We had more company again on Sunday, during my quilting time!
I have all the parts for the next segment of "Christmas Wish" from Red Brolly, but I didn't manage to get it sewn together, nor did I get the stars appliqued. I decided to to a feather stitch for the vine instead of tons of lazy daisy stitches.
I've been plugging away at the "stitch in the ditch" part of the machine quilting on my triangle twist quilt, but only managed to get a bit finished in the 2-3 minute snatches of time I've been able to grab!
Check out all the design walls on Judy's blog this week!
I only participate from time to time, but I managed to finish the embroidery on my Southwest tree of life project.
Of course, after I took the picture, I realized that I had forgotten to stitch the spines on the cactus! Guess I'll be working on that tonight...
My next job will be to find fabric for the borders - off to hunt through the stash.
Check out everyone's applique projects here.
Since I couldn't move forward on my "Pushin Up Spring" quilt until the backing fabric was washed, I decided to plan the layout for another applique project that I had worked on over the past winter. The pattern is called "Baltimore Bliss" and is found here.
 |
| Block 11 | | |
|
 |
| Block 12 |
These were hand appliqued using a wash-away stabilizer, and I recently spent some time adding a bit of machine stitched embroidery to each block. Here is the border fabric that inspired the colours in the quilt blocks.
I enjoy designing in EQ7. I imported pictures of each of the finished blocks, and then added a picture of the border, so I could see the actual border in place! Too much fun!
Since I was able to wash and dry the backing, along with the 15 yards of fabric that I recently purchase, I'll be spending the rest of the morning at the ironing board.
I have finished all the "Raggedy and Friends" blocks! Thanks Kaaren at The Painted Quilt. I have added all the sashing, now just have to assemble the quilt, find fabric for border, binding and backing, and I'll have another project ready to be quilted.
Check out what everyone else has been working on at Judy's blog.
Just in time to hang for a while before the big night! I was planning to stitch some small orange beads on the vine, but didn't have any, nor did I have black buttons small enough or beads large enough for the ends of the branches. Since I am trying to use what I have, I decided to forgo the orange beads, and made 6 strand French knots on the ends of the branches. My camera is still having trouble with colours, so the squares in the border are a burnt orange colour. I think it is the fluorescent lights in my sewing room!
Off to pack the goodies for Thanksgiving dinner at my sister-in-law's home this afternoon..... Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians.
I downloaded Kaaren's pattern last Friday, and I just had to stop what I was doing and start working on it! The link to her blog post at The Painted Quilt is here. (Thanks Kaaren)
I have the pieced border stitched, but I have to trim the centre to size first. Then there is a bit more stitching to finish, but I should have it ready to hang soon.
I had been reading about "back basting" as a template free method of applique, so I challenged myself to try it on these tiny pieces. (The flannel on my design wall is marked in a 2 inch grid.) It worked quite well, and I plan to try this method again soon.
There are some pictorial tutorials on back basting on the Tropical Applique blog, found in the sidebar here.
There won't be much sewing done over the weekend - tomorrow I am baking 2 kinds of rolls, 1 pies, pumpkin and apple, and mincemeat tarts to take to my sister-in-law's for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday!
I finished the simple, stitch-in-the-ditch quilting on Monday, then hand stitched the binding yesterday. I then went back and did some outline quilting around the snowmen and trees, but I kept it simple as the fabrics and embroidery do most of the work on this quilt. I plan to take it to Florida to freshen up my Christmas display this year!
I managed to get the borders on before my DS1 arrived for a long weekend visit. Lots of baking and cooking going on now, including a turkey roasting in the oven.
Here's a closeup of the border.....
And here is the finished top.....
I added some white highlights to the snowmen and snowy areas in each block. I also added a couple of buttons as well.
I think that my only problem with these blocks is that the white thread doesn't show up well enough on the light beige background. The pattern suggested using pink paint on the cheeks, so I think I might add some white to the snow areas. I'll probably use stencil paint, as it is permanent and washable once it has dried, and gives a soft finished feel. Just hope my stencil paint hasn't dried up - can't remember the last time I used it - probably a few years ago. Who has time for crafts when quilting takes over your life?
Each block was fun to embroider by hand. I transferred the images to my fabric using a lightbox and a brown Micron Pigma pen. I used a wash out marker to outline each stitching area and marked the centre to make sure the pattern was in the right position. When I was finished the embroidery, I rinsed the whole piece of fabric in cold water to remove the marker. When it was dry, I pressed the whole piece, using some spray starch. Then I cut the blocks the size shown in the pattern and continued on from there. I found it easier to hoop the pieces when working with a whole width of fabric than by cutting each one separately before stitching.
This is one of the two star bands in the Snowman Collector quilt. The stars are appliqued using fusible web and machine blanket stitched with dark thread.
Here is the first finished block. I had fun selecting the fabrics for the log cabin like blocks. This block has three extra bands to bring it to the proper finished size.
I tried to find fabrics with snowmen and trees, bit I think the little angels are great too. Now onto the rest of the blocks (there are only six, so I shouldn't take too long.)
Join the rest of the design wall Monday gang at Judy's blog.
I was looking for some hand-work TV watching stitching to do, and remembered a cute Christmas quilt in an older Quiltmaker magazine. The pattern is called Snowfriends by Lynda Howell and was found in issue 130. I used my bag of leftover embroidery threads from finished cross stitch kits, so the colours are similar to the magazine picture, but usually chosen by lengths that were long enough for the area.
The quilt in the magazine was finished with darker country colours, but I have decided to use some of my many Christmas prints, especially those with snowmen on them......trying to use up some of the stash. I have a love for Christmas fabric, but rarely use any, so I have put myself on a "no buy" diet for holiday fabric only!
I managed to get block 11 finished. I love choosing the fabrics from my stash. I cut each shape from water soluble stabilizer, then spent some time with a glue stick, gluing all the seam allowances to the back of the stabilizer. I then used some washable school glue to attach each piece to the background fabric. I used invisible (mono-filament) thread and a very small machine blanket stitch to attach each part of the applique. When I began this project, I challenged myself to do all the embroidery stitches by machine as well. For the lines, I use a triple stitch, and then found shapes for eyes, etc. I had to play with the length and width of the stitches until I found a setting that was correct for each of my choices. I even sewed the button on by machine!
I haven't been getting as much sewing done this week as I've been suffering with back pain. It started to bother me about a week ago, but it has suddenly become worse, so I'm waiting to hear from my doctor's office about an appointment....
I sent a picture of the quilt I made using the BOM pattern from Jenny's blog last year. She has it on the bottom of this page!
It was interesting to make as it combined applique with embroidery. I found the variegated thread in my stash and had just enough to finish all the blocks with about 2 inches left over! The blocks were stitched with a back stitch, and the applique was done with a hand blanket stitch.
