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I am a quilter living in Woodbridge, Suffolk who has made quilts since I was a teenager. I also ring bells! Both are great British traditions....I will try to feature some of my antique Welsh and Durham quilts, the quilts I make myself, my quilting activities and also some of my bellringing achievements. Plus as many photos as I can manage. NB: Double click on the photos to see greater detail, then use back button to return to the main page.













Tuesday 9 September 2014

Vintage Quilt Top - Lone Star


bought this vintage quilt top recently....it is from a house clearance in London and has no provenance, but has a look of the 40s or 50s to it...also looks like treadle sewing...nicely pieced although the colours are a bit loud! There are both plains and prints here...

I like lone stars...we don't have many family quilts, but there is a lone star in 30s pastels, made from factory offcuts. The fabric was given to a neighbor, who pieced two quilt tops...she kept one and gave one back to Mothers family in Oklahoma.


I am not sure how to quilt this top...one idea was to use "big stitch" quilting....also known as utility quilting. At the Festival of Quilts, I bought a selection of perle cotton, plus some suitable needles. I think that this would take a fair bit of practice to get it looking right!

So instead, I am practicing my machine quilting...feathers....they are getting better....using rayon threads......I think that I will have to practice with light coloured fabric to see which colours of thread would look attractive on the quilt I'll first "nail it down" by stitching along the seam lines with invisible thread...then do FMQ where possible.

One discovery...spray basting doesn't work very well for me.....although I was very careful, the fabric has rucked up and puckered along the feather spine......not nice.....back to the old fashioned safety pins and the living room floor for me...

1 comment:

  1. Big stitch quilting would look wonderful on that star top - such a striking quilt! Have fun practicing :)

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