marathon quilt // baptist fan marking and quilting

lately, i've been making a bit of progress on grandma's quilt. after taking it over to my friend's house for an evening of quilting + dinner, i ambitiously thought i could draw out the fans, lay the pieces out and baste the 'quilt sandwich' together in the span of 3-4 hours.  after 4 hours and i'd barely been able to draw out 1 row of fans i knew i needed to re-evaluate.  this thing is HUGE.  also, that clover water soluble blue marker only drew about 2 rows before it gave out completely. 


the next day, i headed over to one of the only quilt stores in NYC, the city quilter, and picked up some water soluble mechanical fabric pencils (one in white; one in gray).  the markings from these aren't as dark, but i was able to mark the whole rest of the quilt using just a few leads.

the first 2 pictures are the clover marker marks, and the second the mechanical pencil.  i ended up drawing the fans using this little cardboard guide.  i made it by cutting a long strip of cardboard, drawing out a straight line down the center, and then stabbing it to make little holes every inch.  the first hole at the bottom is the anchor (and i'd stick a pin through it and never pick it up till all of the fans were drawn), then i'd stick my pencil in each hole, one at a time and swing it around, drawing the arcs.


i made my template with the largest arc at 13".  i'm realizing most people stop at 8".  my quilting hoop is only about 11" so i have to do some partial arcs sometimes.  i'd go with 8" next time.

also, 2 straight days of marking this quilt, i came across this amazing blog, with instructions on how to freehand baptist fans. which i may try the next time. marking these things seriously was the worst.



however, in the end it's turning out pretty well.  i've quilted a few fans so far and all seems to be going well.
i even love the fans on the plain muslin.  you can really see how they stick out.  i'm realizing this is going to take MONTHS to finish though.  yikes.