Tapestry ... a story of 2 sisters

This quilt is titled Tapestry.  I made it for the annual auction held by CHOICE Humanitarian to help raise funds for their projects for the upcoming year.

Here is my quilt at CHOICE Humanitarian's silent auction, 

all 4,480, one inch squares...

And here is my sister who has taken many humanitarian trips over the past 9 years with CHOICE.   

AND, she purchased this dragon fly batik when she was living in Africa over 40 years ago.  She has kept it all these years.  How fitting that it was the perfect piece for the backing to this quilt.  

stats

finished size 57" x 75"

pattern design by Karen Snyder

All People Quilt Magazine - May 2016 - can be purchased through Zinio.com

4,480 one inch squares

batting is 80/20 Warm and Natural

quilting is free motion, Bishop's Fan design, on an HQ Sweetsixteen 

aprox. 130 hours to complete

It looks like a pretty daunting finish of a quilt ...

 But if you follow the directions 

and get a little help from your friends ...

(the mathematical quilting kind)

 bishop’s fan

     

         

                     









      
  

And how fitting that my sister and her husband had the winning bid.  She said that she wanted it because it was a tale of our two lives.  

photoshoot of Tapestry Quilt located in Soldier Hollow, Utah at beautifully restored  Tate Barn.

burgoyne surrounded

 

Years ago, I saw this antique quilt in a magazine.  I was stunned by it's beauty and HAD to have it ... one of those "had to have it" kinds of quilts that you drop the 6 other projects you are juggling, including a commission, and you go down a "have to have it" rabbit hole.

Quilt made by Martha A. Page, 1852 - Located in THE MET

My hunt found that this quilt pattern's name, "burgoyne surrounded" refers to the surrender of British General Burgoyne and his troops when they were surrounded by the American troops, in one of the most pivotal events of the Revolutionary War.

The squares in the center of the blocks represent the British troops, encircled by the smaller squares, the American troops.

I am "instruction/pattern challenged", so I took this project to a quilt retreat and sat next to a friend who is intensely right brained, a math genius.

Have you ever made a king size quilt???  It took me for eeeeeeeeeever!!  Actually, it took almost 3 years . . .  Actually, I still have 1 side to hand stitch down.

Every so often, I put it away and gave “it” a rest.  Then I did some instant gratification projects to build my self confidence back up, like vacuuming :)

 

The Feb. 2014 edition of APQ featured a “Tone It Down” quilt along, with the, aka, the Burgoyne Surrounded pattern.  You can see lots of pretty versions on IG, #toneitdownquilt  

(I'm not sure how they got away with printing that it was designed by a current quilter..... they should read their quilting American Revolution history)

I stitched 1/4 inch from all the seams with a few X's here and there.  

The sashing around the blocks needs some quilting ... but I couldn't figure out what, and at that point, I was pretty much done.  I thought I would go back and quilt in those rectangles some day.  

Do you have any recommendations of how I should quilt those long rectangles?  lines? curves?  X’s?

I used the Chantilly pantograph design to quilt the border.

I like the front almost as much as I like the back!!  Princess and the Pea by Heather Ross .... a classic, secretly hoarded away by many of YOU!!  I had enough for 2/3's a king size quilt.  I may or may not have a lot more :)

Leave me a comment if you have Heather Ross fabric hidden at home, and which prints you have, and if the print came on a pair of pj’s from TJ max, off a high-stakes eBay auction, or yardage from a quilt store.

I entered this in a quilt show.  The judges didn't care for my choice of back ground fabrics, light grays mixed with warmer whites. (the judges come from a generation that doesn't know about the box you can step out of :0 

It was a great experience, they gave a few other tips.

flowering snowball baby quilt

 

I had so much fun making this flowering snowball quilt, that I wanted to try it in these lovely colors.

I sandwiched it with bamboo batting and backed it with satin backed flannel from Joann's.  The satin side has a soft feeling that children seem to prefer, especially sensory children.  If I am making a quilt that I know will be used a lot, I am highly considering a satin backed flannel or minky, depending on if the new owners live in a cool or hot climate.

t-rex stencil quilt

I like to make a quilt for my grandchildren about the age of 5 or 6.   I saw this quilt a few years ago, and decided that I had to make it (shamelessly copy).   Little boys love dinosaurs!   

Dan Rouse from Piece and Press is a landscape designer and quilter, thus his incredible creativity.  He has made some impressive "stencil quilts", be sure to look at his blog.  I studied and studied his "lizard" stencil quilt for a long time, to figure out the process.  And slowly started working on it.  

In a nutshell, there are 2 contrasting quilts pieced, a stencil blown up of your "figure or design".  The quilts are sewn together (both facing up) along the stencil lines, then cutting the top layer inside the sewing line to reveal the bottom layer within the stencil with a raw-edge applique finish.

For my first layer, I went mostly with batiks for obvious reasons.   I found 8 or 9 fabrics, cut them into 5 inch squares, and made a disappearing 9 patch quilt top, 52 x 66 inches big.  

Starched and pressed it till it could practically stand up on it's own.

I took the image that I wanted, and the measurements that I had calculated and went to the printer.  He made me a big print out about 34 x 36 inches big.  

I found 1/2 a dozen orange fabrics, and used 1 solid for in each half square triangle square, and made a second quilt a few inches bigger than the stencil of the t-rex.

After sewing it together, I carefully pinned the orange quilt top to the back of the blue one, facing up, about where I wanted the t-rex to be.

I traced a copy of the t-rex onto a sheet of  Golden Threads Quilting Paper and layed it on top of the blue quilt, being careful that the orange quilt on the bottom was . . .  and I quilted on the traced line with blue thread.

Then, trimmed inside the the quilted line, between 1/4 - 1/8 of an inch.  

I then quilted the orange quilt that shows through with orange thread. (stitch in the ditch)

WASHED !!!

The rest went very quickly, because I was soooooo much wanted to see the washed effect on the raw edges.

pretty cool, huh?

stats:

finished size 60 x 75, washed

batiks blue and oranges

bamboo batting

stencil quilt

I was surprised at how easy this quilt was when I finally figured it out in my head.  

It makes a dramatic finish.

I will definitely be making more stencil quilts.

Loved :)