My Quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival: A Handkerchief Grandmother's Fan Quilt

Yeah--it's Quilt Festival time on internet!  Here's your chance to meet other quilters at your leisure.  Here is my first machine quilted queen size Grandmother's Fan made out of vintage handkerchiefs. 

I have handkerchiefs from both of my grandmothers, great grandmothers, great aunts, aunts, mom-in-law and mom.  When my boys were little, I wanted to make a quilt out of handkerchiefs.  I thought that a Grandmother's Fan would be a nice way to display vintage handkerchiefs. Some of the hankies were really thin so I lined them with a cotton underneath with applique film.

I started out with a white square of cotton fabric.  The fan was laid on the square.  I used invisible thread to attach the fan to the white square.  The white fabric under the fan was then carefully trimmed away to get rid of the extra bulk.

The fan block above is special because it is from my Great Grandma Moore.  Her first name started with an "R".

What a cute hankie for Valentine"s Day!

The yellow fan blades on the ends display my childhood handkerchief.

As you can see I had a lot of fun putting this quilt together and I really can't decide which block I like the best.  Some are more special than others because I know where the hankies came from.

 When it was time to quilt it, I had decided to machine quilt it because most of the fabrics in the fans are vintage and I thought that I would help preserve them better with free motion backgrounds in the fan blades.

This is a queen size quilt and yes I quilted it on a regular home sewing machine.  I used a 1630 Bernina.  My sewing machine was set on a large table and I let the quilt open as I quilted.  I tried rolling it and I found more freedom in just letting the pool around my machine.  I do not remember how many hours it took to quilt it, but I remember only sitting down for not more than 30 minutes to quilt at a time.  My focus was only on one block at a time.

This quilt is very special to me because all the ladies that gave me handkerchiefs had a hand in supporting me as a young mother.  Since that time, some of these beautiful ladies had passed on and this quilt brings back such wonderful memories.  When I was making this quilt, I made way too many blocks!  I have enough blocks to make a second quilt!  So eventually both of my sons will get a Grandmother's Fan quilt.  Thanks for stopping by and please be sure to check out the rest of the beautiful quilts at the Blogger's Festival at

http://amyscreativeside.com/2010/10/29/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2010/

Happy Quilting

Kay Lynne

P.S. Update: Here is what I done with the leftover blocks from this quilt.
  

Free Motion Radiant Designs and Spirals & Progress on Sewing Room

Pictured above are my radiant designs.  Since the designs are hard to see, I took a picture of the back of my quilt.  I filled in the background to give it a little more texture. 

Below are my spirals.  At first I didn't like them, but once you into the rhythm of doing them they are addicting.

If you remember, I painted my new sewing room in July.  I stenciled the walls and we laid 80% of the laminate flooring in August.  I started stripping painted wallpaper in the closet that was three layers deep.  After spending four hours doing a 12" by 12" area, my husband suggested that we panel the closet instead.  I decided that was a great idea!  The closet has been half done since August and we now have it almost finished!  The paneling is dark, but it's only a closet.  Dean left his square downstairs in the garage so I'm letting him borrow my large quilting square.  So ladies--I think that I will have to hide my square because Dean liked using my square way too much!  Little does he know that I use my quilting tools for other things than quilting.

I spent several hours this week putting together a closet organizer.  Once we finish the flooring, I will be able to set up my sewing room closet.  Progress has been slow, but family, friends, work, and farming obligations have taken priority.  My old sewing room is still in working order so I'm happy with the progress.  This summer I couldn't make up my mind on what type of flooring to use so I'm going to use both carpet and laminate flooring.  I would like to thank you ladies for all the advice on what flooring to use.  The carpet you can see in the picture is leftover carpet from my father-in-law.  He was so thoughtful in giving it to me and it was at the right price--free!  I had the edges bound at a carpet shop.  So I will have the better of two types of flooring. 

Here is a beautiful October sunset taken west of our house.  The landscape has really changed since all the crops have been harvested.  Dean finished combining the double crop beans this week.  He has some fall tillage to do, but the high pressure of harvest is over.  I'm so thankful we had a safe harvest.

Please think about joining us next week in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  It's always a pleasure to see other quilter's creations.  The link is posted on the right. 

If you have thought about joining the Free Motion Quilt Along, now is the time to think about joining.  Christina has some family obligations and will be taking two weeks off.  So you have two weeks to get started and to catch-up with us.  If you don't want to do a quilt, I suggest doing potholders.  You get practice and a new potholder all at the same time and who doesn't need a new potholder! 

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne