Sitting and Stitching

Today's project is to finish hand stitching the hearts for that baby quilt made with vintage embroidery blocks!  I have set a goal to get the rest of the blocks ready today so I can put together the top for quilting.

I like to hand applique with Aurifil 50 weight.  It really disappears into the fabric!

I am using freezer paper to trace my templates on, pressing it to the back of the fabric, then pressing the seam allowance down around the edge of the paper.  I leave a couple inch gap, pull the paper out, then complete the applique leaving the back intact.  For these bigger shapes it's easy to do it this way.  For smaller shapes I would cut a slit in the back and get the paper out that way.

I'm impatient, so doing hand work can be a little trying - the results are slower in coming, but well worth while!  It's definitely good for me to slow down and work on a project like this now and then...hope you are having a wonderful  slowed down day!

I'm linking up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday, come join us :)

Throwback Thursday - Flowers on Table, 1993

One of my favorite quilting activities is participating in challenges - this is one of first challenges that was put out by my quilt guild (Coos Sand 'N Sea Quilters)and was made in the summer of 1993.  We were given a fat quarter of the floral fabric and a fat quarter of the brown paisley.  We could add two more fabrics and make a quilt within a certain size requirement - I believe it was 100 inches perimeter.  This is what I cane up with and I gave it the highly creative title of Flowers on Table.

It's hard to make a quilt with only four fabrics, and to tell the truth I wasn't too inspired by that floral...I thought it quite dull and lacking in color.  By using the back of the brown paisley I was able to give myself a little more variety to work with so I could make my table a little more interesting.

The table was inspired by an antique we were given when we were just newlyweds working on a paper route in the early mornings.  One day a sweet old couple asked us if we wanted this darling table and it's been a part of our household ever since!  It used to have a glass top, but that disappeared somewhere in one of our moves.

Since I wasn't very experienced with hand applique at this point, I simplified the base of the table!

I drafted my own basket pattern and made the basket out of the purple fabric, then used the Borderie Perse technique and needle turn apppliqued the flowers to my quilt.  I decided to finish the quilt without a binding after adding the mitered border and machine quilted around my appliques and echoing the lines of the stripe.  This was probably my first effort at free motion quilting!

Here are the details from the back:

And here is another picture of it - I just realized it's a bit dusty and I should take it down and shake it off!

It's been hanging in a corner between two windows, and I'm glad to see that it hasn't faded significantly that I can tell.  It's a nice little piece of art for my room, and it reminds me of how much I have learned in the past 24 years.  I still enjoy working on challenges, though.  You can learn so much by challenging yourself to work out of your comfort zone and have some fun, too.

Are you challenging yourself to learn new skills or pushing yourself to explore different colors and fabrics?  I hope so, whether in a group, or just on your own - it's good to leave your comfort zone and do something different.  Who knows, you just might find a new niche for yourself!

Overall Sam

I finished up this cute block today.  I had a comment on my facebook page that his arm was not placed correctly, but honestly, that's how it is in the pattern.  I may be brave in my piecing, but when it comes to applique I follow the pattern every time!  I think he is holding his hands behind his back...

I used the freezer paper method of applique on this and it came out nicely.  My design wall is getting full with all of these blocks!  I'm liking it...not sure what I will do with all of them when finished, but I might get a quilt or two out of them.  I don't even know how many blocks I have to work on, but I am having a good time working my way through them without any plans.

I got the hexagon quilt all basted, so I'll be starting on hand quilting that tomorrow.  I've got several dresses in to work on, so not too much quilting going on for the next few days, but I'm gearing up for my August UFO Challenge.  It is an 8 point star quilt using a stripe fabric.  I'll probably make a dozen blocks, then put them together with sashing.  If I put myself on a block a day schedule it should be no problem to have a finished quilt by the end of the month, that makes me happy!  It's been nice pushing myself to finish up these older projects...I'm a little nervous about a couple of them, but I'll keep pushing on, I'm doing to well to give up!

Dumbed Down

I decided today that I have dumbed myself down as a quilter!  Yes, indeed - my quilting skills seem to have deteriorated by quite a bit.  I have my rotary cutter and EQ5, 6 and 7 to blame.  When I first started quilting, I had no problem at all cutting out about 700 odd shapes using only a cardboard template and a pair of scissors.  Then I would sew them all together, and have a really nice quilt top.  Today, faced by one quilt block consisting of a page of instructions and two pages of templates I almost crumbled.

But then I pulled up my big girl panties, gave myself a talking to and got to work!  This is another QBOM from quilt guild.  I'm pretty sure I didn't do this one due to that little bit of applique.  Oh, and the fact that my oldest daughter was in college, the next two were in High School, number 4 in Jr. High, the youngest was just starting school and I was caring for my husbands elderly grandparents....I don't think I really did much quilting that year at all.  

I didn't dig out the cardboard to make templates, I did use my rotary cutter and did the math to figure out the sizes to cut the triangles and strips - there were some odd measurements, but it all went together perfectly.  Then I did the flowers and leaves with fusible applique.  I almost left the decorative stitching for later, but decided to go ahead and do the machine buttonhole - looks good!  I'm glad I took the time to do this block and revive some old skills...I guess I haven't dumbed myself down so much that I can't function doing things the old way!  I must say that I won't be giving up my rotary cutter or computer programs anytime soon, though - they make quilting so much faster and simpler.  

I'm saving this one on my design wall - it's so pretty I'd like to make something special with it - not sure what, but I'm sure an idea will pop up if I look at it long enough.

Crazy Jane - D-8

I've only been working on this project for over 6 years now, it's about time it had a name - so Crazy Jane it is. Cause I will probably be crazy before it ever gets finished! When I started this I had a hair brained idea that I would do one block every day and have it done before the year was out. So here I am, almost 7 years later and only 1/4 of the way finished. Oh well. I am going to strive for a block a week, and we'll see if I get inspired to do more!

I had hoped to finish this block sooner this week, but that didn't work out. But it's done, and looks absolutely smashing! I think it looks a bit like a snow flake actually. It was a very straightforward block, just applique the 8 pieces in place. Pretty easy. I folded the background block in half diagonally and horizontally and vertically to make placement lines for the pieces. I stitched the footballs first, then the diamonds. I used a neat technique of painting starch on the seam allowances before pressing them under to make them nice and crisp. (Then I got a little sidetracked and made a roll for my paintbrushes so I didn't have to stuff them back in a plastic baggie in my drawer.)

Pictures done, added a swatch to my sheet for this page and crossed it off the list! Next block is D-11 and it's a bit tricky. Piecing, odd angles and some applique. Might have to go study up on that one!

Happy sewing!

First Meeting finally finished!

This was on my list of UFOs to work on this week. It's been in the bottom of my current project pile for months. I thought I was finished with it last year, but my husband (the man who is represented in the picture and the future owner of the quilt) requested that I add some words to the plain brown unquilted borders. Since this was a little out of my comfort zone I have been doing some major procrastination about it, and since he hasn't asked where the quilt was....it just wasn't getting finished. But it was causing me a great deal of guilt every time I would look at my pile. So today was the day I decided to tackle it!

I could not believe how much I actually enjoyed the process of figuring out how to add the words and achieving the effect I wanted. At first I thought I would make a rectangle like an engraved label and cut the letters out, letting the brown show through. After booting up EQ7 and playing for a bit I decided to applique the letters directly to the border using some kind of gold colored fabric. I then went into the sewing room looking for the right fabric. I dug through my stash for a few minutes, then my eye landed on a rolled fat quarter of gold satin that was given to me by a friend. Perfect! Well, maybe. First I had to test out a couple of letters to see if it was practical to fuse and applique satin letters. To my suprise, it worked out pretty well. I wouldn't do it on something that would get a lot of wear, but this is a wall-hanging, so the tendency to fray won't matter much.

I spent a pleasant hour or so tracing and fusing, cutting, then fusing again and was thrilled at the results. I then loaded up my machine with some silk thread and stitched around the letters. I then drew an outline around my letters to look like an engraved plaque. That's the point where I took the picture. After this I added some stitching that looks like wood grain on the rest of the brown border. I did some more stitching on the body of the quilt, fixing my husbands hair so it's not so white, and adding some white to the horse's rear foot. Now I just have to sew the hanging sleeve on and it is finished! I'm so happy to get this done - no more guilt, and my husband will have his quilt to hang in his office.

Maybe next time I won't procrastinate so much about doing something I'm not confident with. After all, doing something badly is better than never doing anything at all!

Happy Sewing!