Deer Quilt

After completing the Missouri art quilt, another angel was needed for the same #MYAHswap. I had another idea, so I volunteered to make another one.

The quilt was inspired by “stencil quilts” made by Daniel Rouse. He made a t-rex and a deer quilt. He says, "The quilt is one in a series of “stencil quilts” that I have designed and created. The technique involves creating two patchwork quilt tops, sewing the layers together along the lines of a stencil, then cutting out the top layer to reveal the stencil beneath. I was inspired by an antique quilt whose well worn top began to disintegrate, revealing and even older and more worn quilt inside that had been used as batting or stuffing."

I have wanted to try the reverse appliqué stencil quilt for a very long time, and thought this was the perfect way to experiment.

I chose all light tan/neutral fabrics out of my stash and also all dark brown fabrics. I cut them into 1 ½” squares (that would finish at 1”).

I put all the light squares in one brown paper sack, and the dark browns in another. I sewed the light squares together randomly until I had a 20”x20” quilt top. Then repeated for the dark brown. (400 squares of each!)

I found a picture of a deer silhouette that I liked on the internet and printed it on 4 pages so it would be large enough to cover the quilt.

I layered the backing (fabric I got in a scrap bag from Carol’s Country Quilt Shop in Van Buren, Missouri - now closed), batting, and dark quilt top and pin basted them together. I used my walking foot on my Bernina Record 930 and quilted on either side of the seam lines. Then I pin basted the light quilt top and the paper deer silhouette on top. Using my darning foot, I quilted around the outline of the deer. Then I removed the paper outside that outline and quilted a stipple pattern onto the light quilt top. Then I removed the rest of the paper and cut away the quilt top that was inside the outline stitches.

I used a light batik fabric from my stash for the binding. The quilt is 20" square.

I mailed it along with some extras to Kentucky!

This just might be my favorite quilt I've made to date!