Amish Quilting

This came from Barbara in Oakland...it was like getting a blank piece of paper in "quilt speak." Can you say potential????

 Barbara and I spoke "design" on this quilt for a long time. She made it for a friend of her's, a man, which to me means no frilly stuff. After much discussion, we decided all quilting should be geometric and the thread should match the background (I had briefly considered using a neutral gray).

We talked about that center diamond for a long time. Barbara sent me some photos of similar quilts with the star quilted in the center, but they were all done with hand quilting. So out came the rulers and the marking tools and I placed the same type star in the center and started quilting. (If you click on the pic, it will open in a new window so you can see the quilting better)

 The back.  Did I mention that the backing fabric was solid black??  I love solid backings--it makes the quilting its own design. 

Another design issue was what to do in the corners--the star just didn't fill it up enough. I suggested the curved crosshatch and Barb agreed. I think it turned out well...what do you think?

Next decision was the sashing. I'd just recently seen this design in a quilting magazine and loved it--luckily Barb did too! I love how it turned out and how the curves there complement the curved crosshatching.

 Another shot of the back with a bit more detail.  See those little designs in the cornerstones? Barbara's friend is a gardener and she wanted something quilted that would make the quilt more special for him. She opted for this "tulip" design. I wasn't sure about it at first, but although its a flower, its geometric and fit in perfectly.

  

Not sure what happened to the color here--the lime green is definitely not gray and the brick colored sashing is certainly not pink!!  But the quilting did show up, so I'm adding this to show you the stars quilted into the large cornerstones to coordinate with the center star.

 

  And finally, a shot of the back...in its entirety.

 This was such a fun quilt to work on. I hope I get more Amish designs in the future.

Dory