Three Favorite Traditional Applique Quilts From AQS Paducah Quilt Week + Vintage Quilt Repair Update

Okay, my lovelies -- I know you wanna hear all about my adventures at AQS Paducah Quilt Week, but you're only gonna get this in dribbles because my brain is overloaded, there are 500+ photos on my iPhone, 45 pages of notes from the TEN classes I took (those are just my own notes above and beyond the handouts) and UPS won't be delivering my big box of show goodies until Wednesday.

Best of Show: Muttons and Buttons and Pearls, Oh My! by Janet Stone, Overland Park, KS, Photo by AQS

You may have already seen this AQS photo of the 2019 Janome Best of Show winner, "Muttons & Buttons & Pearls, Oh My" by Janet Stone.  Isn't it gorgeous?  You can find out more about this quilt and watch an interview with the quilter on the AQS website here.  I was not able to get a good, clear photo of the front of this quilt myself without anybody's head in the way, but I did get some close-up shots of details that caught my eye:

Prize-Winning Quilts ALWAYS Wear Labels...

Ah, yes -- we are going to look at the BACK of the quilt with the darling little sheep print fabric, and the quilt label.  The label is simple but elegant, conveying the relevant information in permanent ink, embellished with a narrow striped border and a smattering of pearls.  As long as Janet labored over this amazing prize-winning show quilt, this label did not take long to make at all.  And it's PERFECT!  (There is a moral to this blog post, y'all -- LABEL YOUR QUILTS!  No more excuses!)

Check Out the Nifty Binding Details

Janet's crisp, overlapping prairie points are adorned with contrasting blanket stitching and hand stitched pearl beads, and they are ingeniously sandwiched between two different "binding" fabrics, as you can see comparing this photo to the previous one.  

The other detail that called to me was the quilting in the white border between the appliquéd flowers:

I Love the Sweet Leaves and Berries Quilted In This Border!

This is simple connecting curves with a little "pearl" or pebble or whatever, nothing fancy, but it complements these simple folk floral appliques beautifully and the execution of the machine quilting is nearly flawless even with your nose 3" away from the quilt.  No galloping horses needed for THIS quilt!

You can see even MORE gorgeous detail photography of this quilt over on The Quilt Show's blog here.  

I'm only going to show you two more quilts tonight, because I'm tired.  Like Janet's Best of Show quilt, these are also very traditional designs and colorways but created using the best modern machine techniques.

Coxcomb Nouveau, by Wilma Richter and Leah Sample, Little Rock, AR

What I love about this quilt is how at first glance it's a straight-up antique reproduction, but the very modern geometric longarm ruler work quilting sets off the traditional appliqué and makes it feel fresh.

Geometric Ruler Work Quilted Background Sets Off Applique

Of course, since I was overloading on longarm quilting workshops at this show, I was especially focused on the way each piece was quilted.  After taking ruler work classes with both Judi Madsen and Lisa Calle, I have a much better idea of how to accomplish quilting like this -- after some additional practice, naturally!

1790 Love Entwined by Marlee Carter, New Gloucester, ME

The last quilt I'm showing you today is one I was delighted to recognize -- it's the first version of Esther Aliu's Love Entwined pattern that I've seen "in the flesh."  This is Esther's painstaking pattern based on an antique British quilt that she has only seen a black and white photo of in an old book, referred to simply as "1790 Coverlet."  That is some insane appliqué, don't you think?  Marlee did an amazing job with the appliqué.   

That's all you get for today, though.  I've got to get the binding on my vintage repair quilt so I can get it back to its owner, and I need to get Lars's graduation quilt loaded on my longarm frame and start quilting it -- I've only got a little over three weeks now to get it completed before graduation weekend and Quillow Sunday.

Just realized that I forgot to show you how the quilting and machine embroidered label came out for the vintage quilt!  The first time I shared this quilt with you it looked like this:

1960s Utility Quilt Top, Acrylic Yarn Ties, Poly Batting, and Backing Removed

The backing was in shreds and the quilt's owner requested a change in color, so I snipped away the acrylic yarn ties to free the quilt top for patching and seam repair.  You can read more about my process for repairing the quilt top in this post.

Quilting Allover Loopy Meander to Draw In Excess Fullness

I'm using new backing fabric (prewashed in HOT water to maximize shrinkage, since the fabrics in the quilt top have been laundered many times over the years) with 80/20 batting, Superior's King Tut cotton 40 weight thread in a variegated pinky-orange that reminds me of cotton candy or sherbet, and off-white Superior Super Bobs prewound 60 weight polyester in the bobbin that just melts into the lavender backing fabric and disappears.  I chose the loopy meander because I thought the random curvy quilting lines were a nice complement to the random straight(ish) piecing lines of this utility quilt, and the double loops were good for drawing in excess fullness in areas where that was a problem.  I wanted to quilt this close enough to marry the fragile vintage quilt top fabrics to the new batting and backing for strength, but didn't want to do anything with the quilting that would draw too much attention to itself and scream "Rebecca was here."  I am VERY pleased to say that this quilt came off the frame nice and flat and SQUARE.  Hallelujah!

My Patched Sections Blend In Even Better After Quilting

My goal with this quilt is to be as invisible as possible, so it still "looks like grandma's quilt" to my friend when she gets it back.  I digitized this quilt label in my Bernina v8 Designer Plus software and stitched it out in cotton embroidery thread on my Bernina 750QE sewing machine, matching the thread color to the original acrylic yarn (the original backing was that same Day Glo orange, too).  The orange dots on the new purple backing fabric and the loopy circles that I quilted in are supposed to be suggestive of these little yarn pom poms, too, since they are not going back on the quilt.  

Machine Embroidered Label Ready to Attach

I chose binding fabric in that same orange:

Label Attached, Awaiting Binding

GOSH I hope she likes this.  I am SO FAR PAST the point of no return!

After 30 hours of longarm quilting workshops, I have a much better idea of how I want to quilt Lars's Mission Impossible graduation quilt, and I have new longarm rulers and thread coming for that in the UPS box that I shipped home from the show.  And no, that doesn't mean I overspent -- I have a bulky quilt sample from each of the 10 classes that I took and I wanted to keep them all because I didn't finish any of them and I want them for reference.  They go with my notes

And so, without further ado...  my To-Do On Tuesday Goals for this week are:

1. Bind this Vintage Quilt & Return to Owner
2. Test Spoonflower backing for colorfastness & deal with any dye instability, then piece Mission Impossible backing
3. Load Mission Impossible and start quilting!

I'm linking today's post up with:

TUESDAY

·      Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at http://www.cleverchameleon.com.au

·       To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com

WEDNESDAY

·      Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/

·      WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/