Sally’s Amazing Lancaster quilt

I had the pleasure of quilting another of Sally Coble’s applique masterpieces.   This one is a Sue Daley pattern called “Lancaster”.  The clamshells are needle turn but they are long strips, not individual little clams which you might think would be the case.   Sally does impeccable handwork, her quilts are so exciting to work on!

 
 
My acrylic sheets.   I plan most quilts this way.   I don’t transfer the markings, I refer to them for design.   I have 3 so that lets me keep certain elements by my side.  I can mark what ruler, how much spacing I used, etc.   I can’t work without them for auditioning designs to scale.

 
The next problem is that the markers are thicker and of course bolder than thread.  You are really never sure what you have until you start stitching.   This client does not want blue markers used, so it is a challenge to get registration lines and spacing worked out with just chalk.  I pretty much just have to wing it!   Disappointing at times, because I can’t always get the spacing just right.

Sue Daley’s method.   Long strips of clams to be needleturn appliqued down.  Very impressive backside. 

 

We choose to treat the outer border with a large undulating feather.   It would have been so costly to ditch and detail every one of those clams!   I’m happy in the end, I was so worried that we could not give it the detail that it deserved…but the thread is so blending, you really don’t notice that the clamshells were feathered!    Good choice I believe because the thread does blend so well.   All that work would not have been noticed. 

I am pleased with that inner feathered border, it turned out quiet nicely.   Feather border inspiration from one of my favorite pros – Linda Hrcka.   Auriful cotton thread and QD wool batting.  The applique was ditched with Superior’s new Micro Quilter – 100 wt colored threads that really do a nice job of defining without thread build up.  I sort of wish I had used it throughout.

Thank you Sally for allowing me to custom quilt for you once again!

**I’ve had a few questions so I thought I would update here.  Freehand, hand guided quilting, some ruler work on the swags, crosshatching and swags for circles.   I love QP curved rulers!  Outer straight line bead work is done quickly by eye just sliding the ruler along to help maintain a straight line, continuous curves around diamonds and elsewhere in borders (there are LOTS of them!) are all freehand – no rulers, no marking.