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WIP Wednesday — Grandmother’s Fan Quilt Top, 1930s Prints on Black

Posted on August 31, 2016August 31, 2016 by Martha

At the beginning of 2016 I made a resolution — No New Quilts!

I’m sure many of you will not be surprised to hear that things did not work out quite as I’d planned, just like most, if not all, of my previous new year’s resolutions. However, even though I am currently working on two new quilts (basket medallion and denim coverlet), I finally delved into the closet of WIPs, and I’m determined to tackle those old projects, one little bin at a time.

The first project I selected contained 20 Grandmother’s Fan blocks made with 1930s scraps from my stash — they’re a little different because my usual scrappiness is more controlled with the mostly two-color blocks. To make 36 more blocks, most of my time was spent searching through my scraps looking for just the right prints. Sometimes I didn’t have enough scraps to make 4 matching blades, so I substituted — other times the scraps weren’t large enough, so I pieced the pieces. It’s all part of the process when you become addicted to working with vintage fabric.

I haven’t done a black background in a ages — not since the feedsack crazy quilt I gave my daughter when she went to college — but I like it with these pastels. I used one of my son’s old sheets (from high school, because I never throw fabric away), which has been washed so many times that it’s more of a very dark gray.

The quilt top is 52″ x 67″, and I want to use pastel perle cotton to quilt it. What do you think . . . one color (which one?) or multiple colors? UPDATE: After reading the comments from Dottie, Virginia and Joyce, I took their advice and auditioned a few different thread colors. I realized right away that I didn’t like the colored stitching on black, which seemed busy and distracting. I’m still planning to use the perle cotton, but with black on the black and pastels on the fans. I want to keep the quilting pattern simple — maybe a variation on Baptist fan.

Grandmother's-Fan-Quilt-Pastel-on-Black

 

7 thoughts on “WIP Wednesday — Grandmother’s Fan Quilt Top, 1930s Prints on Black”

  1. Dottie says:
    August 31, 2016 at 2:19 pm

    I’d probably use just one color, but I’m not sure which one. Blue, maybe. Can you lay out strands of perle cotton on the black to see which color wants to be used? I like the blocks with the substitutions.

    Reply
  2. Virginia says:
    August 31, 2016 at 2:27 pm

    Decisions, decisions. My immidiate thought was using a variegated thread. But I also think yellow or purple would look good also.

    Reply
  3. Joyce Carter says:
    August 31, 2016 at 2:30 pm

    Hi Martha. The top is very pretty. I would probably use just one color to quilt it–maybe yellow since there is a lot of that in there. But you could audition the colors to see which one looks the best.

    Reply
  4. hilda says:
    August 31, 2016 at 4:24 pm

    Very pretty – and I think yellow would be my choice – very fresh and sparkly

    Reply
  5. Nancy says:
    August 31, 2016 at 5:28 pm

    It’s a beautiful quilt, Martha — bright against the black background. I noticed that the others who comment before me see yellow as the dominant color, but when I looked the the photo in feedly I saw blue and green as dominant and was thinking that variegated blue/aqua/green thread would be great. It would look beautiful on the purple, yellow, and pink, too. Isn’t it interesting how we all see so differently and have such different opinions about what would look great? I wonder what you’ll choose!

    Reply
  6. Little Penpen says:
    September 1, 2016 at 4:31 am

    So beautiful! I love that you don’t make ‘what everybody else is making’ ! This quilt is breath taking!

    Reply
  7. Vita Johnson says:
    September 23, 2023 at 12:58 pm

    Beautiful, outstanding fan quilt.

    Reply

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