John Deere Greased Chain Links: A Modern Fan Quilt Finish

Hi, I am happy to share another of my original spin quilt idea using Suzy Quilts Modern Fans quilt pattern and templates. I am calling my version John Deere Greased Chain Links. This quilt is built around a John Deere Kids Story Book print that I have had in my stash since maybe 1996 or so. I only had one yard of it. I found a fun Men’s John Deere authorized plaid cotton long sleeved shirt on Ebay to add as an accent print. I found as close as I could to matching yellow and green solids at JoAnn Fabrics and  purchased 2 yards of each. I always have a bolt of white solid in my stash to work from.

This quilt design is so different from what I am used to making  and working with. I used to run from curved piecing but now seem to want to find more curved piecing projects. This quilt went to our little cousin who turned 1 in December. His two sisters have received my Puppy (Sea) Stars, Katie’s Compass and I-Spy Chevron quilts. Their grandparents received the patriotic Midnight Mystery quilt.

With this quilt design I also used Electric Quilt 8 software to plan out how to use my fabrics. I only had the yard of John Deere print and there was only so much plaid in the men’s shirt to work with. I actually miscut my men’s shirt pieces but was able to salvage what I had to make it work for me. I came up with 6 different layouts using the EQ8.

This first design is one of the basic used from the first Modern Fans and the last one is what I ended up choosing to go with.

This shows my main fabrics and the templates from Modern Fans pattern. I used all the templates when creating this version of Modern Fans.

This would be all my cut pieces. Sorry for the blurred photo.

Here is my first photo of assembling the curved pie wedges as I like to call them. It seemed a little strange to have to piece white to white but it is how to create the ring design I was looking for.

Here are all my blocks pieced and ready to be assembled into a top.

Here is my finished flimsy. This would look great on it’s own but I think that a finished top of 56 inches square is kind of small for a throw. Yes, this is going to a 1 year old but his sisters received larger quilts. I have put a big dent in what was left of the John Deere tractor print and the John Deere plaid shirt. To expand the design, I would need to build outwards to make a creative border. I used the printout from EQ 8 that I had for this quilt and used pencils and markers to  draw out a border idea.

I am going to be continuing out the design and using the Drunkards Patch blocks to create clam shells.

I also added an additional gray border to make the clam shells float. I think what ended up to be 3.5 inches.

Here is my completed John Deere Greased Chain Links flimsy laid out on the top of our king size mattress.

Here is my finished quilted and bound John Deere Greased Chain Links quilt displayed on the front gate on our farm.

I created a pieced backing using up what was left of the John Deere kid’s print and the yellow and green solids. It was cutting it a little close with fabric and had to add a gray strip to top and bottom to have enough length.

I love this quilt and how it turned out. It was alot of fun to make. As our little cousin gets bigger, he can drive his little toy tractors around on the quilt. This will not be the last of curved pieced quilts that you see me making. I have purchased other curved piecing templates and rulers and other designer’s patterns and books. I do need to get to quilting up all my memory quilts but every now and then, I will need a creative break and am likely to get out some curves to play with.

I have one more quilt finish to blog about and then I am all caught up sharing  my quilts from 2018. The family that received this quilt commissioned a special quilt for their Mother inlaw for Christmas.

Thank you for stopping by my blog. If I owe you a reply to your comments, they will be coming soon. Many thanks!

Happy Sewing,

Shelley