LeannM

Also now dubbed the teaching quilt, this monster (101" x 111") quilt top was picked up at a yard sale in PA, pieced by an unknown person (someone Amish I was told) and then given to me to use for practice quilting. 
I'm going to say right off the bat this was a fabulous learning tool. The gift that kept on giving.......issues, but that is the beauty of it. I learned to quilt cupping in the fans, inaccurate piecing, and dealt with poor pressing during construction, but that is where the learning curve was beneficial! It cost me my time (valuable) and the price of the backing, batting, thread, and improved my quilt-vision. The colors were definitely old fashioned and dated, not to my taste. The piecer probably used leftover dress fabrics. I decided to spice it up with floral appliqué and lace because it lacked life and needed contrast. The appliqué and lace perked it up and I put it on my long arm to give it depth with wool batting. 

January 19, 2015 update: 
I began the process of quilting to give it dimension. That being said, it gave me excitement as I worked on it more. I drew a cable and feathers pantograph for the 11 ½ " border. I used a rope tool from Quilter's Rule for the inside blue border. 

January 31, 2015 update: 
After a week of jury duty I came home at night to find myself wanting to stand up and do no more sitting!!! So, got on my feet and I quilted! I used Quilter's Dream 100% washable wool batting, and So Fine 50 weight polyester matching thread (#417) on the top with Bottom Line ecru thread in the bobbin. I finally finished the quilting January 30 and trimmed it up ready to be bound. I previously thought I was going to use bias strips from the backing but then decided it would distract away from the border details. I was going to try to find a close match for the pink background to use for binding and ended up using purchased pink quilt binding. 

February 25, 2015 
Binding was completed! It was another first for me in that scalloped binding. Every step in this quilt was a new one for me. 

March 1, 2015 
The quilt finished out at 98 x 108 inches. I could call this "Transformation" and leave it at that, but I wanted to use fan somehow in the name. Those fans seem to just dance around on the quilt. I think Fandango, a Spanish dance, fits. "Fandango Transformation" is now its name!

Sept/Oct 2015

The quilt was chosen to be featured in Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine's Noteworthy section on page 71 of the Sept/Oct 2015 issue.

April 13, 2017

 I received notification this quilt was selected for the Houston International Quilt Festival's special exhibit, "In the American Tradition - Appliqué 2017: International Quilts".   Fandango Transformation has now also traveled with the exhibit to the Chicago International Quilt Festival, April 12-14, 2018.