The Blue Collection

"The Blue Collection," designed by Maggie Walker, hand applique by Barbara Pate, assembled and quilted by Pam Geisel, completed April 2013, approx. 60" x 60"

My friend Susan's sister Barbara started this quilt but was unable to finish it, so Susan asked me to complete it. I don't know when Barbara started it, but the pattern, which was created by Maggie Walker, was originally a block-of-the-month quilt and is copyright 1997.

Fortunately for me, Barbara did about 85 percent of the hand applique, including all of the pots, plates, and bowls. This technique is one that I'm not that good at, and I don't really enjoy doing it. I've had a lot of practice doing squares and rectangles (for sleeves and labels) but complicated curved pieces are more that I can handle. I did applique about half of the small leaves, the vines in the outer border, and a few other random pieces, and even those took a lot of time.

The middle part was mostly pieced but I did assemble three of the borders and about half of the blue and white checker board sashing.

I did dense free motion stipple quilting on the yellow background to compress the fabric in that area and make the pots and fruit stand out, and most of the pots have some free motion quilting on them.

The backing fabric has blue and white teacups on it! As always, click on any of the photos to see a larger version.