Peahen in Crescent Wreath

I have completed Baltimore Album block one. This block was started last November in a class with Elly Sienkiewicz. The padded roses turned out so good. The dimension did not really show with the first layer, the red background of the rose, but when I added the pink top petals, they really puffed up. It was slow appliquéing, going thru the red rose and the batting underneath (see last post), but the end result was great.

I tried to do a lot of dimension work in this block. I don't know if the little yellow flowers have a name, but I made them starting with a 1.25 inch circle. I made a little mini yo yo then brought the gathering thread to the center front of the yo yo and back around to the back of the yoyo at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o clock. I sewed each one down with a red seed bead and just did a little tac stitch on each petal. There were a few more stems on the pattern, but I got carried away with the blossoms and did not put the stems down first. I decided most of those stems were covered with just bits showing thru and the flowers filled the wreath enough. I thought I would just embroider in those stems but I really don't think the block needs it.

The last addition was the peahen which I completed off block on lightweight interfacing that Elly referred to as gossamer in the class. I trimmed the interfacing to an eight inch. It was very easy to turn under the interfacing. I think the padded roses would probably be best done off block also.

I am looking through my appliqué patterns and deciding on what will be block two.

Happy Stitching All,

Cheri

 

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Appliquéing Again

After a very long break from quilting I have picked up a Baltimore Album block to work on. I started this wreath block at Elly Seinkiewicz' class during last years International Quilt Festival in Houston. We did some inking and this block has Elly's signature under the inked cartouche, so I would really like to use it in a quilt.

 

I was a little concerned about this block having a different background but I remembered these three background pieces I bought for a project I never started.

I could get 8 album blocks from each of these for 24 blocks and the class block would be number 25, a good number for an album quilt. So I have the beginning of a plan in my head. I think I am just going to do some of my favorite appliqué blocks from the many different books and patterns I have.

Besides inking on album blocks another focus in Elly's class was off block work on padded roses. This became a problem for me as I found the technique difficult and the results were just not pleasing. I decided to go to my old favorite appliqué technique of back basting but cut out a rosé shape in batting and lightly glued on the rose shape,

then proceeded with back basting and then appliquéing the red fabric over the batting.

There may be a little more of the padded effect when the block is quilted, but I don't know that the "padding" gives that much extra. I still need to quilt in some petal lines on the rose and then I will add the pink petals with a stick and stab stitch which will in effect quilt and appliqué the pink petals in one step. This is the point I am up to this weekend.

 

I am happy to be appliquéing again, happy stitching all,

Cheri

 

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My applique class with Elly Sienkiewicz

I have just returned home from my trip to Houston and the International Quilt Festival.  I took a wonderful  applique class with Elly Sienkiewicz.  This was a two day class called Peahen in a Crescent Wreath.  The focus of the class was to learn some advanced techniques for off block construction of applique elements.  We worked on the peahen and one of the flowers on a gridded interfacing type material that Elly called gossamer. 

We worked on embellishing our rather plain peahen (you know the female bird is always the duller less colorful of a pair of birds).  Elly had lots of her beautiful album blocks in plastic sleeves

 that she would pass around the class room for us to get embroidery and embellishing ideas.  The rose was a padded technique where we would layer quilt batting under each section of the rose using just one fabric and quilting the different petals of the rose to give it dimension. When the peahen and rose are completed I will then trim the gossamer to 1/8 inch around the applique and because it is so thin, it will easily be tucked under the applique as I sew it onto the background.  We also worked on adding inking to our blocks.  Elly has beautiful lettering skills and she wrote on each of our blocks. 

 This little bandoleer on my block is only about one and a half inches long and she wrote my name in the banner of the design and then dated it and wrote her name and the words "scripts it" which means she did the lettering.    She also wrote beautiful comments in our books if we had brought any of her books for signatures.

  She is the most gracious person, it was just a joy to listen and learn from her.  She has so much knowledge about Baltimore album quilts and the women of 1850s Baltimore, Maryland.  I could have just listened to her for days. 

The rest of the quilt show was also wonderful, always so much inspiration and new ideas and products.  This post is getting rather long so I will share just this picture of  this quilt featuring wind turbines.

 I think the wind turbines are so graceful turning in the wind and I love to watch them if we drive by a wind turbine field.    I come from a Dutch heritage and I love windmills,

 I though it was clever that this quilter added an image of an old fashioned type of windmill in her quilt-gold half square tirangle in the upper right corner of this photo.   I am sorry to say that I did not get the name of this quilter.

I picked up a great new book by Jeanne Sullivan called Simply Successful Applique. This is a technique book more than a pattern book, but there is a DVD and patterns included.  

She has a great technique for preparation of her applique pieces that I am going to have to try and good illustrations of each step of her process.  There is good  review of all the basic steps of applique from the starting and ending knots, to the applique stitch, to properly cutting your applique background fabric.

The rest of our trip to Texas was spent with family.  A few days at a beach house in Galveston with the cutest grand child  in the world.

We did some flounder fishing, spent lots of hammock time and played in the sand.   We are back home now and the short sleeved and warm weather  cloths have been unpacked and sadly hung in the back of the closet. 

I am appliqueing with new passion and am anxious to start a Baltimore Album quilt. I will have to figure out a way to include the peahen block with it's very special signature.

Happy Stitching All,
Cheri