look so crooked, especially triangles 10 and 13. They really aren’t crooked, it must be the angle of the camera. Yards of thread used so far – 108.

 

I’ve been sewing the HST’s together for the Cherry Blossom quilt and I made 6 flannel receiving blankets for charity. I’m almost finished signing the siggie blocks then I have another hand project to start.

I’m linking up to Esther’s WOW, Kathy’s Quilts, Slow Stitching Sunday and Cooking up Quilts.

 

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Quilting Jane – The Bottom Border

The entire bottom border of my Jane has been quilted. This is 92″ x 5 1/2″ of solid feathers. You can see I have a cover cloth on top of the quilt to keep her clean and protect from the sunshine. I only uncover the part of the quilt I am working on.

Since this picture has been taken, I have rolled to the bottom of the triangles but I’m not starting them yet. I like to quilt the side borders before starting on the center section. Most quilters don’t quilt this way, but I just got started doing this years ago and I’ve kept it up.

The whole quilt is not in the frame, the top portion is hanging over the other side. There is room to set up the whole quilt but it makes a tight squeeze when we walk into the living room.

I’ll quilt from the bottom up to and including the 6th row, then I’ll move the rest of the quilt into the frame.

This is the bottom right corner as I quilt my way on the right side of the quilt.

I didn’t realize the thread was in the photo until now. That is not a wad of thread, that is actually the thread I am using in quilting. I finished off a spool of thread so it is extra curly. Surprisingly, I can gently pull a thread out of the ball at a time and it doesn’t knot up.

I am keeping track of the yards of thread I use in this quilt. I got started doing this when I did custom hand quilting years ago. That is how I was paid, by the number of yards of thread in the quilt.

I am using white YLI thread for the quilting. I used to use Coats and Clark quilting thread, but their quilting thread is not the quality it used to be. I asked other hand quilters what they were using and YLI was the answer. I purchased it at Yoder Department Store in Shipshewana. I have quilted several quilts with this thread (including Red Radiance) and have been pleased with the results.

The siggie swap blocks have been sewn and now I need to get them signed. I’ll work at signing them a few at a time till I’ve got 67 of them autographed. They also need to be trimmed to size but I’m not going to do that, the recipients finish can them. Not everyone’s quarter-inch is the same. I’ve oversized them and they are 6″ now, need to be trimmed to 5 1/2″ so they can finish at 5″.

I’ll be linking up with Esther’s Wednesday Wow, A Quilting Reader’s Garden on Friday and Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday.

Prep Work

Since I’ve completed the embroidered quilt, I’ve  been focusing on prepping projects.

I need 67 attic window blocks for the siggie swap during the Jane Stickle Quilt retreat in November. They’re prepped and ready to be sewn. I’ve cut extra fabric to make more blocks. Not all of my friends are participating in the swap and I want their signatures too. There are enough prepped pieces for 80 blocks. I thought an 8 x 10 block layout would be the easiest setting.

I didn’t buy fabric for these blocks but used from my stash. The top dark blue was leftover from a project many, many years ago and the other blue is from the embroidered UFO quilt I just finished piecing last week.

I have no idea where the top medium  blue fabric came from. The middle one is another leftover from a project and the bottom fabric is from my mom’s stash. Muslin fabric is used for the signature section.

The sashings for the Salinda Rupp/Nearly Insane quilt have been cut and sewn. I purchased the sashing fabric after the August Inspiration Club held at  Pumpkinvine Quilting. (Designated fabric purchases are ok.) A soft yellow is the color I’ve gone with and I’m using the blue fabric leftover from Jane for the cornerstones.

The yellow shows lighter here than it actually is, but in the block photo below, it shows brighter than it actually is.

The side sashings have been sewn to block 1. The other pieces are pinned on the design wall. (I have to pin them in the summer because the ceiling fan blows them off the wall!)

 

 

The 2-patches have been sewn into 4-patch blocks. They need to be pressed but they are the lowest priority project. I’m always intrigued when I chain stitch blocks, how they spill over the edge of my sewing machine cabinet, onto the floor and then drape into a beautiful swirl.

The 600 HST’s for the Cherry Blossom quilt are ready to go. There seems to be an overabundance of brown fabric. I’ll probably piece half of the block B’s and then decide if I need some color changes for the last bunch.

The main focus these weeks has been on marking Jane so she can go in the quilting frame the first Saturday in September. But I decided not to wait until September and got her into the frame last Saturday.

I used a very fine point blue marker to mark the quilting. It doesn’t show in the picture but it is dark enough for me to see when I quilt. The first thing I did was to baste stitch the outside edge. I had marked a line for this and when she is bound, I will lay the edge of the binding on the basting thread.

My Jane has feather borders because I don’t like the scallops that were on the original quilt. I had originally planned to use a different feather stencil and she would have had a scalloped border but I changed my mind. I ran into Donna Kooistra at the AQS show in Grand Rapids and asked her thoughts (as a quilt appraiser) on my plan for the markings. She mentioned several things to take into consideration and one of them was the size of the feather compared to the pieced blocks. After I was home, I compared the quilting stencil to the pieced blocks and the feathers were too large in comparison. I bought several more feather stencils and this was the one that looked the best. So, the border is going to be straight, not scalloped.

I will be posting weekly progress on my quilting. I have no idea how long the quilting will take.