Molly Culp's Baltimore Garden Quilt

Featuring today: Molly Culp of Waco, TX and her Baltimore Garden Quilt

Molly Culp of Waco, Texas has been  winning big prizes at national shows with her Baltimore Garden Quilt! She has won several top ribbons; a 1st, 3rd and a “Past Show Chairman Award.” Her quilt also won a 3rd place at MQS in Iowa. In 2016, her quilt took 1st and Fat Quarter Awards (that is when the store comes to the show and chooses their favorite). There were 200 entries there at the Dimmitt, Texas Ogallala Quilt Festival. 

Molly has exquisitely quilted beautiful designs on her Baltimore Garden with her Gammill hand guided machine. She has had her machine for 20 years, and has taken lessons from Sharon Schamber on how to set the machine up with rice bags and that was how she learned to control the machine. Her experience and skill certainly shows in this closeup of her beautiful quilting designs. Molly is very proud of her Baltimore Garden Quilt. She has done a wonderful job.

Molly feels that “traditional quilts have a harder time for winning.” I have to agree. However, one judge commented that her crosshatching pattern was very straight. I think the red piping around the bound edge is a nice touch. And I love to see quilters using the Alternate Layout from the Baltimore Garden pattern book. 

Congratulations Molly!

The Baltimore Garden Quilt book with pattern CD or full-size printed patterns are available on my website at discounted prices.

Keep Stitching!
Barbara M. Burnham
www.barbaramburnham.com

(c)2018 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.

How to Use a Hera Marker

A HERA MARKER is a traditional Japanese tool used for marking fabric by making an indent on the fabric.It leaves no residue (no chemicals), works on any fabric weave or color, and disappears completely after quilting or washing.

Two styles of hera marker are made of hard plastic by Clover. Both styles have a sharp edge for making straight lines by pressing down and drawing across the fabric, guided along the edge of a rotary ruler. 

Press ONLY hard enough to make a mark you can see – it IS possible to mark too hard and make errors difficult to remove. (I mark a lot of background grid lines on my quilts, so I prefer this wider style; it is more comfortable to hold against the palm of my hand.)

The thin style has both a sharp edge and a pointed end. The pointed end is guided by drawing as you would a pencil, either freehand or with a stencil.

I have also used the pointed end to perforate a paper design leaving a dotted line in the quilt.

Lots of marking errors show in the photo above, but no marks were left after quilting.

HELPFUL HINTS:  
* If you have trouble seeing your marks while quilting, it may help to change your angle of view.
* Make a plan on paper before beginning to mark.
* I prefer to mark my quilts AFTER basting the quilt sandwich.
* If you do not have a hera marker, you can substitute a knitting needle or darning needle for small projects. Do NOT use a butter knife, as it may leave dark marks on the fabric.

OTHER USES FOR A HERA MARKER:  
* Pre-crease applique stems and strips for ruching.
* Draw reference lines for fussy cutting.
* Crease skirt and pant hems, pleats, darts.
* Add hash marks to match up pieced curves.
* Finger press pieced seams without ironing.
* Paper folding.

Keep Stitching!
Barbara M. Burnham
www.barbaramburnham.com

(c) 2018 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.

Hand Quilting vs. Machine Quilting

Hand Quilting vs. Machine Quilting? This is not a competition! And this post is not a debate about which is better. They are just different -- very different. Each project will vary depending on fabrics and batting, density of stitching, methods and skills of the quilter. But the same designs can certainly be be used for hand quilting or machine quilting. Here is one comparison using the same designs, each done quite differently.

This is a section of the antique 1848 applique quilt that inspired my reproduction quilt and my book, Baltimore Garden Quilt.* On this antique quilt, the various floral quilted designs between the applique motifs are emphasized by very close, straight diagonal lines of background quilting. There was no trapunto or stuffing of the quilted designs on this quilt, and no quilting "around" the applique pieces as we often do today. The batting is cotton.

This is the same area on my reproduction quilt made in 2008. After scanning the drawings that I traced from the antique quilt, Marty Vint beautifully quilted all the floral designs, and closely around each applique motif, with her Gammill longarm. We could have added dense background quilting, but we agreed this was enough. Oh, and there was also that book deadline! The batting is "Matilda's Wool" (no longer available). The quilting thread is a shade or two darker than the background fabric to add emphasis.

How will you decide to quilt?

Hand Quilting - photo courtesy Carla Therrien

Machine Quilting - photo courtesy Marty Vint

In a future post, I plan to show how to adapt these floral quilting designs to other quilts for hand quilting.

*All of the original 1848 quilting designs are included on the patterns provided (on CD) in the book. A full size pattern set (on paper) is also available separately. Avoid outrageous prices on amazon from third-party sellers! Buy directly from my website for $15.00 +3.99 shipping.

Keep Stitching!

Barbara M. Burnham

www.barbaramburnham.com

(c) 2017 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.