A Hero's Quilt
Weather is finally getting cooler here. I love fall weather. It has always been my favorite season. I grew up in a home “in the woods”, surrounded by large shade trees. We had oak trees, ash trees, elm trees and at least five varieties of maple trees. Every fall was a riot of color.
The maple tree in my front yard here in Missouri is starting to hint at changing color. It will be awhile before Missouri is in full color. Still, I’m looking forward to fall.
Working on the Long Arm
I'm spending my time with SusieQ this week. We finished up Home Town Heroes.
I’ve enjoyed working on this quilt. It is the Skill Builder lesson from May 2020. The following Skills from this lesson:
- Single Pattern Fill Background
- Nested Pattern
- Apply on an angle
- Echo – Inside and Outside
- Designing Radiating Lines
- Echo – Boundary
Fill and Nested Patterns
There are many ways to use Fill on a quilt. It frequently appears in the background of applique blocks. You can also use it to place quilting in larger open spaces in the background within blocks or between blocks.
Nesting is a technique that reduces the spacing between the designs. When placing a pattern, the design usually appears in a stacked manner. Offsetting a design shifts the alternating rows so that each row can nest into the one before it. The effect on this quilt is a beautiful, filled background for the entire white area.
The tricky part on this quilt was trimming the background along the diagonal of the side stripes. You need trim the start pattern on each row. Sometimes it is just a matter of removing a small like but other times the entire pattern must be split on the diagonal. It was a good learning experience.
The Diagonal Rows
The diagonal rows on the quilt also require special placement of the patterns. When quilting, the patterns are usually stitched on the horizontal plane. By using the Apply on an Angle technique, the patterns are placed in the proper place on the quilt. Since the machine can stitch in any direction, you place the patterns diagonally instead of the usual horizontal. This gives maximum flexibility to placing the patterns on a quilt.
The Heart
Inside the heart on this quilt are the words “Thank You”. The words, the pearl heart and the rays are all separate patterns placed in the heart individually. This allows for minor adjustments to accommodate differences in piecing and cutting. The techniques used include Echo, Echo Boundary, and designing radiating lines to create this custom treatment.
I plan to make a few more of the Home Town Hero quilt pattern. Next time, I’ll change the background and maybe do something a little different in the heart. For now, this one joins my pile of quilts that need bindings. ?
What are your weekend plans?
Until till next time,