Lady of the Loch???

Apparently the Lady of the Lake Quilt Block was named after a poem by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1810, Sir Walter also lived in the Scottish Borders.

The pioneer men and women loved the tales of Sir Walter Scott, and the women honored him  by naming a patchwork block after the poem.

The Lady of the Lake quilt block appeared shortly after publication of the poem, one showing up in Vermont some time before 1820.

Apparently it is one of the few quilt block patterns that has never been known by other names.

This wonderful quilt top was pieced by Andrea Beck from Flintshire.....when I bought this top I could tell that Andrea had put a lot of thought into the fabrics and the piecing....the fabrics are a wonderful quality, I believe they are 1800's in style which is great as my home was built around 1835....I am very pleased with my choice of fabrics for the two borders.  

I have been waiting to quilt this one ...I wanted to be sure that I did it justice....

I didn't know how I was going to quilt this top, my quilting designs usually evolve on the frame...but unusually for me I had no idea what to do in the borders and setting triangles so I stitched in the ditch all the blocks and borders then went straight ahead and quilted the blocks first....I have used this straight line quilting in wholecloths before...it's great for pushing back the background so I used that in all the light coloured triangles which let the darker triangles come forward....curved crosshatching and a feathered swirl with a pebbled spine finished each block.

Next the inner border...I tried to pull something from the body of the quilt...I ghosted the straight line triangles out into the plain border....that left a strange shape in the corner another triangle looked a bit odd but the space was perfect for a feathered swirl....the fabric in the outer border is rather busy so a straight continuous feather finished off the quilting just right!

I'm a cold old fish....I like warm quilts and this one is so special it's a keeper, it's going in the spare room in my drafty old farmhouse....so.....I used a double batting/wadding of Hobbs 80/20 and Quilters Dream wool, I used Filtec glide in the needle and bobbin (28 bobbins)...that straight line quilting is very thread hungry!

I chose a light coloured fabric with a subtle bamboo design for the backing which makes for a reversible quilt that looks light and airy for the summer months....the texture on the back is wonderful too!

Don't you just love those colours?

All of the fabrics used in this quilt are of fantastic quality and with the use of a double batting this makes for a very substantial quilt....I just love it...it looks great in this room with the teracotta coloured carpet too!

Andrea....I think we've made a great quilting partnership with this one!