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In last week’s blog post I explained how I prepared a not-so-flat vintage quilt top for finishing. If you didn’t catch it, be sure to read it first. No worries, I’ll wait.
Basic plan
Now that I had a nice flat quilt top, I could start thinking about the quilting. I wanted to ignore the seam lines in an effort to hide all the added sashing. This would make the tulips come forward and float on the background.
I planned to stitch-in-the-ditch around each set of tulips and do minimal quilting within the tulips so that they would puff forward. To accomplish the puff, there had to be some tighter background quilting behind them. And using two layers of batting, 80/20 on the bottom and wool on top is essential.
Design ideas
Drawing design ideas on Quilter’s Preview Paper over the quilt top with a dry erase marker is a good way to start letting the ideas become real.
Creating designs
Using Pro-Stitcher Designer, my digitizing software, I created some designs that would go over the seams and hopefully distract from them.
I start the design process by tracing the major elements of the top on Golden Threads Quilting Paper. Then I can place a 2nd piece of Golden Threads paper over that and start sketching. If I don’t like what I have drawn, I discard the paper and take fresh piece on top. I still have my major elements underneath.
After I settle on the designs, I transfer them to my Pro-Stitcher Designer software to create the digital designs for my Pro-Stitcher robotic system on my HQ Infinity.
This design will be available for purchase on Quiltable.com soon!
Quilting!
Next comes the fun of quilting and seeing the quilt top come to life. I employed a combination of Pro-Stitcher robotics, ruler-work and free-motion quilting. I wonder what Mrs. Gibson and Ora Tyler would think of their quilt today?
Of course a quilt is not finished until there’s a label. I chose to use one of the spare blocks as the label. Turning the corner of the block back so that the penciled name and hand stitching is visible. I think that is such a charming aspect of this vintage top.
You can also see how the block does not lay flat.
I printed the list of names of all the contributors to the quilt, along with the quilter’s name (me) and date it was finished. Now I proudly consider myself part of this group of ladies. I have 13 new friends! And I wonder if I’m young enough to go by just Mary Beth? I know I’m not old enough to be known as Mrs. Krapil! Mary Beth Krapil will do I guess. 🙂
Have you ever quilted a vintage quilt top? Please share your experience in the comments. We’d love to see pictures!
by Mary Beth Krapil
Beautiful job Mary Beth! Thanks for the ideas to make some changes. I always wonder how much changing and what kind of changes would be okay to do. I would ask the owner about changes I could make if the top was not one I own. A friend did ask me to quilt a top from a garage sale…the hand stitching barely holds together in spots and I think it has been washed so some raveling has happened. I am sure this will not lay flat and is not a good rectangle shape…this should be a challenge for sure 😀
Thanks Janet! Good luck with your challenge. Send pictures!
BEAUTIFUL! I’m hand quilting a dresden plate quilt my grandmother made in the 1920’s. I’ve been quilting it for a few years. It’s on hold until I heal from shoulder replacement surgery.