The Perfect Leaf Was Worth the Hole!

On Tuesday, I “burped” my little mug rug so that it had finished edges without needing binding.

Now it was time to add a bit of AUTUMN!!

I knew that I wanted a couple of leaves, so I found two leaf designs online and printed them out…

Then I traced them onto Wonder Under and got ready to fuse…

But first, there were a few fabric decisions to make!

When I looked at the orange fabric I had chosen, I noticed the wonderful mottled design right in the MIDDLE…

Normally, I would cut from an outside edge. Why leave a hole in a perfectly good piece of fabric?

But this time, that patch of color was just too tempting!

I wanted those exact shades in my leaf, so I positioned it right where I wanted it and cut away.

The result?

A GORGEOUS leaf…and a piece of fabric with a hole in the middle!!

And I was perfectly happy with that trade!

Next, I took another look at the brown leaf. It seemed to blend into the background a little too much…

It needed more contrast!

I first tried a more orangish brown…

But that was too close to the color of the orange leaf.

Then I spotted THIS piece…

YES!! That was the one!

With the fabric choices settled, I fused the leaves into place…

Then it was off to the sewing machine to add a bit of leaf-vein quilting and a line of stitching ¼ inch inside the outer edge.

And just like that, my little autumn mug rug was finished and ready for gifting…

This project reminded me that saving fabric isn’t always the top priority.

Sometimes, getting the EXACT leaf you want is worth leaving a hole in the middle!!

Do you ever cut into the center of a fabric to capture just the right color or design?

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What’s Happened to my Applique?

At the beginning of the year, I started a hand-appliqué project—and for the first few months, I did really well!

Then May arrived, life got busy, and the project slowly stalled.

The problem wasn’t finding time to stitch. I often had time in the evenings to sit and work on it. The problem was that I hadn’t prepared any more appliqué pieces. That required going upstairs to the studio, choosing fabrics, tracing shapes, cutting pieces, and getting everything ready.

Somehow, I never found time for that part.

There was another issue, too. My eyesight has worsened over the past few months because of cataracts. I haven’t felt comfortable with how my stitches looked, so I decided putting the project aside for a while might be the best choice.

But this appliqué project is definitely not becoming a UFO!

I have two cataract surgeries scheduled for November, and I cannot wait to see clearly again. Then, in December, I am having knee replacement surgery—which means I should have plenty of time to sit, recover, and sew.

Between now and then, my goal is to spend some time in the studio preparing a good supply of appliqué pieces. If everything is ready and waiting, I can simply pick up the project whenever I feel like stitching.

Sometimes a project stalls because we lose interest. Other times, it just needs to wait until life—and our eyes—are ready for it again.

This one is waiting patiently. I’m looking forward to picking it back up!

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Who knew I would enjoy hand-appliqué SO much!

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The Whole Story Comes Together!

When I got ready to quilt this piece, I started with all of the animals, making sure that I stitched around EVERY…SINGLE….PIECE….OF….FABRIC.

It was fiddly, and there were TONS of thread changes, starts and stops!!

I wanted to do something special on the path, so I started out with oval “stones”…three across the path. Then I decided that it needed more, so I went back in and added another “stone” in the middle of each. I liked the final result…..

For the trees and leaves, I just outlined them and then added a bit of filler quilting….

….and did a wavy “U-turn” in the sky…..

But, the stars of this quilt are the fun animals….

Jenny requested that the quilt be named for the baby, so “Sutton’s Storybook Grove” is the winner…..

Although I had to rush to get it finished in time, I thoroughly enjoyed the process and LOVE the finished quilt. Jenny told me that, when the new Mom opened the gift, she declared it absolutely PERFECT!!

So, which animal is your favorite?

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These Animals Are Well Read!

When we left the baby quilt last week, I had finished all of the background….

Now it was time to start adding the book-reading animals. I was SO excited!!

The first one that I did was the Owl sitting in the tree….

I chose to use Wonder-Under to prep the animals, trying to only stick it to the edges of the design.

I prepped each animal or group individually, adding them one at a time to the quilt top….

I knew that it was going to need something else to the right and top so I added some roughly cut-out pine trees.

Then it was time to square up the top…not something that I particularly enjoy!

I laid it out on my cutting table…..

….and played with it for a few minutes. Then I grabbed my Laser Square…..

….and quickly cleaned up two of the edges…..

The other two sides were equally easy to square up and it went up on the wall for a final look…..

I noticed that the racoon seemed to blend into the background, so I carefully pried up the fused edges and added a lighter color of fabric underneath…..

Now it looks like he is sitting on a rug!!

I quickly basted it….

As I was cleaning up my studio, I found another tree that I hadn’t used, and it HAD to be added to the top….

Come back tomorrow and see the full reveal!!

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Let’s Grow the Tree

I feel like it has taken forever to get the baby quilt background in place, so I was VERY excited to move on to the next part of the quilt…..

THE BIG TREE!!

I delved into my stash and did a fabric pull for the tree parts….

ONE NOTE HERE….. I am patting myself on the back for not having bought fabric since January, and I plan not to buy any more this year. When you look at my studio, you can see that I probably will NEVER need to buy fabric again!! HA!!

As before, I am trying to only use Wonder-under on the edges of the fabric pieces, so I started on the outside and worked my way in….

It was super easy to keep adding branches and fabrics to the tree trunk….

I am not super happy with the “ledge” that separates the trunk portion from the limbs, but I have plans to cover it up with a squirrel.

I pulled one large scrap of dark green fabric, ironed Wonder-under to the back, and started cutting out largish leaves…..

I did the same with a lighter green, then again with an even lighter one.

I decided to put the leaves in groups of three, and this is the result…..

The next step is to add the various animals reading books….

…..I can’t wait!

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