A Couple Of Applique Projects

Periwinkle (aka Hummingbird aka Arkansas Snowflake) Blocks

9 inch unfinished

I've been making these appliqued blocks with a method I found at Susie's Scraps except I'm using 3.5 inch squares and 9 inch background squares. My backgrounds will all be yellow solids.  I was inspired by a vintage quilt. 

Dresden Fan Blocks

6 inch unfinished

I've also been appliqueing Dresden Fan blocks made from 3.5 inch scraps. I have a little bin and bag of valentine/heart and rose print scraps I want to use up.  I'm not sure I'm in love with these at this point and I don't really know how I'm going to lay them out. For now I'm just using scraps. I'm thinking I might make a spider web quilt with the scraps that are smaller than 3.5 inches. 

Whatever layout I use I think I will probably add a plain white thin sashing between blocks because they are so busy. 

And I'm thinking I will probably end up setting them on point. But who knows at this point. Like I said I'm using up scraps and keeping busy with some hand work for a few minutes each evening. 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 10  - I finished a good book - Rivers of Wrath by Jean Grainger. It is the third in the Cullen's Celtic Cabaret series. And I finished it just in time for the release of the fourth and final (I think) book in the series - The Gem of Ireland's Crown.   I've read a lot of Jean Grainger books. She writes Irish historical fiction. I enjoy reading that genre because all of my paternal ancestors were Irish. 

 

Progress On Some Applique Projects

Bramble Blooms QAL

The prompt for the first border is: "Add a border with repeat applique motifs to your centerpiece, with quarter-triangle style cornerstone blocks."

If you read any of my previous posts about this QAL you would know that there will be three improv quilts made in this series and our first prompt was to make three piles of fabrics to use in making.  I am using a little box of orange and lime green scraps as the base fabrics for all three quilts. Then for this one I am adding the color purple. 

So, my repeat applique motif is a butterfly. Remember this is improv, okay? And since my colors for this quilt are orange, lime green and purple my butterflies are made from some of those lime green scraps. 

I used needleturn applique for my center piece of Coneflowers but I did not think I wanted to use that method for little butterflies with point everywhere on them so I did turned edge applique with interfacing and blanket stitch. 

My polka dot border is 6 inches wide.   After I get the butterflies all appliqued in place I need to look for some of my longer needles I used when I did a lot of crazy quilting because I want to add a bullion stitch body to the butterflies and after that I will embroider some antennae in backstitch or running stitch. 

I am using two strands of a variegated purple and lime green embroidery thread. I will use perle #12 for the antennae and the bullion stitch bodies if I find my long needles. 

After the butterflies are finished I will work on my "quarter-triangle style cornerstone blocks".

One thing I have learned about applique is that I am not really very fond of all the prep work involved. 

And also you may remember that I have been working on emptying a bag and bin of rose and heart scraps. One of the quilts to come out of those scraps is a Dresden Fan.  I'm not sure how these little six inch blocks are all going to go together at this point. For right now I am just using scraps and making blocks and trying to empty out some scraps bags and bins.   I will probably be able to make more than one quilt from all those scraps but for right now I'm concentrating on this one. 

I have appliqued more blocks for my collection since my last post. 

More finished blocks but I have not removed pins yet. 

And more blocks are pinned and ready for applique. 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Jan. 20 - I finished a good book - For All The World by Jean Grainger.  It is book one of a series called Cullen's Celtic Cabaret. I started on book 2 in the series A Beautiful Ferocity. I have read quite a variety of books written by Jean Grainger. I do a lot of reading when I wake up in the middle of the night and unfortunately reading this book did not help me get back to sleep. 

 

WITB?

It's no secret that I love roses. 

I've made a series of quilts (and tops) with rose themed prints. 

And now I have a lot of scraps of rose themed prints.

WITB?

What's in the bin? (14 quart size)

I'm going to find out as I process the rose themed scraps and empty the bin.

One quilt? Two?

WITB?

What's in the bag? (plastic grocery bag)

I like hearts and valentines too. I've also made a series of heart quilts.

And I have a lot of valentine/heart scraps.

I'm thinking I'll combine rose and valentine scraps and empty both bin and bag.

I've started processing those scraps and so far I have a lot of 3.5 inch fan blades. Or are they tumblers?

Time will tell. Not quite sure where this is headed yet. I might also dig into the pink, red and aqua scraps too before all is said and done. 

And I have a pile of rose and valentine strings. 

And sew on...

 

A New Top! Peacock Fans

 Peacock Fans

It's a Top

Twin bed sized

It's in the hand quilting pile now awaiting a backing and time to quilt (and cooler weather). 

I'll probably quilt around the peacock fans and then around the peacocks and "flowers"  in each square.  

I even tried mitered borders!  and think I got it right after two tries. 

I was afraid to cut the extra fabric away.  

I'll wait until I'm ready to sandwich it.  Just to be sure...