LE: My Flower Leaves

I was thinking of applique from a range of green fabrics for my flower leaves, and although small, I was planning to needle turn each and every small shape into a leaf. I was umming and ahhhing over several greens when I found this fabric - isn't t gorgeous? And luckily, the leaf print here - including the vein impressions are ratio correct for my vases. I am delighted with this unexpected find! Of course, I still have to needle turn tiny pieces, but the fabric is wonderfully detailed and saves my stitching in or drawing the vein details I set my mind on. For some of the pattern pieces I am cutting the smallest leaves directly from the print, and for the larger leaves, I am fussy cutting across the print for the desired effect. I am following the pattern throughout. 

This is a fabric from my stash, so I can't tell you if it's still available. I'm sorry about that as I would have loved to direct you to finding some for yourself - I think its such a simple and elegant solution. But you can recreate this idea with any suitable leaf print fabric. 

I am cutting out the tiny pattern shapes using wash away fusible and then cutting around the leaf shape, enough to turn. The method is the same as my Freezer Paper Applique Method (see my tutorial side bar) - the main and time saving difference is that I don't remove the paper afterwards. It washes away. It's time consuming and fiddly, like so many pieces in this quilt, but definitely worth it. 

Have you made your leaves yet? How did you do it?

LE: My Berries

They're done! All hand stitched and looking lovely. I'm really pleased with how they turned out and I even like the fabric more now then when I first chose it! It fits in beautifully with my other fabrics. The berry shapes are lovely and round. It feels so good to be ready to begin the flowers. 

I have to say that I am loving my Hungarian Stitch more and more as time goes on too

I'm so happy with how it looks

the yellow dots in the fabric make a tiny, but lively difference

 

It feels so good to be here and have all this work behind me. I've been thinking about how long each stage is taking me: the berries alone took over 16 hours of dedicated attention. I don't know if it's a good idea to quantify the quilt in time allocation because personally, I think its a bit daunting! 

At over 16 hours, that's about 10 minutes each on average for every single berry. This includes the tracing, cutting out, circle shape pulling, application and hand sewing x 100 odd berries (actually I made 104, but you know, roughly). There are probably faster ways...and possibly slower ways too. 

 How did you make your berries? 

WOW: LE Stitching Down the Berries

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays 

I've completed turning my berries, and now it's time to sew them down. I'm really happy with their shape and I have 96 to sew down. This will take me all of today and probably another two or three days too. It's slow going, but I'm going to put the Quilt Show on my computer in my sewing room and enjoy myself, listening in, whilst I work. Its a nice distraction I often use to help me get through the hours.

I've talked about my habit of running my computer for company whilst I work on these long repetitive tasks before. When my cat Mooshy was alive, she would keep me company and have a good inspection of everything I was doing. I must admit, I do miss having my quilting companion cat nearby at times like these.

How do you entertain yourself when performing repetitive tasks?

What's Your WOW ?

An InLinkz Link-up

Love Entwined Part 16 is Launched

It feel so good to be this close to finishing Love Entwined... this month we make the last applique blocks, the corners for border 4.

As we approach the end, remember how important details are. So relish your last zig zags and flowers for we have reached the end of the applique required to make this quilt. Wow!

This is where we are up to:

the final borders will be added next month in our final installment

See you over in the Bom Group!

‘Love Entwined 1790 Marriage Coverlet’ is a Free 18 Month Historic BOM

Each ‘block’ of the month is released monthly, on the 15th of each month. 

All ‘blocks’ are available for download via my Yahoo BOM Group only

Embellishing My Vases: 2 of 2

I'm really happy with my poky dotty vases embellished with pink embroidery and stitchery. Here's what I did with my other two vases: I just adore this fabric and think it fits right in with the whole LE feel and theme. I fussy cut it so that the pearl necklace and rose bouquet were center and this is what I chose to embellish - the sweet central rose. 

 I'm just going around the rose with simple stitches to define it

 so simple, but so effective, I've gone around the leaves too

These little details enrich the design with so much interest. 

I really love the idea of seeing something 'new' each time you take another look at the quilt - there's so much going on. 

and now I'm ready to take on my flowers...

WOW: LE Broderie Perse Cut Outs

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays 

Today I'm taking it easy: I've been setting aside some interesting fabrics as I've been making LE with a mind to sort them out later. So every few weeks, I cut out any shapes that take my fancy for potential broderie perse. I think (from the original black and white photo in Patchwork) that there is broderie perse or embroideries scattered throughout the quilt in 'empty spots'.

You can see that LE is a very full quilt and every spare space has something lovely added to fill it in. I am aiming to have a box full of broderie perse 'ready to go' for when I need it. When I reach the stage of having my quilt top finished, I want to spend a few days just picking through my cut outs and 'auditioning' them in different spots throughout the quilt top. I don't know if I'll use any of them until that time comes, but I want to be ready with a good varied selection before then. 

So I'm cutting out any shapes that interest me: I just don't know what will work at that final stage so I'm not limiting the range - whatever appeals is in. Today I have selected some trumpet lilies on a black background and I'm going to iron them and wash away fusible them in readiness. None will be wasted; whatever doesn't end up on LE (most of the pieces I assume) will find its way into another project. It's just another small project that compliments LE and you can do it any time when the pattern becomes too intense for you. 

What's Your WOW ?

An InLinkz Link-up

LE: Embellishing My Vases: 1 of 2

I've loved this polka dotty fabric from the beginning. It was one of the original fabrics I considered for the quilt from the very beginning, and its survived several colour scheme changes, so I'm happy to see it take pride of place as two opposite vases. I'm thinking of making the polka dotty vases a bit more feminine as this quilt is unashamedly romantic and can take all the embellishments you can think of. 

I really love seeing how everyone is choosing to embellish their own elements of the pattern design, so here's what I did:

Just a little detail, but I think a touch of gold lifts it

Now I am in love with this rust coloured thread: I'm just looking for an excuse to use it! I really had to think and rethink using this colour here or elsewhere (because my 'crosses' need some attention and I think this rust would look perfect there).

stitched down, but just a touch too plain

This pink is perfect and compliments my hearts too: I'm embellishing the base with just a few knots and going around the vase in a simple blanket stitch

that's better

 This is almost too much but wonderful all the same

I'm having great fun making this quilt and the only think more enjoyable than making it myself, is seeing how everyone else is choosing the express themselves through the pattern. I love them all. 

WOW: LE Stems Finished

WOW = WIPs On Wednesday 

I've had some serious quilting time open to me these last few weeks, and I've put every spare minute to use. My hand embroidered stems are completed. And I love them. They don't look like  much right now, but I can see the bigger picture and its wonderful.

The only thing is, the vases look a little plain to me now. I've just pinned them for this pick, they aren't sewn down yet. So today, before I start thinking about my flowers, I'm going to embellish them in harmony with this quilt: which is fussy and embellished and full of love. I think they need it. And I'm going to work as I go, I don't have any firm ideas yet...

What's Your WOW?

An InLinkz Link-up

Just Playing Around

My DDs think its so funny that I convert so many everyday objects into 'containers' but the fact is, I never seem to have enough, so I'm always looking at everyday things to see if they'll be suitable for my needs. 

This was a tissue box, now its my portable sewing kit for when I move around the house.

This was a tea jar and it's really handy, so no doubt I'll be covering this too with a fun fabric when I get a chance

as well as this old coconut oil tub

and it probably won't stop there

Speaking of fun fabrics, this cat panel fabric below has caught my eye as something really cute and fun. I especially like the mustache and busted cat and I think it would make a gorgeous pencil case - and I always need more of those about. I found this fabric over at www.equilter.com. I haven't purchased anything from them before, but prints like this are just too cute. 

LE: Beautiful Bountiful Berries

My berries are a lot like my hearts: but smaller and fiddlier! Again, finding the right fabric was tough but I was lucky enough to find some in my stash. I thought long and hard about ruby red berries which just felt so logical, but they really stuck out too much against my scrappy fabric. Then I thought about pinks but gave up on that for the same reason. I had settled on the idea of a rust, brown or mustard coloured tones as all these work so well with my fabrics - but felt they weren't authentically 'berry' enough. Then I found this fabric - I really don't do a lot with anything from the purple family, its a colour that doesn't immediately speak to me. But it works perfectly as a berry colour - its a bit red and blue - just enough but not too much and it blends in with all my scrappy mid tones beautifully. And the yellow helps it blend in with my browns without disappearing completely.

I really enjoyed seeing how many of you worked your own berries. With so many of them to do, its really something to consider in terms of shape outcome and time. I did think about embroidery. But decided that I couldn't do justice to perfectly round berries and anything less than perfect little spheres would have proved to be too frustrating.

Here's what I'm doing: cutting the berry pattern shape from wash away fusible - that's the white circles you see. Then, putting this cut out shape in the center of a larger circle - that's the circle drawn onto the fabric.

The circle I'm using for the larger circle is precisely drawn thanks to the aid of this plastic template called a "Mathomat", I purchased it for a few dollars from my local newsagents. And it has a circle that works well for this purpose.

You can see how much turning margin I have all around the circle: I'm cheating because this extra fabric will actually be my 'filling' so my berries aren't completely flat. It's just enough without being too much. 

So, the end result from the back looks something like this

I'm going to make all my berries before I start hand stitching them down on the background. With tasks like this, I break the preparation down into 'parts' because I personally think that I create slightly different work on different days and I like to get it all out in one 'lot' so that its as uniform as possible.

In all, the pattern calls for 96x berries. This means I'll make 100x as I always make a few more in case any turn out wobbly ;)

I'll be breaking up my berry turning preparation with a few hours of Hungarian stitches for my stems. But for now, I just have to keep on turning...

WOW: LE: Hand Sewing

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays 

Today I'm sewing down the last of the zig zag border - its taken a few weeks but its a time consuming task and can't be rushed. I'm already thinking about the berries to come and I have created a 'sampler berry' and pinned it down to check for size. I've also pinned down my newly turned hearts and I'm delighted with how they look. I've pinned the vase down because I've started thinking about my vases, I think they need more embellishments and I'm thinking of some embroidery work on them. I'm in two minds about this, but I think LE need more fuss. 

One thing's for sure; I have plenty of time to think about it as I work through another 5 or so hours of needle turn applique today. I find hand sewing quite soothing and once you find a rhythm, it can be hard to stop. I will usually sew next to this window here until light fades and I have to set up my daylight lamp or my needle snaps (and that is happening more and more, I'm sure they just don't make them as strong as they used to!)

This is what I mean when I say, 'happy sewing', I hope you find your creative nook today as I have found mine; its a creative and rewarding place to be.

What's Your WOW ? 

An InLinkz Link-up

LE: Turning Hearts

These are the hearts tucked in around the vases. I've been thinking and re-thinking the colours for months. Originally I would have gone with blue - and this was when I was thinking of a light and dark blue zig zag border throughout the quilt. But since going scrappy, I was really stuck. I considered pink of course, but all my pinks seemed too pink and clashed with the scrappy style of the rest of the fabrics I'm using. Then I found these fabrics in my stash, and they are the perfect balance of pink and a few other tones that keep them in harmony with my other fabrics without taking my quilt into a pink direction. Although I do love pink, there's a real danger of overtaking the mid tone colours with a few bright hues which would dominate and unbalance the overall 'look'. I'm really happy with these blender hearts now.

I purchased lots of fabrics when I started LE, but am surpised to find the best blenders in my own stash!

and I fussy cut through the fabric the get the colours and hues I thought would work best

I'm using wash away fusible for my applique pieces - it really speeds things up and I love the end results too