Blogger's Quilt Festival: Plain and Simple Amish Sampler

Thank you for viewing my entry to the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I'm so glad you stopped by!  For this entry, I want to show you my Amish sampler called Plain and Simple.  My ancestry is Amish, and this quilt pattern was one of the first I bought when I learned to quilt.  It was my desire to honor my Amish ancestry, and particularly my grandmother, who was a gifted quilter.  All of her quilts were pieced and quilted by hand.  If you are interested in reading more about my family history and about Amish quilts in general, you can read this earlier blog post.  For now, here is my quilt, finished just a few months ago:

When I chose the fabrics, I wanted to make this a traditional Amish quilt, and so I used Kona solids and a special Amish black fabric.  The black is a pure black and the fabric is densely woven so that it has a slight sheen to it.  

It was quilted by a very talented long arm quilter named Erin Davis of Wilsonville, Oregon.  Erin has quilted many quilts for me, and I knew she was especially good with traditional designs.  Erin's quilting did not disappoint.  It is all done free hand.  She used a grid in some areas.

Medallions in others.

And some lovely feathering with cross-hatching.

This next image shows the outer border, and this picture was taken before the quilt was bound.  Erin recommended a black batting so that there would be no problems with the batting showing through or bearding.

The pattern I used suggested a deep olive green for the back, but I really wanted to use this pretty royal blue.  Here is how the quilt looks from the back, where the quilting really shines.

And here is the complete back.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my quilt.  Thanks for stopping by!  To return to the Blogger's Quilt Festival, just click on the button at the top of this post.