A Vintage Finish

Looks like I made it, and with a few days to spare! My ALYOF goal for August was to quilt and bind my vintage double nine patch quilt. Yahoo for setting goals.

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I had asked readers to suggest ideas for quilting the vintage quilt and was happy to receive tons of suggestions. Thanks so much for the ideas. I decided to quilt a basic cross-hatch over the main nine-patch blocks. Then I wanted to do something different with each of the three borders. My original thought was to do different cable patterns so I bought a couple of cable stencils.

Alas, it wasn’t entirely successful. I started by doing a basic, single cable on the middle (narrowest) border. I had great help with tracing the stencil. Ian was home for the weekend and kindly traced for me.

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Try as I might, I couldn’t relax and just stitch. I wanted to use my walking foot, maybe that was the mistake? The stitching isn’t fluid and I am less than pleased with it. Hoping that a run through the wash (in my NEW washing machine) will make the jitters a bit less obvious.

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Because of the issues with the single cable, I lost interest in doing a more complex cable pattern so I put the stencils away in the deepest recesses of my desk drawer. I don’t plan on looking at them for quite some time. Instead, I played with some motifs that Lori Kennedy has posted over at The Inbox Jaunt. I chose her Modern Leaf pattern (which I posted about earlier this week.) Because I am susceptible to this sort of nonsense, I wondered if I should use a motif with the word “Modern” in it when I was really trying to go for a vintage look. Jeez… I need to get over myself already. It worked out fine and was very fun to quilt. Because I did the quilting with cream colored Mettler thread, it is hard to see in the pictures. But I am much happier with it than the single cable. (I love the fabric with those little pins. Really cute.)

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For the final, outside border I did basic straight-line quilting which I just eyeballed using the side of the walking foot. Simple and clean. I backed it with a blue print and as you can see, I used one of the cream background fabrics as the binding.

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One small concern that came to mind is that I have a six inch gap between stitching lines on the cross-hatch. The batting said I could space the quilting with as much as an eight inch gap. However this is likely the widest I have gone and it seems sketchy to me.  Any input on that? I could still add lines to the body of the quilt if need be. If I split the difference between the existing lines, I would have a three inch gap. Thanks for any ideas you might have.

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Overall, I am happy with the finish. This is a more traditional quilt than I normally make but I enjoyed it. My next project is more modern and uses Kaffe Fassett yardage and jelly roll. I am chomping at the bit to get started on it so stay tuned.

Linking to my favorites:  Let’s Bee Social, Finish it up Friday, and Sew Bittersweet Designs.  Take a peek at these sites – there is a lot of great work out there!

26 thoughts on “A Vintage Finish

  1. Lorna McMahon

    I love that double nine-patch pattern and the vintage feel of the fabrics you chose. And your quilting looks great. I would be kind of nervous about leaving that much space between the quilting lines, too… I don’t know what else to suggest other than adding more lines and keeping with the cross hatch.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Hi Lorna,
      I agree and the commenters overwhelmingly suggested more crosshatch. So that is the plan. A few more lines will do wonders.
      Thanks for stopping by!

      Enjoy the weekend,
      Bernie

      Reply
  2. Cassandra

    woohoo! Great job! I wouldn’t sweat the quilting unless you plan to wash it a whole lot. What kind of batting did you use? I use warm & natural and I think they say up to 10 inches between quilting! Can you imagine? I really love the nine patches. I can’t wait to see an update on your sampler!

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      The sampler…. hard to believe we are entering September which means time to make another row! I look forward to seeing what the color and block is for this month! You’ll see upates soon.

      Happy Friday!!

      Bernie

      Reply
  3. JanineMarie

    Ooh, l like this a lot. And how nice of your son to mark the stencil for you. That’s always a tedious task, I think. Your stencil quilting will be fine with a wash. (Have fun with that new machine!) But I wonder, do you find following a stencil distracting? I do. I get too concerned about staying on the line and that’s where I go wonky. I think your quilt looks fine as it is, but quilting cross hatch in the plain squares and continuing them through the larger plain squares would be an easy way to make sure the batting doesn’t shift, and it will still be soft with the 3-inch gap. I love your modern leaf quilting (and Lori’s designs). Can’t wait to see what you do with the Kaffe Fassett.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      I was so grateful that Ian helped with the marking (even though I didn’t like quilting that line…) It is a very tedious chore. I am going to double up on the cross hatch. It will make the plain squares a bit more interesting and make the quilt more durable.

      Kaffe Fassett is coming out this weekend. I want something new to play with!

      Reply
  4. Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl

    I personally like a lot of quilting, so I would definitely double up on the cross hatch quilting myself. It should be fine without it, though. I used some pretty cheap materials when I made my first quilts and tied them with large spacing and they are still usable 15 years later…

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      After some thought, I think I will add a bit of quilting to the body. It will look better and I will feel better about durability. As always, I appreciate the input. Hope you guys have something fun planned for the weekend. Looks like the temps are going to drop which I am sooo excited about. C’mon fall!

      Take care,
      Bernie

      Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thank you Cindy. I think I agree with you. It needs a bit more quilting over the body. Should be easy enough to do that though.
      Very glad you stopped by.

      Enjoy the weekend!
      Bernie

      Reply
  5. Deb @ Frugal Little Bungalow

    I was visiting the Sew Bittersweet Designs party and came over from there. I am almost done with something and need to remember to link up in September 🙂

    Congrats on a lovely finish!! You could put more lines in if you are worried about it…but I wonder if you could wash it first. If It’s fine when you do that you could just leave it be. Not sure 🙂 It does look very nice as it is.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Yes, link up with ALYOF. It is a fun way to push myself to finish one goal each month. Keeps me in that sewing room, that’s for sure! I will have to check to see what you are going to finish up next month!

      Take care,
      B.

      Reply
  6. Linda

    What a sweet son! And your quilt model is beautiful – love her hair. 🙂 Is she going to claim the quilt?
    The vintage fabrics and simple pattern with blues makes this such a gorgeous quilt, and I love the backing too. Like you I would be nervous about leaving that much space between the quilting lines, but what you have already quilted is lovely. Great job Bernie!

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Nope, this quilt won’t be Julia’s. She has one that I made for her a while back. I posted about it last summer. This one will be a donation quilt.
      So glad you like it though. After gathering input (which is so helpful) I do think I will add some quilting to the main body.
      Have a great weekend!

      B.

      Reply
  7. eleanor

    I’d be nervous too, is it 6 inch squares that you quilted so the space from diagonal corners would be over 6 inches? I don’t know if this would be a problem but I wouldn’t want to find out 🙂 Instead of pulling out your machine you could try hand tying it and that may go with the vintage feel you want. Otherwise I’d switch to a dark thread and go through the diagonals of your dark blocks. Good luck and congrats on the finish!

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Hi Eleanor,
      Those are good ideas, both of them. I will have to decide how, but I am going to add a bit more quilting to this project. Thanks so much for coming by and for leaving me a few ideas to think about.

      Take care,
      Bernie

      Reply
  8. Hannah

    Traditionally that white space would have been filled with some pattern, a feather wreath or heart or something self contained.. Maybe use the x as the center of a flower & make petals or star burst radiating outward?

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Hi Hannah:

      I agree. When I was looking for ideas as to how to quilt this, I noticed that most of the vintage quilts would have feather wreaths on the white squares, however I don’t feel like my skills are at that point yet. I appreciate the input though! Very glad you came by.

      Take care,
      Bernie

      Reply
  9. Allison

    I like the finished quilt a lot and think the mix of quilting patterns in the borders works really well. I’m with those who say double up the amount of quilting over the nine patches!

    Reply
  10. Carie

    Oh it looks fabulous, congratulations on a wonderful finish! As far as the quilting goes, I have a star quilt constructed in a similar fashion where I just cross hatched through the plain squares and I’ve never had a problem with the batting shifting around despite the light quilting so I’m sure your will be fine.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thanks Carrie. That’s good to know. I agree that the batting will probably be fine. However, the more I look at it, I think it will just look prettier with a bit more quilting so I am going to add in another set of straight lines on the cross hatch.

      I appreciate your thoughts. Have a great weekend!

      Bernie

      Reply
  11. Sandra

    Well, the first thing that pops into my mind, is feathers! I love them, put them on pretty much every single quilt. They are very forgiving. However, that is a lot of them….maybe just 2 more lines of straight stitching lining up the lines with the diagonal line created by the 9-patches? I wanted to say do some dot to dot, but that is modern… Also just thought of doing to more straight lines (in a + shape) through the X you have already which would be super-easy and create a sort of star, and hold down the batting a bit more. 6″ is a lot to leave, and a lot to wrinkle.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thanks for the ideas Sandra. I love how much thought you always put into your responses. It is much appreciated! I am going to work on a small project and then go back and just add another set of cross-hatch stitching.
      Take care and have a wonderful week!
      B.

      Reply

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