I have chosen this quilt (posted In January, 2009) as my entry in the Park City Girl’s Fall Quilt Festival.
This pattern is from a 1976 quilt booklet, “Stitch ‘n Patch Quilts.” I love these old pattern books — instructions are minimal and usually take up one page or less. I always use templates to draw my quilt pieces & scissors to cut them — rotary cutting and quick piecing don’t work well for the type of scrap quilts I make. Sometimes these newer techniques waste fabric (and vintage fabric is precious), or add extra seams (to eliminate set-in pieces) which I believe detract from the original design. I draw my quilt pieces and also my quilting designs with a #2 pencil, which is another thing I love about quilting — it doesn’t require a lot of equipment. I use a large hoop for hand quilting. Quilting in a frame is so appealing, but I had one years ago and I never quite got the hang of it.
Much of the fabric for this quilt came from an old brick pattern 1940’s quilt top purchased on ebay, together with some large pattern vintage prints that I was desperate to use in a project. The brick blocks were not quite wide enough to form the center pieces of the lantern, so many of these larger pieces are pieced themselves. The small yellow border is vintage, the larger red border is reproduction fabric. The lanterns are quilted in vertical and diagonal lines — the spaces are quilted with diagonal lines and motifs from the book “Japanese Design Motifs.” This book is a wonderful resource for quilting patterns. Some of the quilting designs were probably overly elaborate, because after the quilt was washed, I found it was difficult to make out some of the details.
Lantern Quilt
Martha Dellasega Gray, 2006
machine pieced, hand quilted
75″ x 87″
Stitch ‘n Patch Quilts
Copyright 1976
Graphic Enterprises, Inc.
Lovely quilt! I could sit with this quilt for hours and admire the fabrics you have used.
It is beautiful!
Lots of interesting fabrics to look at.
Your quilt story is so interesting–thanks for all the details and your thoughts on templates and the simplicity that quilting can be. The fabrics are wonderful and the overall quilt a pleasure to look at.
I’ve never seen this pattern before. I really like it and the fabrics you selected are great for this piece. It is a very colorful quilt, and your hand quilting is amazing. Thanks for sharing this! ~ Sarah
What a lovely quilt! Those fabrics are so gorgeous!
I have seen a paper piecing pattern that is similar to this but this is a beauty.
What a unique and lovely design! Thanks for sharing!
Gorgeous quilt! I love the design and your fabric choices.
This is an interesting pattern that I don’t recall seeing before. Lovely quilt!
Very kind beautiful quilt
Wow, this was a great visit at your site. Not only did I get to see a wonderful quilt, but I got some great quilting advice and a pattern to boot!
I so agree with you about the waste. I just finished making a quilt by a famous quilter who has terrific fabrics, but the way the quilt was constructed wasted so much fabric! I guess if the intent is to sell sell sell, then I realize they have not any interest in saving and being careful with limited resources of money and fabric. Such a good point you make.
We were in Pacific Grove this past summer on their Festival of Lanterns weekend. It was so fun to see all the lanterns hanging from everyone’s porches. And I thought how fun it would be to make a quilt to remind me of that weekend (my son was married there). Thanks so much for this post!
–ELIZABETH E, #115
You did an amazing job of showcasing those unique fabrics. Thanks a lot for sharing the pattern.
Wonderful!
I am slowly making my way through the quilt festival entries. I love your quilt. The fabrics are so wonderful. I have not seen this pattern before. I really love the lanterns and the time you obviously took in selecting each fabric. Your piecing and quilting is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Really beautiful and thank you for showing the fantastic quilting on it!
It’s beautiful
The very first Japanese exchange student we hosted 17 years ago is getting married and I want to make her a quilt as a gift. I have some Japanese fabrics and have been searching for the perfect pattern to display them. I believe I have found it, if I can master the pattern, I think it will make a lovely gift. Thanks for sharing it.
Hi Martha, This is a beautiful quilt and I would like to make this chinese lanterns quilt. I am fairly new to quilting so I was wondering if the pattern you have provided has more detail on how to cut and put it together. I am not sure on how to work all the angles.Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Marina