Sally's Irish Chain with Baptist Fans

Be careful what you wish for

I had a customer named Sally. She is a real sweetie. She and her husband of 57 years have 6 children and umpteen grandchildren. She has made quilts for all of them, including some grand-children. I have quilted several including 6 king-size quilts. She routinely has friendly borders. I just fix them for her because she is so nice.

Well, then a local short-armer got a Statler and I didn't hear from Sally for months. Well, we live in a small town so I SAW her at the local quilt shop, the grocery store, chat in passing at the restaurant for weekend breakfasts but no quilts for over 5 months. I was sorry to lose her to the computer-quilter but that's the way it goes sometimes. I wished that I could have kept her as a customer.

Sally called me a week ago and told me she has been taking only wall-hangings to the computer quilter and she has a quilt for me. It's a single Irish chain. It's a king-size, of course. And she needs it in time for the quilt show, less than 2 weeks away. Grrrr.

It is all done in 1800's fabrics and muslin background and backing. She wanted the quilt to be quilted traditionally for the era. I suggested and she approved Baptist Fans (Circle Lord templates). It's a lot of work but it would have been true to the period. This Irish chain did not have a big open place to quilt a motif. No, this one had a piece 20-square block Seams and more seams) surrounded by muslin and then the chain. The fans were looking better all the time. Actually there was very little fullness in the field of the quilt. That is probably because I starched and steamed the dickins out of it. But the borders, well, I couldn't quilt anything connected. I wanted to try cables or concentric waves. But the puckers came and I fought with that top border. After taking it off the frame (again) I removed over an inch of the bottom border. But the small amount of fullness in the blocks all trickled down to the lower right corner and I could not line up any template on an unsquare quilt. Leaf it. I danced around the remaining fullness with big leaves. OK. At one point I was kicking myself for wishing for another Sally quilt. But you know what, it looks great.



I used Hobbs 80/20 and Signature Parchment on top and Signature Linen in the bobbin. Very similar in color so I figure I would use up that Linen
thread.