Brenda's Bounty update

When I last posted about this quilt most of the blocks were done and I was a little worried about the piecing together stage up ahead. Happy to report all is good!

Here are the blocks finished and pinned on my design sheet. It's just a sheet on a dowel hung in front of a bookcase (note to self -  I need a longer sheet). 

My blocks were constructed by English paper piecing, using the templates from Linda's pattern "Brenda's Bounty" in her lovely Quiltmania book "Treasures from the Barn " - hence the name of my quilt. But the sashing/ joining method in the book required Y seams - not something I'm familiar with (panic setting in). I knew I'd have to do some research/practice on this method.

But then Sarah Francis kindly sent me a copy of her pattern where she uses partial seams to join it all together. Sigh of relief...I've worked with partial seams before and sure I can do it again!  Thank you Sarah! 

I cut my sashing strips the sizes in Linda's book because Sarah's pieces are a little wider and I prefer to have a smaller finished quilt. 

Then I followed Sarah's method and it went together like a dream - a couple of days machine piecing. There is a wonderful construction chart in the pattern that I followed word for word till it all came back to me.

If those steps look confusing and you'd like to know more, then it might help to look at a tutorial on partial seams by Jinny Beyer here.

Top finished about 79" by 67"

In case anyone asks - Sarah Francis doesn't have a website but is happy for me to share her email contact txjaniac@verizon.net. (patterns available for USD 10 plus postage).

I'll be hand quilting with cotton batting (Quilters Dream as per usual) but still debating which type of quilting. I'm very tempted by big stitch quilting as I loved how it turned out on this quilt . It is such a quick method ...but I don't want to detract from the antique look of this quilt. Aurifil 12wt seems thinner than a lot of the perle cottons so I might experiment with that and 'not-tooooo-big' stitch?!