Wrapt in Love, for Piper

Many of us start a quilt having no idea who the quilt is for. But I have discovered that when you know who you are quilting for, each stitch takes on new meaning.

As soon as I saw WIL, released as the 2019 free BOM by Esther Aliu, I knew I would be making it. I had already planned that my next applique would be based on a burgundy/gold color scheme and had picked up the fabrics I wanted to use. I can quilt just for the joy of creating, but knowing who you are quilting for adds another dimension of joy and expression.

I went through my list of family members that have received a quilt in the past. Were any due a new quilt? Yes! My grand daughter Piper turned 11 this year and at this age, I like to update my grand children with a more mature quilt. Each grandchild has received a small baby quilt when born, and a twin bed size quilt when about 3 years old. The 10/11 age bracket is a good time to update those older quilts. My plan is to do another quilt for each of the four of them when they turn 16. That is 13 years away for the youngest grandchild. Hopefully, I will be able to make that deadline!

Piper lives in Iowa, halfway across the country, and we keep in touch through text messaging. As the BOM has unfolded, I have shared it’s progress with Piper. This has been all sorts of fun and we are now in the quilting stage. As you saw in an earlier blog, I modified the pattern a bit to fit her bed size. Now the quilting begins!

MonoPoly is used to outline and SID (Stitch in the Ditch) on each seam and I did ESS (Every Stinking Seam)! Even the tiniest block and HS received SID. This stabilizes the quilt quite well and I can take out the pins and move the quilt wherever I wish to stitch.

Next comes the background stitching on the flower blocks, a combination of outlining and McTavishing. That is completed and I am heading into the sashing, using a combination of plaits in a soft variegated beige on the light strips and a swirl in a variegated thread on the dark. I had planned to use burgundy on the burgundy areas, but I started thinking about how much Piper loves purple and this is a quilt for a young person and went digging in my thread stash to find something fun. I found a variegated purple/blue/red and found it complimented the burgundy sashing quite nicely.

The plait is a nice little FMQ motif for narrow areas and a good contract to curvy FMQ designs. It gives the eye a place to rest. My narrow sections (sashing) of the beige grunge are all quilted with the plait motif. I marked the long center sections with dots 3/4″ apart, offset by 1/4″ on the opposite side. The basket side pieces and narrow sashing on the bottom of the baskets are free hand plaits.

I love the look of the swirls next to the plaits.

Time for feathers! Every quilt should have a few feathers! I decided on a curly feather shape for the HSTs, using the two background squares and using a pink/green/lavender Fantastico that I used for the stems and lighter pieces of the applique work.

The half square batiks each have a small, three prong feather in matching threads.

The baskets themselves came last, indecisive as I was about the FMQ. The burgundy baskets are FMQ in burgundy Magnifico with a small paisley fill, with the basket base in a triangular design. The light baskets are FMQ in white Magnifico with tiny swirls and a straight fill in the basket base. I used the same thread for the plaits next to the basket.

I added some details to the applique flowers and center/corner swirlies as I went along. And then a feather/seahorse motif in the variegated Fanstico on the 2″ top and bottom border. Finally, I bound the quilt in the burgundy Moda grunge.

This quilt has been an adventure and so much fun. And now ready to send off to my granddaughter!

Have fun, my quilting friends!

Lennea