Whig Rose Quilt

My dear friend, Diane, collects antique quilts.  She has purchased them and been gifted with them.  She has an awesome collection.  But, every time she talked about her antique quilts, she would mention that someday she was going to find a Whig Rose quilt that would be in her price range.  If you know quilts, you know that this type of applique quilt in good conditions is hard to find and usually expensive.  Diane talked about wanting one of these a LOT.

A group of friends that includes Diane and me used to exchange Christmas gifts which were usually wall hangings we made for one another.  One year I was fortunate enough to draw Diane's name.  She had made several wall hangings for me over the years, but I had never drawn her name before.  To say I was excited to be able to make a wall hanging for her would be an understatement!  We drew names a year in advance so there was plenty of time to design and create a wall hanging.  Now, a 4 x 4 quilt would have been more in keeping with the tradition, but..........

I worked on the wall hanging everywhere I went that year which included Turkey.  It was a well traveled quilt and created the opportunity for a lot of conversations with strangers on planes and in airport waiting areas as I worked on the quilt.

All year Gary kept saying, "I can't believe you are giving that away!"  He liked it, he saw how much time it was taking and he knew I liked it, too.

Diane was thrilled with her gift.  Her husband told her to take down a perfectly lovely Amish wall hanging in order to hang the Whig Rose in a special place.  Her surprise and delight at finally owning a Whig Rose quilt, even a small one, was a delight to me.  But, now I wanted one, too.  I spent the next year making version 2 of the Whig Rose.  Diane entered hers in the AZ Quilters Guild show that year under my name and it won first place in it's category.  We were both pleased with that!

Here is a picture of version 2.  I don't have a digital file for version 1.  I'm sure I did, but it is one of the missing digital photos that got lost in the computer transfer.  There are a few differences in the two versions.  Diane's is on a lighter background.  I love that background, but only bought enough for 1 quilt to be made from it.  Diane's also has fewer leaves than version 2.  I'm not sure how that happened except I was using Version 2 as a teaching tool as I demonstrated how to applique leaves and stems for a year.  There are a lot of leaves on it -- a lot!

Four of these would make the traditional way the Whig Rose quilts were done.

Diane, does beautiful machine quilting.  I was nervous machine quilting something for her.  Hers was one of the first quilts that I machine quilted feathers on.

I LOVE machine quilting feathers!  Straight lines, not so much!

 I hope you've enjoyed both the story behind this quilt and the quilt.  I totally enjoyed making both version 1 and version 2.  Version 1 for Diane was the most fun as I anticipated her surprise for a whole year.

Until next time!
Lois