Modified Rail Fence

I started my fourth quilt right after finishing the Streak of Sunshine baby quilt in the fall of 2007. It was inspired by a quilt I'd seen on Craftster, which grabbed my attention because the quilt maker had mixed in some cool vintage fabric from her grandmother. I happened to have some vintage fabric languishing in the stash since I'd bought a box of scraps at a yard sale many years before. Never quite knew what to do with it until I saw that quilt on Craftster. Ding, ding, ding! It was a winner of an idea!

The inspiration quilt had an interesting layout with what looked like a rail fence-type block with a larger center section sandwiched between two narrower strips. There was no tutorial but it looked totally doable without a pattern. I studied the photos and came up with a plan for block dimensions and size. I also wanted to replicate the inspiration quilt in its use of multiple fabrics, not just the usual three or four in a traditional rail fence quilt. I bought a couple additional fabrics that complemented the colors in the vintage pieces I wanted to use. Then away I went!

Once the blocks were done, I fiddled with the layout a bit. With Norm's help--he has a good eye--we finally had one that seemed to work.

Can you tell which fabrics are vintage?

If you guessed the two with gray backgrounds, you would be right. I just loved the green and red guitars and banjos on the one, and the squiggly white squares on the other. I would estimate they're late '50s or early '60s prints. I have used bits of these vintage prints in several other scrap quilts since this one, including the current double pinwheel string quilt.

The machine quilting was done by Sandy. This time, I gladly took my place in her usual work queue, no cutting in line.

I asked for something simple and curvy to balance the overall angularity of the quilt. She did a nice job.

My daughter really liked the look of this quilt as I was piecing it, so when it was finished, I gave it to her for her birthday!