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?! 

Brenda's Bounty - a work in progress

WIP...sounds so much better than UFO don't you think?

Brenda's Bounty started in January - 7 1/2 " finished blocks

My favourite antique quilt in Linda Collins' Quiltmania book

I have to admit my method is a bit different from the template piecing method in the book - just adapted to my peculiar skills (ie the difficulty I always seem to have with accurate piecing!) and the methods I enjoy. 

A little bit of fussy cutting if the fabric inspired

and here are the pieces prepared to hand stitch the block above

My method involved making my own EPP papers - using thin card and shapes from the book templates. 

For the small triangles I stitch basted the fabric over the card and later popped out the card to reuse for the next block. 

For the the handle rectangles, I first needle turn appliqued the handle onto a background rectangle (using back basting preparation method). Then I used a glue stick and iron to glue baste the rectangle over card ready to EPP this piece. 

The two large triangles were also glue basted over card. I usually prefer to avoid glue, but with large shapes the fabric stays a lot more stable than when stitch basted - because it is held all around the shape edges and not just in the corners. Hope that makes some sense? 

So ...all these pieces become...another basket block

Once the block was all stitched together by the EPP method, I removed the papers and unpicked the basting just around the edge pieces, pressed flat and trimmed to 8" square.

 

The design wall was important to check for balance in value and colour

The baskets are done and now I'm moving on the edge blocks - just simple EPP of little triangles. 

Not much looking forward to putting it all together with the sashing pieces ...Y seams ahead!  I'll put the sewing machine to work for that bit...and try to keep the brain in gear! 

The garden is starting to show signs of Spring cheer so I brought some inside.