September Stitching Goals: FrankenBerries, Setting Quandaries + Seven Sisters

Stuffed berry production is happening!  Preparing all 96 of the remaining stuffed berries needed for my FrankenWhiggish Rose quilt is my September stitching goal (and if I get any of them stitched onto the blocks as well, that will be "gravy"!).  

Tip: Pencil Eraser Holds Perfect Circle Template for Tracing

I'm using my Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Circles templates to make my berries (this post contains affiliate links) along with leftover Quilters Dream Poly Select quilt batting and Wonder Under fusible web (using up an old package I had on hand).  I discovered that I can prevent the Perfect Circle template from slipping if I hold it in place with a pencil eraser in my left hand while tracing around the template with a mechanical pencil held in my right hand; that photo above is to remind Future Rebecca of these neat trick the next time I am tracing around small template shapes.

I traced all 96 berry circles onto the paper side of my Wonder Under paper backed fusible web, fused the marked Wonder Under to my batting scraps, then rough cut around groups of 12 (12 berries per block) just to help me keep track of how many were needed and how many were finished.  I experimented with three different pairs of scissors before deciding that I like my ApliQuick 4" microserrated scissors best for cutting out these tight circles (that I probably shouldn't have crammed so close together when I was tracing them).

And So It Begins: Cutting Out Fused Batting Circles for Berry Stuffing

Appliqué prep work does seem to go faster for me when I do it assembly line style, so I'm going to cut out all of my berries before I proceed to the next step of fussy-cutting my larger fabric circles.

Meanwhile, I've been walking past these nine blocks on my design wall every day, marveling about how those broderie perse rosebuds didn't take me nearly as long as I thought they would, and realizing that I am going to have all of my blocks completely finished and ready to set if I just keep working on it a little bit every day.  That makes me want to revisit, reevaluate, and overcomplicate my plans for setting the blocks and finishing this quilt!

I could add one inch diamond sashing, a wide neutral border for a quilted formal feather design, and an outer one inch diamond border, as visualized in this EQ8 software rendering below:

66 x 66 FrankenWhiggish Setting with Diamond Sashing

That would yield a finished quilt in the neighborhood of 66" x 66", depending on what size I trim the appliqué blocks to before setting them.  But what if I wanted to space the appliqué out with more room for fancy custom quilting designs?  I'm committed to working with nine applique blocks at this point, because I'm neither willing to make another block from scratch nor am I willing to just not use one of the blocks that is 95% finished.  That means I'd need an on point (diagonal) layout to use these blocks with alternate blank ones, like this:

97 x 97 FrankenWhiggish Setting, More Room for Fancy Quilting

It's hard to tell sometimes with these computer renderings that combine images of actual quilt blocks with scanned fabrics, and the proportions of the borders is probably wrong in the rendering above (both diamond borders should be narrower, in my opinion) but you get the idea.  That would create a much bigger finished quilt in the neighborhood of 97" x 97".  According to this blog post I wrote in 2014, my original intent was actually to set my nine blocks on point like this with alternate plain blocks. Go figure.

My quilt does not need to be that big and I have no intention of putting it on a King or a Queen bed when it's finished.  The only reason I'm even considering this now is that I found some gorgeous digital quilting designs by Donna Kleinke of One Song Quilting Arts that I think would be a beautiful complement to my FrankenWhiggish appliqué.  This is the feather border design:

Outer Border Quilting Design, Gloria's Feathers 3 Border & Corner Set 1

...And this is the coordinating block design that I was thinking of using in those alternate blocks:

Alternate Block Quilting Design, Gloria's Feathers Block 2

Perusing one of my reference books (The Quilter's Resource Book, by Maggi M. Gordon) for inspiration, I came across this photo of an antique Whig Rose variation that dates to about 1850:

Antique Whig Rose Quilt circa 1850

Three things I notice and love about this quilt: I like the "breathing space" that the alternate blocks create around the appliqué, I love the formal quilting designs in those alternate blocks, and I love the meandering appliqué border.   My quilt will have no such border, because I feel like it's important to repeat elements from the blocks for it to look cohesive, and I have no desire to slave away making a bazillion more reverse appliqué tulips and stuffed berries for the next ten years.  I want this DONE.  But I still like the idea of the fancy quilting in between the blocks:

Detail of Trapunto Quilting on Antique Whig Rose Quilt

I am such a sucker for these gorgeous antique quilts!!!  Here's what my reference book has to say about this one:

So, Note To Self here -- it might be a good idea to plan out the whole quilt next time I'm going rogue without pattern instructions instead of just diving into making blocks.  With hindsight, I wish I'd only made 5 appliqué blocks instead of 9, so I could do a straight setting with four plain alternate blocks and a nice appliqué border.  I would have finished the blocks sooner and gotten plenty of skill practice out of the project and been on to something else by now!  

Meanwhile, September is just around the corner and I promised myself that if I made significant progress on FrankenWhiggish, I could start a new hand piecing project -- Seven Sisters!  I found another antique example of that pattern in my reference book as well, this one with pink fabric for the equilateral triangle background patches:

Antique Seven Sisters Quilt, circa 1875

I'm finding that sometimes these Seven Sisters or Seven Stars blocks are set with hexagon points going up and down and flat sides, as in the photo above, whereas other examples are set so the hexagon star blocks have flat tops and flat bottoms, like the photo below (it's the same quilt as above, just rotated):

Detail of Same Quilt, Rotated

I think I prefer settings with the hexagon points on the top and bottom, for a more staggered look.  Also interesting to note from the photo above -- from the shadowing, it appears that the straight line quilting continues right through the pieced stars.  I would not expect that in a hand quilted antique quilt, because it's difficult to hand quilt through seam allowances.  I know there are examples of machine quilted quilts from the 19th century made by quilters who were lucky enough to have access to sewing machine technology, but surely the blurb in my book would have mentioned the quilting if it had been done by machine.  It just now occurred to me that there's probably an index in the back of my book that would tell me who this quilt belongs to and, if it's a museum, I might be able to find out more about the quilting.  I'm always intrigued when I discover examples of "edge-to-edge quilting" on antique quilts!

Very minimal info about this quilt!

I feel like this has been more than enough for one blog post, so let's wrap things up with a quick summary!  My FrankenWhiggish appliqué quilt is officially my Top Project Priority and my low-bar goal for September is to get all of those stuffed berries made and glue basted to my blocks.  If I get that much accomplished, I'm calling it a win.  If I also get the berries stitched down, blocks trimmed, etc., I'll call that my Super Goal for September!  For the next week, I'll be working on my berries for sure.  And at some point in September, when I figure out where the official Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors are announced, I am hoping to make a start on Seven Sisters.  I'm not going to commit to an entire hexagon of seven stars as a monthly goal until I actually make one and see how long it takes me, but I will consider it a win if I cut out the pieces for one entire hexagon and hand piece at least one star.

I did sign up for a 2-part Zoom workshop with Maria Shell in September, Making Prints Out of Solids, and my September goal around that is to actually log in and participate when it's time for the workshop (my track record with Zoom workshops is not great).  Monday, September 9th is the first day of the workshop, so my immediate weekly goal is to gather my supplies and clean up my sewing room so I'm ready to go on the 9th.  Some online fabric shopping is likely because I have mostly prints in my stash and the local quilt shop in Naples does not carry much in the way of solids, either.

Ooh, I have one more goal for September, a Social Goal!  I have missed getting together with my guild friends since moving to Florida six months ago, so my final goal for this month is to check out the Naples Quilters Guild.  Walking into a room of strangers who all know each other is not my favorite and I have been procrastinating, but the Naples Guild is meeting at a church for social sewing (what the Charlotte guild called Sit & Sew day, the Naples guild calls Gathering Stitches) THIS SATURDAY the 31st from 9 AM to 3 PM and I could either grab my 475QE and kitted Deco blocks, or bring my berries for handwork (if I want to travel light and be poised for flight if necessary).  These are quilters, after all, so they are probably very nice people and not going to bite me or anything!  Hah!  Now I've told you all I'm going, so I have to follow through.  😬  

I'm linking up today's post with September One Monthly Goal and with all of my favorite linky parties:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

FRIDAY

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

 

Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts