Thursday, January 31, 2013

Pioneer Sampler Quilt Finish

 After TEN LONG YEARS this quilt is finished!

It sat as a top for most of those ten years.
I thought about spreading this post out over a couple of days, but I'll just put it all down here, and you are free to skim if you like!

So here's the story of the Pioneer Sampler Quilt.
10 years ago I signed up to take my very first quilting class at Liberty House Quilts (no longer in business). It was for a sampler quilt, and was advertised as perfect for a beginner quilter.  Which I pretty much was.

 Book in hand, I went to purchase fabrics.  They were a combination of fat quarters from the quilt store and Joann's calicoes.   I even went so far as to tea dye the light cream fabric into the tan fabric.  I thought I was pretty clever!

As I recall we did two blocks a week as an assignment.   (And during that time I was pregnant with #1.  Fighting nausea during each class) When it was all said and done I had the twelve blocks pieced together - and I'm sure I was rather proud of myself, until Mr. Riley said it wasn't big enough to be a proper quilt.  So. Consulting the book I figured out the Seminole patchwork and added that as one border.  Then I added another border of the brown floral print.  And then I didn't know what to do.  I didn't know how to quilt something where each block was different.  And so it sat.  I would look at it once in a while.  Still stuck on the quilting.

So last November I pulled it out, determined to quilt this thing and just get it done!  It didn't lay very flat when I was basting, but I carried on, determined to get this thing done.  I decided to quilt each block differently as practice.  I figure it works since its a sampler quilt, anyway.
 Cheyenne. Three Step Zig-Zag stich on my machine.
 Louisiana. FMQ Shells
 Rocky Mountain Puzzle. [FMQ Spirals
 Arizona. FMQ long squiggles.
 Colorado. Straight Line Quilting - two different directions.
 Chisholm Trail.  FMQ Pointy Swirls?
 Illinois. FMQ Tendrils (I will be using this again!)
Montana.  FMQ squares
Kentucky Chain.  FMQ triangles.
Golden Gate. Wavy lines.  Machine Stitch Setting.
 Salt Lake City. FMQ Just lines that I made up.
Missouri Star.  FMQ More lines that I made up.

  I did the sashing in a meander/stipple.
 The Seminole border has wavy lines along the seam lines.
 The brown border is loop-de-loops.
I chose the blue for a binding to pull in some of the blue from the brown floral and also because it was more of a 'calico' print.  I finished the binding this past Saturday Evening.  Labeled and washed the thing Sunday.

 The backing is an old somewhat ugly print I've had around for a while.  Possibly bought for this quilt - I don't actually remember.
 My picture helpers.
 It's hanging out on E's bed until her Fairy Quilt is finished.

The batting is Warm and Natural.  The quilt finished at 66" x 79".
This was my third oldest UFO.

And now, if you've made it through the whole story - it comes full circle.  As I had pulled it out late November/ early December to work on it - I was fighting nausea all over again.  Baby #5 is on its way!















9 comments:

kat129 said...

TEN YEARS! Well congrats woman! I really liked your idea to try out your FMQ skills on the different blocks... which one was your favorite?

Kristine said...

It looks great and Congratulations on the upcoming baby!

Deb@asimplelifequilts said...

I'm so glad I'm not the only one with "vintage" UFOs! Your quilting is wonderful, thanks for showing the close-up pictures which gave me some great ideas.

Leanne said...

Man Rachel, 10 years is a long time. Look at how wonderful it looks on the bed and all your quilting is lovely! And congratulations again, only this time you need to finish the quilt you start a little faster.

OPQuilt said...

I think you need to win some sort of prize for this one. EXCELLENT! I loved looking at all the quilting. I don't think I know that many stitches, so I may have to borrow some ideas from you. I'm totally impressed that you quilted it all, and didn't get rid of it in the ten years it was hanging around. (Does this mean I have to finish my ten-year old quilt?)

And congrats! on the new baby soon to arrive at your house. Such great news.

E.

Sarah said...

I have ufos that probably date that long, since i began quilting! It looks really good and well done on getting it finished. Congratulations on bubba number 5! Don't envy the morning sickness. I remember it too well! Hope it passes soon.

Marge Martin said...

How nice to see the up close quilting.
Enjoyed seeing the quilt at guild. Congratulations on baby #5.

katie@stvital said...

Great job on finishing an "old" project. The quilting looks great. The whole quilt looks great.

And a big Congratulations to the new baby on the way!!

Mindy said...

Good timing for me to be getting caught up again on blogs! Congratulations to you all!!! How very exciting. =)

And the quilt is amazing, too!