Brinton Hall Quilt Pattern – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

Good Saturday morning from South Texas – where we love the 100+ degree weather and humidity….. OK – July Fool! They “say” we are sending the heat high to the Southwest next week – around 1 August! If that happens and we have rain in August we are in a new cycle of weather! Walking in this weather is great – allows me to take at least 2 showers a day! I will miss them when winter gets here (LOL).

Our lives have returned to normal (with a few sad moments) it is unbelievable what stress can do to the body and mind – it is a killer. I am so enjoying life again and my freedom from interruptions and other issues. Now the only interruptions are when Clay and I interrupt each other when we are working on our projects! Looking forward to the trek to Arizona more and more. So many things coming down the road that are exciting and so looking forward to the change in scenery. The word for August is “Concentration” because I am slowly getting it back!

Well, here is an update on the Brinton Hall quilt. When I received my Quiltmania, #108, and started reviewing Part 2 of the project, I decided to look further into this quilt. Evidently the quilt was inspired by an original piece made between 1803-05 by Anna Brereton who lived from 1756-1819! WOW! Can you imagine if the quilters of today will have their work copied, or new interpretations of them in the year 300? Wonder if anyone will still be on this old earth by then!

As I began to review Part 2, I wanted to learn more about the original quilt and quiltmaker. Here is a picture of the original quilt – it is absolutely beautiful – what a bed to die for! Janet Rae has a book that was published in 1987 on “The Quilts of the British Isles” where Leigh Latimore found this quilt and made her interpretation using Kaffe Fassett fabrics and Reproduction fabrics. (I found the book on Amazon and ordered it as it should be a good read). It is a pretty quilt, but of course we all are individuals in our color/fabric selections and that is what makes Quilters unique! They bring their own preferences in fabric and color when making a quilt. This is what makes our hobby unique! This quilt is an absolute work of art. If you wish to know more click on this link – Frayed Fabrics

There are 2 other Bloggers (USA) who are working on the Brinton Hall quilt project – LuAnn and Karen H. PS – Thank you Karen for the tip on the ‘hyperlink’ you saved me some time in learning that one!

So on to my progress. I am currently working on cutting out a million hexagons (not really) for this quilt. I have all of the tone on tone fabric hexies cut and working on them in the evening. Now I need to cut more for the remainder of the Medallion. I love pulling fabrics and cutting them up into pieces – weird huh? When I saw this pattern I immediately went to my Asian fabric stash, that has been sitting patiently waiting for at least 7 years, and of course my batiks (they have missed me since I went back 200 years to Reproductions) to select my favorite colors that will blend nicely with the Asian.

After reviewing Part 1 and 2 of Brinton Hall from Leigh Latimore I have decided that I will continue on with the Medallion, but after that I have a new interpretation of Anna’s quilt. I used EQ7 yesterday and designed the quilt – at least I think I know where I am going with this. I should have better control over the outcome than I did on my previous disaster – Enduring Legacy!

Here are some of the fabrics (first pull) that I will be using! I am really excited about working on this and it seems I am developing a love for EPP – need to with all the money I have invested in Paper Pieces and Stamps by Kate products!

Asian Fabric for Brinton Hall (Upside down bird) Notice the hexies on the top fabric background!

To shift gears…. I think it was during April that I went absolutely nuts on purchasing two (2) old Singer sewing machines – First I purchased this Singer 301 and then purchased the table that it sits on! Of course during the course of that purchase I heard about the Singer 401a and what a workhorse it was! So I purchased one of those. I will tell you that I have not taken the time to sew a lot on the 301, but I can attest to the soundness and what a workhorse the 401a is. I was blessed in purchasing to fantastic machines – both in perfect looks and perfection in performance.

Singer 301 sitting on a special made table made from a Singer Treadle Machine

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week-end of quilting while we are in the heat of Summer! Good time to work on UFO’s or new projects. Until next time – take care and have a blessed life. I do!

Well, here it is 13 July 2014………..The time flies when one is having so much fun. The weather is definitely Summer Time in the South! We reached 99 degrees and 50% humidity yesterday – Lovely. This is a good time to stay indoors and work on quilt projects – just like the Cold Winters in the North!

If you follow my Blog you know that I had been working on a Quilt called Enduring Love #270 using Judi Rothermel fabrics from Old Sturbridge Collection called Enduring Legacy. Being a Type A Perfectionist and OK – Compulsive Obsessive Quilter, this project was doomed from the beginning – I just did not realize it! After working on it on and off since late April, stopping at one point and redoing the entire quilt, I arrived at the border of 6″ Stars.

I will not bore all with my lovely trip through the vicissitudes of the life of a perfectionist quilter, so here is the bottom line. Because I am chemically sensitive, all fabric is washed before bring it to the Studio. I NEVER once thought that by washing this fabric some of the dyed pieces would have faded and that the fabric would have stretching issues.

All I will say is that the left over fabric (and there is a lot) is put up so high on my shelves that I doubt I will ever see it again – maybe the dust will cause it to disintegrate someday and I will never have to “make myself use it”. Maybe I will give it to a quilter who needs some frustration in their lives! (LOL) Once the fabric is washed it turned into a thinner more stretchy fabric that I did not realize UNTIL I had made 36 – 6 inch stars for the next to the last border…….So here is what I came up with and I am not pleased with it at all. Without the Stars, the quilt does nothing for me and I am sure a Judge would run past it, therefore it is going to be a utility quilt. I think that if anyone has purchased this line of fabric and pre-washes they will have a mess on their hands. The fabric fades and becomes very thin and stretchy – a lot of work that will be in vain because the quilt will not last. Now needless to say, there were some errors I had made when making the quilt, but when I say it was doomed from the beginning it was and it was due to the pre-washing. Learned a BIG lesson on this one. (I wonder if I will ever get over the time I have lost in devoting to this quilt?)

Now on to more positive things. I have completed my Stars Across Texas embroidery project – I have decided to wait awhile before I design a setting. There is something to say about hand work and that is, “one can control the outcome”!

Last year I became interested in Reproduction fabric and Australian quilts. The Australian quilters love English Paper Piecing (EPP) and their quilts really pop and look great. There is a lot of intense hand work in their patterns and sooooo challenging! I cancelled all of my US magazines and only subscribe to Quiltmania. LuAnn of luannsloosethreads.blogspot.com blogged about a quilt that she was starting that is in Quiltmania Magazine Number 107. Be sure to go to her Blog – she does some great work. Here is a picture of the quilt called Brinton Hall by Leigh Latimore (http://leighquilts.blogspot.com) Check out her Blog also.

I immediately knew that this would be my next project. So off to the Stash to pull fabrics. I am working on the Center Medallion now doing the EPP rings around a “fussy” cut Center. I have missed working with my batiks this last year so I will be using them in this quilt. Hopefully it will not be a disaster.

LuAnn also blogged about a book that is absolutely great when developing an in-depth understanding of EPP. The book is called “all points patchwork” – English Paper Piecing Beyond the Hexagon for Quilts and Small Projects by Diane Gilleland. Amazon has it on their website for about $12.00. There are 220 pages of illustrations of “the many ways to use EPP as possible”. (a direct quote from her Idea Book versus Project Book). It is a great book!

I love the Blogging world – quilters share so many ideas and projects and they are all inspiring. So with that, I am now going to go and work on EPP Hexagons. I have covered up the sewing machine for at least 2 weeks and will be sitting here working on EPP watching some movies and resting my weary mind from the last quilt project that I want to forget. Doesn’t this look inviting?