Grandma's Spools

Do you have fond sewing memories of your grandma? Barb Eikmeier turned her memories into a quilt, Grandma's Spools, using her Waddington Road fabric collection. The quilt was recently featured in Quiltmaker magazine. Keep reading to learn more about Barb's design. 

"Grandma's Spools" designed by Barbara J. Eikmeier and quilted by Theresa Ward;
featured in Quiltmaker magazine Jan-Feb 2018

Q. How did you come up with the spool theme for this quilt?

BE: My Waddington Road collection is named after the road my grandmother, Mary Martin, lived on. She was a professional dressmaker, and she sewed on a treadle sewing machine. I chose the spool motif to honor my grandmother. The four-spool block is actually called Secret Drawers, which was perfect because my grandma kept her thread in the drawers of her treadle machine cabinet.

Q. Tell us more about that block.

BE: I came across it in the EQ library. In its traditional coloration, it doesn’t look like spools, but when I changed the color placement, it did. I liked that it had triangles in the corner because those tend to make great secondary designs. I added them to the large hourglass block as well. After playing around a bit, I realized that if I reversed the colors of the corner triangles, I would get hourglasses in the block corners.

Q. Tell us about your fabric choices.

BE: I decided on the tan button print first. I wanted that to be a main part of the quilt. I used Painter’s Palette Solids in Rice Paper as the light to add contrast. I really like how the Rice Paper makes the tan look sharper and more crisp. Then I chose all of the greens, golds, reds and blues in collection for the actual spools. I chose the red print for the border because of the buttons.

Q. How was this quilt machine quilted?

BE: Theresa Ward did the quilting. We chose  an overall swirly design. After she finished, we both commented on how the quilting almost looked like thread spiraling off the pieced spools.

Q. What is your favorite part of this quilt?

BE: I like the emotional connection it gives me to my grandmother.

See the entire Waddington Road collection here.

Purchase a digital version of Barb's pattern here.

Find Quiltmaker magazine here.

Waddington Road in print!

When you look at a quilt, do you try to envision the block it's made out of? Take a look at Barbara J. Eikmeier's new quilt, Floating Palette, featured in Quiltmaker magazine. The quilt uses her Waddington Road collection--such a gorgeous palette! Below, Barb talks about the quilt, and you just might be surprised when you find out what the block is! 

"Floating Palette" designed by Barbara J. Eikmeier;
featured in the Sept/Oct 2017 issue of Quiltmaker magazine

Q: How did this design come to be?

BE: I design using EQ software. This quilt is made from smaller shaded fourpatch units—a 6” block. The quilt is put together with sashing and cornerstones, rotating the position of the blocks. This creates a larger block with a ninepatch in the center. I think the different sized pieces contribute to the interest of the quilt.

  

Q: Did you intend for this quilt to have a scrappy look?

BE: Yes. I wanted to use as much of the colored prints in the collection as I could. I assembled the blocks in a grab and go style to add to the scrappy look. Then I used scrappy cornerstone squares as well.

Q: Do you see a curved effect in the design?

BE: Yes! When I put the cornerstone squares into the sashing, the curvature showed up and I really liked that. Stumbling across happy accidents like that are part of the design process.

Q: What do you like best about the quilt?

BE: I like that when you look at the overall quilt, the more you look at it, the more design elements you see. The circles, the ninepatches stand out to me. But also you get these sideways things to me that look like a spool. I like that the more you look at it, the more things you see that are interesting.

Q: How did you choose the border fabric?

BE: The beauty of working in EQ is that it’s easy to try different border colors. When I tried the background fabric as the border, I liked it best. Because the triangles are in the corners, having a background color border means the units popped out more.

See the entire Waddington Road collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop. 
Find Quiltmaker magazine here.