It's Parsonsfield's Turn to Be Quilted

This is Parsonsfield, a small quilt sewn with Lori of Humble Quilts when she hosted a sew-along about a year and a half ago.  It seems I'm usually behind the times when it comes to layering and quilting sew-along tops (or any tops, for that matter!).

I decided a small quilt would be perfect to hand quilt after finishing Everyday Patchwork, so my One Monthly Goal for May is to choose backing and batting, then layer and baste this quilt.  Maybe I'll be able to begin hand quilting it, but that's not part of my goal this month.  Just choosing backing and layering and basting.  (Because verrtigo has returned again, I'm not sure how much I can get done.  Better to meet the goal and get more done than not meet the goal.)

Thoughts on backing fabric.  I used mostly reproduction-style fabrics for this quilt but this does not look like an old-style quilt to me.  It looks more modern, maybe only because of the light colors.  At first I thought of the backing fabric you see beside the quilt, the tannish and off-white print.  The tannish fabric is linen, somewhat loosely woven.  I doubt this quilt will get much wear or need to be washed often but so it should be fine on that point, but it seems just a little boring to me.  So I'm on the hunt for other backing fabric I can use.  There must be pieces I have on hand that I could stitch together to make a 30" square, or maybe one piece that large.  (The quilt is 23½" square but backing needs to be larger for hand quilting.)  Maybe fabric with red, since there are several pieces with red on the front.  I'll look again tomorrow.

I'll probably use flannel for batting.  I like small quilts to be flexible.

I'm linking this post to May One Monthly Goal at Stories from the Sewing Room.  Thanks for hosting, Anne-Marie.

--Nancy.

Making Dear Prudence, A Little Quilt

Wendy the Constant Quilter hosts a monthly miniature quilt link-up at the end of every month.  Such beautiful quilts the ladies make!  I love the mini quilts and have made a few but always wonder what to do with them. Then, early in October, Rogue Quilter Janet (who is one of the queens of miniature quilts) extended a challenge in conjunction with Wendy's mini link-up:  use a bag of leftover scraps and make a miniature quilt from them.  She offered a few of her bags to readers who were already participating in the monthly mini link-up.  I admired several of her color combinations in the bags but said I just didn't see myself making miniature quilts (because, of course, what would I do with them?).  Janet may read this post and chuckle.

And then, when I saw Pam Buda's new sew-along for a miniature quilt she calls Dear Prudence I caved.   (Thank you for the sew-along, Pam.)  Her inspiration quilt had 18 tiny birds in the air blocks.  I fell in love with the colors of the birds on that little quilt.  I have a small collection of fabrics in the gold-to-copper-to-bronze-to-green-to-brown color range.  Pam use pinks and blues from her fabric line for her beautiful quilt.  My version uses the original colors as much as I was able to see and copy them.  Except I didn't have enough of any double pink.  I also didn't have the pattern.  My only clue to size was that the tiny birds, unfinished, were 1½" square.

My quilt top is together except for the two borders.  I still need to trim around the edges because I wasn't sure how big to make the side-setting and corner triangles.  Oversize is better, I thought.

I'll try to find fabric for the narrow inner border that has the coppery/green tones from the fabric in the blocks, perhaps a plaid.  I've already chosen the fabric for the outer border.  You can see it on the right in the photo below.

I think the pink is an unusual choice to go with the rest of the fabrics but because I was copying an old quilt I went with it. 

I forgot how dense little quilts can become.  The seams in the tiny half-square-triangle blocks almost cover the triangles on the back. 

Finishing this top (trimming edges and adding two borders), plus choosing backing, deciding whether to use batting/flannel between, and basting are my One Monthly Goal this month. 

I'm linking this post to
> November One Monthly Goal Linkup at Elm Street Quilts.
> Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
> Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
> Off the Wall Friday at Nina's blog
Thanks for hosting, ladies!

--Nancy.