After seeing Camille Roskelley's beautiful Swoon quilt quilted with a Baptist Fan design, I thought I might like to try that too. I actually already had a plastic quilting template of the pattern but had never used it. Since the Swoon turned out to be so big (80"x80") I thought I better test out the plan before actually stitching on the quilt top I'd worked so hard to complete.
I did some research and found very little on the Baptist Fan. Many videos and tutorials were either for hand-quilting (not gonna happen!) or for using a longarm quilting machine with a physical stylus & groove system. I did find THIS TUTORIAL for marking and free-motion quilting the Baptist fan and was surprised and delighted to discover that it was written by none other than Elizabeth Dackson of the Start Free-Motion Quilting, with Elizabeth Dackson Craftsy class I signed up for not too long ago!
Armed with her advice (I just went over to Craftsy and asked her a question on the platform!) I put together a sample quilt sandwich and started marking my fan shapes. I used all the different marking tools I could (other than a Hera marker): a Fine Line blue water soluble pen (Collins), a blue pencil (Clover), a Chaco liner (Clover), a different brand of blue marker (Unique), and a Frixion pen (also in blue). It is critical to test the marking pens on the actual fabric you're using and this was a great opportunity to try them all at once.
It took me a long time to mark even this small sample and I was already thinking it was way too much of a pain - I couldn't imagine doing it on a full quilt top! I found it challenging to get the template lined up after the first round and even worse once I had to move up to the next section. I used masking tape to hold it down but you still need to keep firm pressure on the template to keep the pen in the grooves. I would imagine it would be really hard to get the fans in a straight horizontal line on a big quilt.
The Fine Line pen worked very well but since mine has a rather destroyed tip, I had to go over the lines several times. The tip is so fine that it kind of scratches and pulls the fabric. Next, I switched to the pencil. That went on smoother and faster but the mark was thicker and the pencil tip wore down to a round shape very quickly. The Chaco liner went on very easily but since it is powdery chalk, I wasn't sure how the line was going to hold up. Also, I couldn't use it in the small grooves of the template as it was too wide to get in there. The 'Unique' brand water soluble marker has a much thicker tip and was much faster and easier to use than the Fine Line pen - but not as accurate, more to 'erase', and it dried out quickly. The Frixion pen was the best for application. It went super fast and left a nice, fine ballpoint-looking line. I liked using that marking tool the best...but I've heard of the blue lines returning or showing up as a white line and I would be nervous to use it on the right side of my quilt top, all over!
Finally it was all marked and I was ready to test-quilt. I tried using my free-motion foot first and was not very good at it! It was hard to move the sandwich at the edge of the design and my stitches were not very even. The curves were tricky and it was difficult to see where I had to go when I was on the 'up' swing of a fan. I know I would not be happy doing this over my large quilt and wouldn't be happy with the results.
So I switched to a walking foot, knowing in advance that it was going to be very challenging to quilt the curves AND turn the quilt. I still wanted to try though and see how nice it could look with perfectly even stitches. Um...nope. That didn't work out very well either. There is a lot of adjusting required, lifting the presser foot every couple of stitches to get around the curves - even the gentle ones of the fan. Also, turning the sample was bad enough and a whole quilt would be torturous! Not to mention that in some parts of the pattern my stitches didn't look any more even than with the darning foot.
After a few fans I had enough of this exercise! I decided to definitely NOT quilt a Baptist fan design...probably ever! So I converted the test into a marking tool experiment and tossed the sandwich into the washing machine on the rinse cycle to remove the lines. Hello? Angie? I had to laugh because a) since I'd used different tools which needed to be removed in different ways, cold water was not going to work on all of them. Oops. and B) the sandwich was NOT QUILTED OR BOUND! I think I lost my mind because I couldn't believe what an idiot I was. Of course, the 'sandwich' came out of the machine as 'pieces of fabric'. The batting I'd joined with batting tape separated; the Kona snow frayed into a million strands of snarled threads.
The mess air dried overnight and I used my iron the next day to see if the Frixion pen would still iron off with heat. It did! The water soluble Fine Line pen disappeared completely, so I was happy about that. It did give the best line to follow (very easy to see and yet fine). However, as I expected might happen, the blue pencil and Chaco were still visible and were not removed. I am so glad I had already read this happening to other quilters and was aware of it. I would have been devastated to mark up my entire Swoon only to have lines left over!
The whole process of this double test proved to be very informative. I learned: I do not like marking quilts; I do not like quilting the Baptist fan with either method of quilting; I should not use a blue pencil or chalk to mark my quilt; the Fine Tip pen is a good choice for marking if I must mark; and finally, don't wash a quilt sandwich that is not quilted! (I will add that after the project came out of the wash and had dried, the stitches didn't look that bad. However, the template did yield quilt dense quilting and was not really what I was looking for in the case of my Swoon quilt anyway.)
Now I'm back to square one and have to figure out how I WILL quilt my Swoon quilt...
This is a great post, Angie! I have had good luck with the Frixion pens except for one occasion where I marked over a bit of dark fabric with one. After hitting it with the iron to erase, I was left with a lighter line. It wasn't too obvious but it was disconcerting, and fortunately it did wash out. I've also had extremely good luck marking (straight lines only!!) with a Hera marker. I love the look of the Baptist fan also, but this exercise at least showed you it isn't the best option for your Swoon.
Posted by: Margaret | May 18, 2014 at 07:38 AM
Hi Angie: Dont give up on baptist fans yet. I have not quilted B. fans but do like them and did a lot of homework on them planning to use on a quilt someday. I have a couple of sites for you check out with tutorials that you may be interested in. 1---(Dont' Call Me Betsy) tutorial 3/13/12. 2----(Pins and Bobbins ) 2/3/12 marking fans. 3---( Anita Shackelford) has a template that you dont need to mark following a grove. Also, check out blog for Amy's Freemotion Quilting Adventures . She has some intesting tutorials for free motion quilting on a domestic machine using rulers that might help you. I have the horizon 7700 and did purchase the foot for ruler work. Now I need to purchase the rulers that she suggests buying and try them out. Hope this helps you . good luck Diane
Posted by: Diane | May 18, 2014 at 11:35 AM