Distracted by An Antique wedding Sampler Quilt

You know how easily I can get distracted? Well once again when temptation knocks, I stepped right in. When my book order from Quilt Mania arrived, I knew I had to make a quilt in one of the books and my choice was Di Ford's Antique Wedding sampler.

This Quilt was originally made by Charlotte Gillingham in the early 1840's. It was a wedding gift to her fiancé and they were married in 1844 by which time the quilt was completed.

Original Wedding Sampler made by Charlotte Gillingham

There is some more examples of the original blocks in this quilt close up on the Quaker Quilts bog.  Di Ford's quilt consist of 25 blocks only. Because Broderie Perse was used as applique technique the applique blocks and triangles on the edge of the quilt look different than the original.

I selected several large print fabrics to use in my version of the quilt. I auditioned them on my design wall. Applique is not my strong point and none of the fabrics is really suited or interesting enough to use as Broderie Perse. I decide to use the large print at the back of the other pieces as the triangles. I will fussy cut some of the other fabrics to use in the blocks where Broderie Perse was used.

Large Prints selection

One of my favorite parts of starting a new project is to decide and make my fabric selection. As a quilt proceed some more fabrics are added and I do not necessarily use all the fabrics selected. Here is some more of the accompanying fabrics, I selected.

I made photocopies of the completed quilt. I decided to re- arrange some of the blocks so I cut the photocopy apart and stick the blocks in their new positions. My plan of action is to work on 4 blocks at a time, blocks equal distances from the middle.

The first four blocks that I cut and marked for hand piecing is the blocks with the little triangle pieces. These blocks will stay in the original positions that they were in Di's quilt but I will change the colour and fabric choice.

I did not draw the smaller blocks inside the two upper blocks. There will be four Ribbon Star blocks in the four corners of the left block and a eight point star in the center of the other block

Seeing that I am not so good at applique and do not have fabrics really suitable for Broderie Perse I decided to incorporate some machine embroidery (who could have guessed that!) in my blocks. In the Ribbon Star blocks there are many places where I can replace the applique with embroidery. These 4 blocks will be around the centre as in this EQ developed middle of the quilt.

I embroidered the background patches

When one work on  four blocks at a time it is easier to make sure that the blocks relate well to each other or at least then those diagonally opposite to each other in colour and value selection.

I used designs from the Floral Brocade set from Graceful Embroidery.
I stabilised the designs with a piece of flannel for best results.
I turned some of the designs to get the correct placement and then loose the original effect the designer planned for the embroideries and realise that only to late- I should have changed my fabric placement, not rotate the embroidery

 I have completed all the embroidery of this four blocks. Some of the sub parts of the blocks is very small stars and those will be hand pieced once the first four blocks are completed. The first of these four blocks are completed.

The first completed block surrounded by some chosen large prints

This block is partially assembled, small stars need to be completed for the corners. I used my Scan n cut to cut the fabric for the middle part. I am still quite scared to use it, but decided to just try it out and if I cannot get it right I will just cut by hand. After a bit of effort and "reading the instructions" I succeeded.

I plan as I go. So I will now look for other embroidery designs that will go wll with the Brocade set to use in the next four blocks. I do plan to do a little Broderie Perse though- I think the rose print to the left of the first block might be suitable.

I am a regular reader of Lori Kennedy's blog, The Inbox Juant. In her latest blog she talk about her Quilters Notebook. She introduced it in 2014 before I start reading her blog. I started such a book for my Crochet because I got confused with all my projects and CAL's. Over the years I use different systems to keep myself on track with my projects. I will definitely apply her suggestions in this blog post and the previous ones,  as I am sure it will work for me. Hopefully when I see how many unfinished quilts I have I will be more cautious before starting a new project. To my credit  I can say that I have already completed 4 old quilts this year, as well as made and completed 2 new children quilts. I have also started and completed two quilt tops. Once the old quilt now on my Simply Sixteen frame is quilted, I hope to complete these two new quilts in this year as well.

Hope you have new and old projects to delight you and keep you quilting!