Iris Quilt Flimsy Finished

I finished the Iris Quilt flimsy. I first added an inner border to the sides of the quilt.

In the original 30s pattern, the applique was done on elongated hexagon blocks (think Japanese lanterns-a popular 30s shape) rather than on rectangle blocks. I didn't see the point of that but I did want to "reference" the original so I decided that I'd create a border that gave the silhouette of a lantern shape.


I just went with a brighter yellow for the outer border. Excuse the photo-the quilt top is straight but it doesn't look it in this pix! :)

The quilt top finishes at 50" x 60".  Its a 6" border...is it looking a little heavy in this pix? Should I think about cutting down the border? LOL! I didn't think it looked heavy until I saw this pix.

I pinned back the side borders to about 3"...

Not sure I like it better. Ugh! I hate when indecision rears its ugly head.


I'm linking to Sarah and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop! -stop by and see what people have been up to this week. 

Iris applique blocks finished

I finished the iris applique blocks and decided on the setting. My idea was to use 8 blocks and stagger the middle row of blocks. I first tried it like this:

But I thought the middle row was a little too squashy looking so I spread them out more evenly and rearranged the color placement too.

I like it much better. So now its just to cut the setting pieces for the middle row and sew up the rows...and plan the border-I've got an idea for that too. :)

Two more Iris applique blocks finished

The block on the left is the one I posted when I was still working on it...this is the first time I've posted the yellow iris.
I've done most of two more blocks-I haven't finished one petal on each as I'm using them for demonstration purposes in the class I'm teaching on Sunday. The first lesson was the straight leaves and now we'll do the curved petals. The third and last lesson will be on appliqueing the stem and putting the blocks together with a border treatment that includes inner Vs so all major "shapes" will be covered.
The start of this class was postponed so many times because of my illness, I'm so glad we're finally having it! Can't wait to see how they did on those narrow leaf points. I have some leaves appliqued just up to the point-I told them if they had a problem to just sew to that point-so we can do them together if they had problem.
I'm linking to Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop ...stop by and see what  people have been up to this week.

Basted Iris Applique blocks

I've been busy this week basting applique blocks. I'm not quite ready to stand and rotary cut for a long time or sew at the machine (so work on the postage stamp quilt is still on hold) but sitting and basting blocks has been perfect. It feels so good to be working on a project again.
If you look closely at the middle yellow flower, you can see that I use a drawn line when I do needleturn applique. :)

On this basted block, I've even made some applique progress...the leaves, stem and bottom right petal are done and as you can see by my needle, I'm working on the top right petal. These blocks go pretty fast...the stem is really the most "trouble".

New Applique Project

I've started a new applique project.

Its an old Mountain Mist design-you know, one of the designs that was originally on the inside of the quilt batt wrapper- although I am not using the original setting. I've done one block so far-I'm planning on 9-and it will be for a class that starts next month so I better get going. I think its a great design for teaching needle turn applique-it has curves and points, etc.-its just missing inner points but I'll cover that in my border design.


I have one more block basted up but that's it. Lots to do...I'll try to remember to take pix as I go so I can share my process too.


What do you have up on your design wall? I'm linking to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. Hop over-I peeked and there are lots of wonderful and even some funky fun stuff to see.

A little machine quilting and a little Jane Stickle quilt progress

What a busy time of year! With house guests, classes and all I've hardly had time to quilt, visit blogs and except for Tuesday Tomes I haven't posted in weeks!

I did get one day to mark the Drunkard's Path quilt and because of the discussion here on using the Hera Marker I decided to try marking a cable using it...it worked. I've usually just used it for straight lines but you can see in this pix the Hera marks and the one line already quilted. Its actually quite easy to see under the light of the sewing machine...and it must have been at least 10 days between when I marked the quilt and actually quilted!
Here's the cable completely quilted...

and here I added the free motion design right up to the edge of the cable...I've always wanted to do this on a quilt. And this is how the quilt sits...I now want to continue the "flowers" on the other side of the cable and between the yellow squares-I'm hoping to get to it soon. I've often taken months to finish a hand quilted quilt but this is the first time I've been so busy that a machine quilted quilt is languishing!
I have been sewing Jane blocks...well I sort of have to if I want to be ready for class! I am enjoying hand appliquing these blocks...
I always baste up an entire block of whatever I'm working on and then I can just sit and applique when I have time (usually sitting on the sofa next to DH in the evenings). The block on the upper right was curved pieced and then the little diamonds appliqued...
the bottom left was reverse appliqued-I haven't done much of that and totally enjoyed it! On the bottom right is a whole pile of basted blocks just waiting to be finished.

I'm now paper piecing some blocks...not my favorite technique but useful for those blocks with teeny tiny pieces-pix will follow.

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season! (and those on the East Coast are enjoying the snow!)

New Applique Quilt-Poppy Quilt

DH was away on a business trip for two days and I used the opportunity to baste up the medallion center of my latest hand applique quilt. I use an overlay so there is no marking on the background fabric- you can just barely see here the design drawn on the red dot overly. I cut the center leafy portion as one piece using a freezer paper template. I made reusable templates for the flowers heads by ironing the freezer paper templates to manila file folders making reversible templates.

Here you can see the medallion center basted but a bit distorted...I had to put it on the floor so the angle is a bit odd. Maybe this is better.

The pattern is from the back of a Mountain Mist batting wrapper from 1935-Painted Poppy, pattern 51...I just bought it last year here. This is a brand new wrapper that Mountain Mist saved to be sent out as patterns-I don't think this pattern was very popular which is probably why I got a real wrapper and not a reprint. With a little detective work, I've figured out that this was an early wrapper for the Blue Ribbon Batt...the hints: 1)"Glazene" is stated right on top of the Mountain Mist and 2) in the Quilting Suggestions, they clearly state not to quilt more than 2" apart (rather than 1/2").

Here's a hint as to why I don't think the pattern was too popular! Why would you have the flowers and not the leaves meeting in the center? My second change is I'm leaving off the scallops right up against the center flowers...this quilt had three rows of scallops!

Hope you like my changes to my newest needleturn applique project.

Spring Blossoms Mini Quilt Swap Revealed

This is the quilt that I sent Mindy ( and she received) for the Spring Blossoms Mini Quilt Swap. I loved making this yo-yo basket quilt. Its all hand made (well, I did add the binding on one side by machine :).

It was alot of fun...there really was no pattern to follow, I just counted the bottom row of yo-yos, appliqued them in place and then subtracted and later added to the length of each row to create the basket shape. I laid out the handle yo-yos and then I basted them in place (only basting I did ;) I added the stems, (I had an oops there-I'd appliqued all of the top row of yo-yos so I had to open the ones I wanted the stems to go under and then re-applique them), then the flowers and then the leaves-sliding them under the basted handle as need be. Then I finally appliqued the handle on.

Remember when I had all that computer trouble: this quilt is the silver lining. I had plenty of time for doing my own hand work since I couldn't go looking at all the wonderful work being done elsewhere. (BTW, it happened again this week-end! but this time the cable company finally sent a repairman so I hope that is finally done with!)

Here's a close up of the yo-yos. They're 5/8" in circumference...1/2" just didn't look as good. You can see I used lots of 30s repros.

Here's a close-up of the hand-quilting. I used the little birds from the love birds heart that I designed for the wedding quilt.

Stop off at Mindy's blog and check out her beautiful applique quilt Fleur Pastelles.

This and that applique and embroidery

I finished the February and March blocks for the A Tisket A Tasket BOM. I'm having alot of fun doing these but for now, applique is on hold. Allergy season has struck and even with medication, my eyes tear so much that I can't applique, I sneeze so vigorously and unexpectedly that I'm afraid to rotary cut and sewing on the machine, between the tears and the sneezes just isn't a good idea. But don't feel too sorry for me, there is always embroidery!

Here are two of the vintage embroidery patterns I showed last week...the girl and the boy will become pot holders soon. I also decided to try my hand at punchneedle embroidery.

I had no idea what I was doing but I was having alot of fun and I love the way this has turned out. It will be made into a pillow. The design is from an antique quilt, the Wickersham Signature Quilt. I got the book of patterns while visiting York, PA two years ago. There are lots of these funky basket blocks with the baskets way too small for the flowers. I love them!

I just picked up the needlepunch and pearl cotton and started away on the design I'd traced on the muslin. As I went along, I thought that I really didn't know what I was doing... why were there those big loops popping up and did I really need to knot? I found this great tutorial at Ribbons and Lace Cottage and after that things went even quicker and more smoothly.

I'm thinking of doing another...I love chenille and this is kind of similiar!

Quilting This and That

I've been so enchanted by the applique blocks that Susan has been doing, that I decided to do the BOM from Bunny Hill Designs also. This is the February block, all basted and ready for me to applique. This is the January block, finished! I was really ready to do a bit of hand applique again and this project is perfect: the blocks are small, cute and perfect for picking up in spare moments and doing a little hand sewing.

I also sewed up some wonky stars ( a first for me) to send to Tia. She is so generously hosting a project to collect blocks and sew them into quilts for Australian Bushfire sufferers.

These are ok but I think I need to work on my wonkiness!

Vintage Thursday Thingie: Vintage Leaf Quilt

This is a vintage applique quilt from the late 1940s in the Leaf pattern with an unusual center medallion of three "leafy" flowers. I love the variety of fabrics, including feed sacks in the leaves.

It is hand appliqued and hand quilted in an overall diamond pattern and around the applique leaves and stem.


To see more Vintage Thursday Thingies, click on the button

Folk Art Quilt

Time for another quilt from the banner: the Folk Art quilt.

The applique blocks were in the closet for years-I had enlarged the blocks from a Little Quilts design, done the hand applique and then that was it, they sat there. When I decided at the beginning of the year to machine quilt as many of the tops in the closet that I could, I found the blocks. I added the large stars and the checkerboard sashing and border to make the quilt more “youth friendly” and made the quilt twin bed size ( and now I’ve put the completed quilt in the closet :-)

Its machine quilted with a meander including

hearts around the applique blocks, outline quilted stars (by free motion-first time I tried that, fairly successful) with little moons in the stars' centers and a simple grid in the checkerboard.