Fan Quilt

Fan Quilt

This is one of two queen sized quilts in the same pattern, that I made back in 1981.  Daughter has the second quilt.  This is a pattern known as Grandmother's Fan and Oriental Fan.  The "fans" are pieced and appliqued to the blue background rectangles, which were then joined together to make the quilt top.  It is very minimally hand quilted, just a single outline quilting along the outer edge of the fan.  I prefer piecing the patches to quilting.   Like the majority of my quilts, it is made of fabric I had in my fabric stash, mostly leftover from my mother's sewing (she used to make all our clothes).  I did buy the blue fabric and the backing, which isn't shown. 

I first became interested in patchwork when I was a teenager, in 1974.  I had seen a patchwork cushion cover in a magazine.  It was pieced using English paper piecing, where paper templates were cut out first and covered with fabric, and then whip stitched together.  English paper piecing is hand sewn.  The cushion was composed of 1-inch diameter hexagons and diamonds.

My second patchwork piecing project was a quilt.  Composed of 2-inch diameter hexagons, it, too, was English paper pieced.  It was a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  The year was 1976.  I no longer have this quilt top - I wore it out over the years. 

Since then, I've made several more quilts.  I have given away some of them.  Others are worn and tearing.  But others are barely used and look as new as the day I made them. 

Currently, I am sewing a new Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  With larger hexagons than the previous Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  I'll post pictures of it when I have finished it.

Does anyone else like to do patchwork quilting?  Do you have quilts you have made?  Do you buy the fabric especially for quilts or do you use scraps leftover from other sewing projects?