Welcome, Welcome, Amber!
Congrats on your quilt. My advice would be to take it to a
local quilt shop and get some advice from staff there.
The only hard fast rules are following the suggested minimum
distance,or spacing, suggested by the batting manufacturer. It will be on the packaging. Good luck & keep visiting here! Jill

Welcome, Amber!

If you like the quilting pattern in the book, just transfer it over, block by block, to your quilt. It doesn't matter if it was done on the machine or by hand.

Jill's advice is very good - local quilt shops can be a great help and the people there should be able to give you a few options. There are lots of books on quilting patterns but it sounds like you want something specific to the quilt you made. If you can post a picture for us maybe some of the hand quilters here can offer better advice.

Kate

Thank you Jill & Kate for the warm welcome. I really appreciate the advice!

I must be honest, I'm probably getting ahead of myself on the hand quilting . . . I still haven't finished piecing the quilt together. I'm a worry-wart and therefore always two steps (or three or four or five) of where my mind should be! I will consider what you both said. I also have a mother-in-law that quilts too. I am so thankful for all the resources.

For now, I will post a current pic to show you what I'm attempting to create and when the time comes I will post more progress pics.

I still plan on adding a solid white strip (more narrow than the pink/flower border) and then another equivalent width of the pink/flower strip outside of the white. I want it to be large enough for my niece to use after early childhood :) Yes, I'm probably going to pay for it dearly...but I want to do it full force if I'm going to do it!

Oh, and I forgot to mention I'm placing another full length strip of piano keys (5-6" wide) for the outermost border. The strips will be all "cattywampus" like the center of the quilt. I really want to showcase all the different fabrics that I used on the central part of the quilt.

Thank again ladies!

--Amber

Very pretty and great job for a first effort. It sound like it is getting better all the time. Your niece will love the bright colors. Can't offer much advice but glad you decided to join us. TFS. Jayne

Thank you Jayne! I'm really excited about the quilt. My sister doesn't know that I'm making it . . . which makes it even more fun. It is my "secret project" that she hears about but has no clue what I'm really doing. She'll be super surprised since I've never been known "to quilt" before this. I promise to add my progress as I go . . . it will be a pleasure sharing it :)

Welcome!! Alouwomack! I'm a bit of a newbie myself, altho as warm & friendly - not to mention helpful! - that everyone has been, it often feels as if I've been with them for years. You've created a very nice quilt, & your plans on finishing it will be great! You've been given good advice already, & I've really nothing extra to add on that score, so I'll just again say - 'Good Job!' & glad you joined us!!

~Cindy

Hi Amber and welcome to the quilt forum! You have done a wonderful job on your first effort. Much better than my first (and second) quilt.

Your screen name caught my eye. My maiden name is Womack, a name I don't see very often.

Rebecca

No, it isn't a common name, Rebecca. I have cousins by that last name.

Love your quilt, Amber. Welcome!

What a pretty quilt! I love the colors, so bright (I love floral fabric) and cheery! You have come to the best place for quilters on the web. Everyone here is wonderful, with their encouragement, praise and most of all, they are the smartest group of quilters around!!

I'm so glad you decided to join us!

Susan

Yes, welcome! You really have done a lovely job on this quilt. Nobody would ever think it was your first one.

As far as hand quilting, I'd say either 1/4 inch quilt inside each shape, or do an all over baptist fan. The baptist fan will be easy to mark and way easier to do for a first time hand quilter, because you won't have to be turning your work or quilting at odd angles. It will also add a new dimension of interest, one of graceful, even curves that will complement the angular, asymmetrical pattern of your pieces, which is already very strong.

If you opt for the 1/4 inch type, and I could see it done this way, too, you could do you your solid borders in wonky lines that echo your wonky strips--that would be nice touch, I think.

I wouldn't add more, new angles with an over all diamond pattern, and I wouldn't do an over all with a similar scale to your pieces such as clam shell. You don't want anything formal like feathers on a casual wonky kid's quilt, and anything complicated would get lost in the piecing pattern and be a pain to try to focus on--and everybody would try to see it, even if they had to squint their eyes and cock their heads.

There a steep little learning curve with hand quilting, but it's very worth it.

Thank you all for your nice comments and suggestions. I can see that quilting is a truly rewarding activity already. I'm thankful to have you all as an additional "shoulders to lean on"! My mother-in-law just laughs at my questions and keeps reassuring me that it will all be okay!

As for the hand quilting . . . I'm still most nervous about it. Hopefully, once it gets started I'll be able to relax a little!

Petal -- I do like the baptist fan idea. I think the curves would nicely complement all the angles I've already got going on.

As for the Womack name . . . its my maiden name too! I don't know many outside of family either . . .

There a large Womack clan around the towns of Conyers and Covington in Georgia, just east of Atlanta. I worked for a company there that must have employed 5 or 6 Womacks at the time.

That is so neat! Who knows, we might be related down some distant line. I know that the name has been in the US for a long time since around the mid 1600's. My Dad has a cousin in Oklahoma writing a book and researching the genealogy.

Back to the topic, I think the baptist fan would be wonderful for your quilt

Rebecca

Hey Rebecca,

Had I mentioned Oklahoma before? I scanned our messages and I don't think I did. I grew up in south/central Oklahoma! We might be distant relatives!

Thanks for the baptist fan mention. I'm definitely leaning towards that stitch. Can't wait to show you all the progress soon!

That is wild! I think his name is Roger. I haven't looked at my genealogy stuff in awhile. Most of my relatives are here in East TN.

Rebecca

Hello everyone! Just wanted to post my current status & ask a few questions . . . thank you again for being so helpful.

I am officially finished piecing the quilt together!!! (Hallelujah!) I did take an updated pic that I'll post this afternoon when I get home . . . at work I can't access photobucket :(

(The total size of the quilt came to 55 inches square.)

I've been thinking more about the hand quilting & I'm almost certain I want to use the Baptist Fan. I want to quilt the pattern without a stencil . . . so, with that being said . . .

1. Is there a good rule of thumb on how far apart I space the arcs?

2. And on average, how many arcs would be ideal for each fan?

I was thinking of using a dark pink thread that matches the triangles...and the backing will be the dark pink as well.

Any suggestions or opinions are welcome! I'm flying blind here :)

Here's the pics from lastnight:

Please excuse the large size...don't know how to easily shrink down from photobucket.

The solid dark pink used for the triangles will be the same fabric I'm using for the backing. I found some pink thread that is a medium pink compared to the triangles and the monochromatic daisy pattern that surrounds. I'm considering this for the hand quilting.

Does anyone have suggestions for marking the pattern? What form of marker/chalk, etc.???

Hi Amber, I just want to chime in and say I like that you mitred the corners in the wonky piano key border of your quilt. I think you've done a fantastic job. Sorry, I can't help you with your marking question but someone will be along soon that will know.

SharonG/FL

A silver chalk pencil ought to mark it, but you have lots of other choices, too. Just don't set any marks in with an iron, and afterward rinse well

in cold water without soap first. I happened to mark with a Fons and Porter chalk pencil, and I covered the marks with pieces of Glad Press-N-Seal until I was ready to quilt that section. Some of the blue water erasable markers have bad stories around about how they show back up over time as brown marks that won't come out, but other people say it's because the quilt wasn't rinsed thoroughly, only dampened so that the pigment sank down into the batting. I bet you won't have that problem here with a child quilt. And several ladies with good experience on here use the Crayola super washable children markers--like the ones you buy at Kroger. Yellow dyes tend to stick, so to be safest avoid yellow although I never heard anything bad per se about the yellow Crayola. Just make sure you get the super washable ones, they say.

It's up to you how many arcs to put in your fan--4 to 8 seems to be common, and spaced an inch or 1 1/2 inches apart. The story is that this pattern was easy for women to mark as they went, and the marks shouldn't get bigger that what you could make from pivoting from your elbow. :) I don't know if that's really true, but it's a sweet little story. You basically are laying down quarter circle arcs, so you might try poking around in your tupperware tops to see what kind of free and easy circle templates you can come up with. The kitchen has LOTS of circles.

For that matter, you can make your own string template by tying little circles knotted in a sturdy string at your chosen distances. Then you anchor the end with a pin or something, and put your pencil in each circle in turn, hold it straight up and down, so that you're using it like a compass.

Whatever you decide, here's a nice little picture of somebody getting fancy with double lines. ;)

Here is a link that might be useful:

Thank you Sharon. The corners were kind of tricky but they turned out thankfully. I like the description "wonky"!

PetalPatsy--
Thank you so much for your feedback. I have already purchased a chalk pencil that is reloadable and it came with several color choices; I'll try using the silver. I've also read about the history of the Baptist Fan; it kind of made me think of my Granny taking me to the church to work on quilts with the other ladies. I wonder if they were using this pattern!? The fan picture is impressive! I think I'll just stick with single rows!

alouwomack - your first quilt. Wow. You have done a fantastic job piecing and completing your corners. Enjoy the process and the thought of your niece using the quilt will definitely make those hand stitched lengths of thread fly through the quilt.

Chickadee -- Thank you so much! It definitely makes it sweeter knowing who the quilt is intended for. I'm so excited to show it to my sister...she'll be surprised for sure!