John's Wedding Quilt

I make a quilt for each of my children when they are married. John is the latest to marry and I have started on his wedding quilt. The pattern I chose was purchased from Jinny Beyer's quilt shop in Great Falls, Virginia. Jinny Beyer designs her own fabrics and patterns. I heard her speak at a quilt convention in Chicago and she was delightful to hear. This quilt is called Somerset. The pattern is for a square wall hanging but I modified it to fit a queen sized bed.

I finished piecing the top and now it is time to put it on the quilting frame and quilt. I use a Grace quilting frame that I bought in Chicago but they carry them in many of the stitching magazines and on line. The frame is called self basting because the top, back and batting are put on separate rollers and then wound together as you quilt so there is no need to pin or baste the quilt together before starting to quilt. I really love this quilt frame. This is the fourth quilt I have done on it. I did a crib quilt, a king size and now two queens.

I have two other quilting Frames besides a hoop. I have my grandmothers frame but it is impossible to even turn the quilt yourself unless you are very agile and can use your legs as well as your arms to push the rods into position. When I learned how to quilt in Pennsylvania my teacher used two sawhorses notched for a 2 by 2 rod to roll the quilt on. I used that for years but this frame required that I baste the quilt. There are two problems with basting the quilt. The first is space. You need to lay the quilt out flat. When I was working I could stay after work and move large tables together and that worked well for laying out the quilt. The second problem is that no matter how carefully you smooth things out it seems you always need to rip out the basting or move the pins as you go.

This is our cat Savannah helping me quilt Amy's wedding quilt, a Pine Burr pattern. I am using the old sawhorse quilt frame.