Can't Quite Move On

I have the new hand applique quilt pattern I mentioned in the last post that I want to start, but I can't quite quit on the red and green applique blocks.

I finished three more blocks and now have 25 completed.

I have been playing around with an arrangement for the blocks and kind of like this one:

I think I am going to stop with these 25 blocks.  The blocks will finish at 9 inches and I would like the quilt to be around 70 to 80 inches square when complete so I have to come up with some sashing and borders.  I love taking pictures of the blocks and then seeing them on the blog.  It gives me a different perspective.  Maybe I will do a little more rearranging of the center vertical and horizontal rows (the "square" applique blocks)  Maybe those 4 outside row heavier blocks should be around the center block?

Or not...I think the rearranging may go on a bit : )
Happy Stitching!
Cheri

Applique!

A whole lot of applique has been going on around here.

I am all caught up on the Sally Post Floral Quilt. Gay over at Sentimental Stitches has been posting a block each Saturday from this quilt from 1854.  There are 36 blocks in all and we are up to block 19, but the first 19 are all still available for download if you want to join in.  She has each block on point (diagonal)  like the original quilt or a straight set option each week.   These are great little primitive blocks, they are 8 inches, and pretty fast to work up.  I am doing these blocks on my machine with blanket stitch applique and I like the diagonal setting.  I usually sew the setting triangles and sashing to each block as I complete it, but I have a quilt retreat coming up the end of February and that will be a good project to work on there.

I also have been doing some hand work on the peahen block from the Elly Sienkiewicz class I took at the International Quilt Festival back in November.  I have been working on the peahen off block on a light interfacing.  All of her embroidery embellishment is completed.  I need to do a little more work on her Ultrasuede spots and then I will cut out the interfacing 1/8 inch away from the peahen and turn it under as I applique her onto the block. 

The third border on Ladies of the Sea (Sue Garman pattern)  is getting close to finished, here is one end of it with the corner  Mariner's Compass block added.  This is another machine blanket stitch applique project.  The Mariner's Compass was paper pieced and then, because I am an appliquer, I just appliqued the finished circle onto a corner block instead of fussing with piecing that circle and the funky shapes to try to make it a flat square.

And finally, I have another block finished for the red and green mystery album - mystery because I still do not know how I am going to put all these blocks together.  This pattern was from Elly Sienkiewicz Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts book.  The roses are folded.  They start out as circles that are folded in half,

then in thirds,

and the last third going not quite to the the left edge, making a visible fold on the rosebud and also slightly squaring off the top.

 The folded rosebud is then tucked under the calyx and just the calyx is appliqued.  I did not stitch down the rosebud, but I did add a little yellow french knot in that little squared off rosebud tip, that tacks down the rosebud just a bit. 

Bummer, now that I see this picture on the computer I see that I need to redo and  recenter that second rosebud.
Anyway, I have been having fun here, doing what I like best...applique.
Happy Stitching All,
Cheri

Padded Posies

I have been working on the red and green applique quilt again.  I am still not sure how this quilt is going to end, but I enjoy working on the blocks.  I liked this applique pattern from the book, The Circuit Rider Quilt, however I did not want to do the Dresden Plate pieced posies.   I decided to do a  little off block applique and make try making them in the padded roses fashion with just one fabric.  I used a light weight interfacing to work on, this one happened to have a grid printed on it.

 I traced the posy and center with a fine line sharpie pen on the interfacing and on a piece of freezer paper. 

 After cutting out the freezer paper template I ironed in on quilt batting and cut it out again. I cut the batting posy out about 1/8 inch inside the freezer paper template so it is just slightly smaller than the pattern on the interfacing.  

Next I glued the quilt batting to the interfacing and placed my applique fabric on top of the batting.  Back basting is my preferred method of applique so from the back of the interfacing I stitched a running stitch around the drawn outer edge of the posy. 

 I trimmed my applique seam allowance a little wider than my usual 1/8 to 1/4 inch so I would have enough seam allowance to allow for the added height of  the batting. I also like to connect my running stitch basting stitched with a white iron erasable line for needle turn.  

 Besides having my white line to guide my needle turn, I also could easily see the posy outline drawn on the interfacing. 

After I had completed the needle turn (I used a wider apart applique stitch, just to sort of baste the edges under, since I would be appliqueing the finished posy to the background with my regular applique stitch). At this point you could add some quilting or embroidery embellishment to your applique.  I am going to quilt the pedal lines when the quilt is completed. 

I trimmed the interfacing to 1/8 inch around my padded posy. It is very easy to turn under the interfacing as I applique the flower to the background fabric.  The advantage to working off block is that I am able to applique my flower and keep my background very flat, not having to worry about puckering while working with the extra thickness of the batting.  

I added a padded center and built up my posy layer cake style.   I tried to take a picture from the side so you could see the raised effect of the flowers, they will look more padded after the quilt is completed and quilted. 

I have two more blocks finished, so the count is up to 22 blocks. 

Happy Stitching All,

Cheri

November Free Motion Quilt Challenge with Sarah Vedeler

This month's Free Motion Quilt Challenge (from SewCalGal) concentrates on one quilting motif, spirals. Sarah Vedeler presents very good guidelines for adding spirals to any quilting projects.  The best way to practice spirals is in rows.  The tutorial includes sheets of spirals to print off and practice tracing with a pencil to start building muscle memory.

  Next is sectioning off a fat quarter practice quilt sandwich with my trusty Hera marker into two inch and one inch grids.

This is actually my 2nd practice sandwich, I have just kept this by my machine and tried to practiced a row of two inch and one inch spirals whenever I sit down to sew.  I am currently doing some machine applique work on the Ladies of the Sea (pattern by Sue Garmen) and every time I change thread colors, I just pop on the quilting foot and do a row of spirals for practice.

 I like to throw spirals at random into my background filler quiting or also in small corner stones and this tutorial has definitely improved my spirals.  I have found a little sing song going thru my head as I practice: "leave yourself an escape route"  "leave yourself an escape route".

I am all caught up with the Sally Post Floral Sampler (from Sentimental Stitches)  love how this quilt is coming together.

As well as the Sally Post  is coming, the red and green applique is just not turning out as I had hoped.  I bought three yards of this beautiful new Jo Morton fabric

 thinking I would like it as sashing.  My usual formula of sticking with the same fabric lines for success has let me down.

 I used mostly Jo Mortons for the applique blocks, but I am just not liking this fabric as a sashing for the quilt.  I was thinking a setting sort of like this one

 on the back of Elly Sienkiewicz book Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts.  The sashing in this quilt is a very "busy" fabric.  I think maybe my blocks are too simple for this fabric, so I tried just a solid red:

Hmmm, still not really there, maybe no white corner stones:

Closer, but still not what I thought it would be.  I have totally enjoyed working on these red and green blocks, and I have 21 of them completed, but for now they have been packed away in a tote and put on the bottom shelf...

So, this is what I have been up to lately.  Hope you are all having a great Thanksgiving weekend.  I have one parting shot, this is the fabric I found in my stash for the back of my spiral practice quilt sandwich

Ha Ha, in what life did I think I needed THAT fabric. I could do a whole post on ugly fabrics in my stash.

Happy Stitching All,
Cheri

A Very Productive Weekend

Okay, so you know how you go to quilt retreat with your quilting buddies and you forget something?  Well, I remembered by projects, thread, all parts to the sewing machine, but forgot my camera.  So I do not have any pictures taken at the retreat but I did take some pictures when I got home of all the projects I got to work on.  The picture above is all the blocks so far for the Sally Post Floral Sampler that Gay at Sentimental Stitches is posting each week.

 We had a group demonstration of the twister quilt technique.  This little quilt started out with 20 five inch squares sewn together in a 4 X  5 grid with a 3 inch border, then you cut it all apart with the aid of the twister ruler and sew them back together and get one of these. 

I also got this small quilt sewn, it is called pixie sticks because the 2 inch block are made of eight one quarter inch strips.  Loved the reproduction fabrics in this little quilt. 

I also got a little hand applique completed and another block finished for the red and white quilt.

The week before retreat I got the Heaven and Nature Sings (McKenna Ryan pattern) quilt top completed, it is all layered and ready to start quilting. 

So I feel like I have gotten a lot of things done lately.  I am all unpacked from retreat, but packing up my hand applique things for an upcoming trip to Texas that will include a visit to the International Quilt Festival and a class with Elly Seinkiewicz.  This is not a very good picture of the class project

but you can check out her teaching schedule here and see a better picture of the beautiful peahen we will be working on in this class.  I am so excited to be taking  this class, and just soak up all of her knowledge about Baltimore Album quilts. 

Happy Stitching All,
Cheri

July Free Motion Quilt Challange and Album Applique Updates

 

The July Free Motion Quilt Challenge (Sew Cal Gal blog) instructor is Angela Walters. She is a long arm quilter but her background fill design called Tiles translates to the home sewing machine very nicely.  This is a great little blank space fill design that can still be used with simple stippling or other background fill designs.  It shows better on a plain fabric and is much more difficult to see on a printed fabric but that is the case with many quilting designs. The tile effect can be done with box type tiling or with angled lines giving a more jagged appearance (see the right upper corner of my sample)  There is a picture of a quilt quilted with the angled line tiles on the tutorial, it looks very good with modern fabrics.

In between other summer activities I have continued working on my two album quilts.  Two more Ladies of the Sea (pattern by Sue Garman) completed, the USS Constitution, aka "old ironsides".   The second is a viking ship, the Osberg, circa 875, a long ship moved by oarsman

                                         

The block count on Ladies of the Sea is 14, only 2 more ships to go and I am on the borders!

I also have finished four more blocks for the red and green applique album.

  I had originally planned to do 42  blocks and have an applique border, but I am leaning toward adding blocks -maybe 63 - a 7 X 9 set- and then the sashing around each block and no border.  

 I keep looking at the picture of the antique quilt I saw at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, NE. that inspired this quilt and I like its simplicity of just applique blocks and sashing. 

I am getting the patterns for the red and green block from all my favorite applique books.  These last four blocks were from the Kay MacKenzie book Inspired By Tradition. There are a couple more in that book I really like and I need to spend some time today prepping some more blocks to work on.  I enjoy the Olympics and I know it will be a great opportunity to get a lot of  hand work completed while watching television.

Happy Stitching All,

Cheri