
Sebastian Quilters Raffle Quilt
I recently finished quilting the Christmas Raffle Quilt for the Sebastian Quilters. It is a custom quilted pieced made with hexagonal flowers that are appliqued onto the blocks with a stem and leaf. The flowers were too large to leave un-quilted, so I stitched rounded flower petals and a circular center on each, then free-motion stippled around them.
With so many choices for stippling, I thought it best to keep it simple with a regular puzzle looking stipple stitch. When I was learning to free-motion quilt, this was the first “stitch” I mastered. I often think of my friend Chris Landis who encouraged me to try her APQS and let me use her longarm on my first quilt. Ironically, it was a hexagonal Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt top given to me by my cousin. The stippling in many quilts was primarily done like this – nothing like you see today with background fills of McTavishing, pebbles and other fancy fills you see in today’s quilts.
On the borders, I quilted a simple but easy lowercase “L’s and E’s” pattern. Even though it is a basic design stitch, it dresses up the border nicely and adds interest without being fussy or complicated. Whenever I’m unsure about a design to use, I tend to go back to basics.
Raffle tickets for the quilt are priced at $1.00 each or six for $5.00 and can be purchased from any Sebastian Quilters Christmas Committee member.
I am often asked to donate my quilting services for various projects and I happily do so for a limited number of groups each year. Last year l quilted several quilts for Habitat, Sebastian Quilters, Quilts of Valor and St Baldrick’s Foundation.