Modernized Salinda Rupp Nearly Insane

My client Erin made this gorgeous quilt. I think it derived from the Nearly Insane (for which there is a book) done originally by Salinda Rupp nearly 150 years ago. My client and a friend took many of the designs and created them into EQ so that they could be more easily created using paper piecing. I should note that this was a very wise move because these blocks are crazy complicated, and some have a total ton of pieces. Her piecing here is stupendously accurate -- just a handful of tipped points.

 What truly sets the quilt many steps above the original quilt is the beautiful floral sashings. You all know I am partial to purple and green anyways, but the sashings so incredibly perfect.

This quilt measures something like 90"x90", so quilting cost was an initial concern right from the beginning. One way to quilt a top like this (with 98 6" blocks!) is to put an edge to edge freehand fill in each block. This was something my client did not want. So...the next step involved a most laborious task of ditch stitching each block. I used a clear monofilament thread and was able to ditch an entire row of blocks continuously without tieing off. Kudos to the benefits of monofilament!

 After the 12+ hours of ditching was done, THEN I could get into the more decorative quilting. I sent Erin a couple prototype designs for the ivory setting triangles (below). She chose the pretty one with the arches and pebbles. It made a lovely frame around the border of the quilt.

This was my concept for the sashings. There are 224 pieces of sashing on this quilt! I knew it would be a time-consuming process to quilt them, but I also knew that they would be an integral component in the secondary patterns that the quilt would convey. I considered doing a serpentine feather, using the spine of the floral. All other options were fastly ruled out for the one below, which I used. This would hopefully create this larger look of rings on the top -- something to juxtapose the very linearness of the pieced blocks. Though the sashings took nearly 9 hours to quilt, the finished look was exactly what I was seeking.

The outer border has a pretty printed design. I have previously quilted a feather in the upper part of this and a linear pattern in the outermost region, but I feared this feather might compete with the feathers of the triangles so another option was selected.

It's hard to see what was done (above). Using a variegated pink/purple thread, I quilted a leafy swag down through the floral area. The ivory side received 1/4" lines, while the purple side got a beadboard on an angle. The design is simpler than the feather, and does not compete whatsoever with the triangles.

It shows much better from the backside, which is a soft lavender solid fabric.

I probably should have counted the number of pieces before I shipped it off yesterday (just for giggles & grins). You can see it had to have taken the maker nearly forever. Multiply that times two because she told me she made 2 of these quilts! I guess that makes her Totally Insane, not Nearly Insane...LOL

 As I added the sashing and border quilting, it became obvious that the blocks were going to need some additional quilting beside just the SID. Some blocks with 150 pieces would be fine, but ones with 20 looked disproportionately poofy because this is double batted. Detail quilting was added in ivory, sage green and periwinkle thread. Some blocks got one color, some got more than one and some got none -- I only added when I thought they needed it. The end result is a quilt that lays much more nicely, with blocks that don't look like they were neglected.

 Here's just a few more pics...

 And, of course, the backside.

 The circle design from the sashings shows very nicely back here.

Hope you enjoyed the pretty quilt as much as I loved quilting it.

Next week I will spend a couple days wrestling with a pain-in-the-butt binding on one of my own quilts before I load the next custom client quilt. I'm working through some of the quilts I got this summer before delving into my holiday deliveries. If you have anything you'd like an edge-to-edge on to be done before December 1st, just let me know.