It’s another finish!! I did say I had a few projects I wanted to complete and this is another one ticked off! It’s a block of the month by Lynette Anderson called Anderson’s Farm. I managed to embroider the last block last week, so ‘all’ I had to do was stitch the blocks together, add the sashing and quilt it…
The border is ‘piano keys’, a long line of 1.5″ x 4.5″ blocks, I got myself a bit of a production line going. I cut the blocks at least 9.5″ long, six of each colour, I arranged the little piles of blocks into a colour order I liked so I could easily stitch a double width length and then cut it in half to make the 4.5″ strips. It worked pretty well, I like the regularity of the colours round the edge.
I’m really pleased with the quilting on this one. It’s not a huge quilt (33 x 48″) so I could do free motion quilting to fit the blocks fairly easily. I started off stitching in the ditch round each block, to give the whole quilt stability as I concentrated on each block. I used two different colours, soft green and off white for the front of the quilt. I quickly realised that Lynette was right when she advised not stitching the buttons on until the end as they do get in the way when quilting. I’d only stitched the first few on anyway but I had to remove them all for quilting.
My first forage into block quilting was the narrow borders, using my walking foot I stitched scallops across every four squares, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be as I could follow the squares. I then stitched scallops in the opposite direction, it looked pretty effective. The ‘Hen and Chicks’ blocks were quilted with a simple diagonal cross and the hearts were quilted with a mini meander. So far so good…
It took me a while to decide how to quilt the picture blocks, but once I got a few ideas in my head I was off… The first idea was to follow the rays of the sun, I stitched the cockerel block first, I was so pleased with it that I did all the suns this way, so that was the sheep and the barn blocks stitched too.
Sydney the Cockerel
Hugo & Friends
The barn needed a bit more so I quilted some extra clouds in the sky and then followed the line of the hill on the grass.
The Old Barn
For the old farmhouse I decided to use the smoke as the inspiration and I quilted narrow wavy lines in between the embroidery and then followed the line of the hill.
The Log Cabin
Using the same idea of getting inspiration from the embroidery to do the quilting, I quilted round the big oak tree with a leaf pattern and then quilted lines round the semi-circle on the blue background. I’m really pleased with this one.
Friendship Oak
I rather like the chickens block, probably because we keep chickens, I mirrored the loopy line of the bees flight for this block, stitching lots of loopy line around the background.
Sydney’s Girls
The horses block took a lot of thinking as there really wasn’t much background left to quilt on and I didn’t want to quilt over the embroidered areas. In the end I took my idea from the little hearts on the trees, I used a line of meandering hearts round the sky and the hill.
Welcome
The fox and the rabbit blocks were tricky as they are so long and thin, in the end I did a gentle wave that followed the line of the wire fencing, this also gives me the argument that the unplanned wiggle in the middle doesn’t matter as that’s what wire fencing does!!. The pigs were also difficult to decide how to quilt, in the end I started a big circle round a tractor wheel and then did big loopy circles round the background, finishing round the back wheel. It turned out better than I hoped.
First Love & Peace Offering
All that was left was the border. My first plan was to stitch a meander of large hearts, but somehow that didn’t look enough, so I decided to do a second loopy meander. Some bits of this work better than others, but it definitely gives a better coverage.
All that was left was the binding and the buttons. I would have liked to use the dark grey as the binding but I had no where near enough fabric left. I found this pretty mid grey sprig fabric in the Fent Shop in Skipton which blended pretty well so I used it for the backing and the binding. Aren’t the buttons gorgeous, my favorite has to be the rabbit, though the owl is pretty cute too!
I’ve hung my quilt on the landing, just outside my sewing room. I love this quilt, I had a few wobbles making it but I got there, it has made me want to learn to do needleturn applique properly. If anyone fancies making this quilt Lynette is starting a new Anderson’s Farm Block of the Month in the New Year. In the meantime there’s another applique quilt that might be just the right one to learn on…
I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, why not have a look what everyone else has been stitching.
thecraftycreek 
What a work of art! I admire quilting so much but I can’t sew in a straight line particularly well. I keep thinking it might be able idea to visit our local quilting group so I can see it being done before attempting it. Yours is inspirational 😊
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Such a beautiful quilt – well done, you.
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Margaret, it is just beautiful! I’m going to check out the 2017 Anderson Farm, after seeing this one!
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I love it! Well done on keep the momentum going and finishing it along with everything else 😍
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This is just beautiful!
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Congrats on your beautiful finish. LOVE all of the detail from all of the buds and the swirls on the flowers. Great work!
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I loved seeing all the quilting and beautiful embroidery details in this. Such a stunning finish!
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What a wonderful quilt! I love the way you quilted each block. Great finish!
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That is gorgeous. Well worth all your effort, a delight for you to admire and celebrate the achievement.
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What a wonderful finish!! This is my first visit to your blog and just wanted to let ya know I’m now your newest follower! Feel welcome to stop by: http://myplvl.blogspot.com/ and if ya like what ya see, follow too! 🙂 🙂
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I love all the amazing variety of quilting ideas. You said you used your walking foot but do you also have free-motion quilting available on your machine? Your quilt is beautiful.
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I love your adorable quilt–congrats on a wonderful finish. Lynette always has such cute buttons to go with her designs—so fun to see them on your quilt. The worms are hilarious!
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Thank you, I love the buttons, I dropped one of the worms on the floor, took me ages to find it again 🙂
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Wonderful quilt and quilting!
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Fantastic
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Stunning. The work that must have gone into creating this is just amazing. You must be thrilled with it. 🙂
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Your embroidery so great. Isn’t it a refreshing addition to appliqued quilts! I love your quilt and all your fabric choices and colors. Very nice! Just darling!
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This is a fun quilt top with lots of extra details!! Your machine quilting looks great
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What an amazing work of art and a testament to your dedication! I love the close ups of the quilting you chose, and agree that the sunburst quilting is just perfect for those blocks. Im doing a quilt as you go quilt at the moment. Nothing as detailed as this, but done by hand and I am enjoying the slow progress. Very therapeutic, isn’t it?
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What a terrific finish! I know how challenging it is to look at an unfinished quilt where every block will be quilted with a different design and just figure it out as you go … you did a great job and I love how you let each block inspire new design ideas!
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Beautiful, so much work involved.
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Great job. It was fun to follow your thought process as you determined how to quilt each section.
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