There were some wonderful Applique quilts at QuiltCon.
The first prize ribbon went to…..
“Big Hug” by Linda Leake
Second place went to this humorous quilt….
“Double Meat – Double Cheese” by Christine Fornell
The fabrics that she chose for the lettuce was perfect…..
Third place went to…….
“100 Days of Greenery” by Cassandra Beaver
Cassandrda said that she split the drawing into 100 sections and worked on one each day. This is needle-turned applique!! She also said that the gridded quilting is reminiscent of observing the world through a window screen. I agree!!
In EVERY show that I visit, I always find at least one quilt by Nancy Lambert, who used to be a member of my local guild.
“Patterns 2” by Nancy Lambert
She does amazing machine applique and this quilt is no exception……
I enjoyed the bright colors in this piece…..
“Ode to Mary Blair” by Corinne Sovey
….and the “blobs” of this quilt……
“Bloberella 2.0” by Hillary Goodwin
The “blobs” were improvisationally appliqued and quilted…..
There was a lot of humor in the applique quilts this year. I loved this one…..
“One is An Exclamation Point, 10 is a Crowd” by Natalya Sumner
….and this quilt was based on a young boy’s drawing…..
“Mornin’ M’Lady” by Patti Coppock
Her fabric choices were perfect for the quilt!!
Come back tomorrow and we will finish up the Applique division. There are lots more great quilts to come!!!
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This year I wanted to make a jean jacket for my friend Marnie. She had admired the one that I made for myself some years back and I decided that it was time for her to have one too!!
The first step was to make a pattern for the back. I took some lightweight tracing paper and pressed it into the seams on the back, leaving a perfect pattern…..
Now I needed to add some flowers. This is the first set that I auditioned…..
….but decided to use different designs and forgot to take a photo of the new pattern!
I now cut out a piece of Wonder Under that would fit on the back of the jacket and ironed it to the INSIDE of the jacket….
Of course, when I started removing the paper, I had issues with it coming loose….
I HATE when that happens, but I now know how to fix it!! Thirty seconds in my freezer…..
….did the trick and the rest of the paper peeled off perfectly……
Next step was to draw the designs on the jacket back and start CAREFULLY cutting them out…..
Honestly, this is the hardest part of this project!! When finished it looked like this….
Now to pick the fabric to use. But, I had cheated on this!! When Marnie was in my studio a couple of weeks ago, I had several pieces of fabric sitting out and I looked to see which one she went to first. This was it…..
So, I placed the fabric down on my ironing board and placed the cutwork jacket on top of the fabric, being sure that the fabric piece was big enough to cover all of the Wonder-Under on the jacket back.
I made a few adjustments and then ironed the jacket and the fabric together…..
Since I take so much of the denim out, I always worry about messing with the “structural integrity” of the jacket so I go one step further and put a lining over the cut out area.
This was accomplished by cutting a piece of Wonder Under that was the size of the back panel and ironed it to the backside of another piece of fabric…..
I folded the fabric edges over and fused it to the inside back…..
I sewed it in place along the pre-existing seams…..
The final step was to quilt around each of the shapes several times…..
This is finished product…..
I decided that she needed a small flower on the front but, instead of cutting the denim, I simply appliqued it in place…..
I am thrilled with how it turned out!!
It is a very simple project and can be made with an old jacket that needs an update or a brand new one!!
So….get busy and let’s have a chorus of Cut-Work Jean Jackets!!
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There were several areas where the grid quilting needed to be filled in.
I initially drew in my grids…..
…but then decided to add the actual stitching lines so I wouldn’t get confused…..
I remembered that I wanted the blue areas of these flowers to look like more of the sky, so I also drew in the quilting designs….
After some careful quilting, I am happy with the illusion that the blue portions of the flower are actually sky, meaning that the pink rays are the actual flower…..
Within a relatively short time, the quilting was finished….
After a quick binding session, the quilt is finished……
I am thrilled with how it turned out!! It is whimsical, well quilted and PINK!!!
AND….it is a great way to celebrate my ……
I started writing quilting blogs on this day, way back in 2008. Hopefully there is another 15 years to go!!!
Please come back next week as we lead up to the big event on the 25th!!!
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When I sent out the SOS to quilters around the world, I received several potentially good ideas so I thought that I would share them here….
Remember that I haven’t tried ANY OF THESE so am not advocating them.
The number one suggestion was that I add more circles!! While it was a good idea, it would have definitely interrupted the symmetry that I had worked so hard to achieve!!
There were several suggestions specifically for wool batting
Deb said that it had happened to her as well with wool batting. She had used Dawn, rubbed gently, and then rewashed. BUT, she had to do it SIX times!!
Sylvia said that she had soaked a wool-batting quilt in a mixture of Synthrapol and hot (as hot as it comes out of the tap) water in a bucket.
Dale said that she had used Synthrapol and had also had decent results with a heavy salt and vinegar soak and wash afterward.
Martina suggested Dawn detergent and HOT water. Her most important reminder was that you have to be REALLY patient because some fabrics won’t release until many hours later.
Judy reminded me that I MUST use detergent as it is the agent that will start shifting the spot.
Kate said that she uses “Shout”.
Mary suggested one of the OxyClean sprays.
Avon said that she had READ that Shaving cream would also work but had never used it herself.
Louise (in Australia) suggested that Rit has a run-remover.
And finally, both Barbara and Sylvia reminded me that threads can bleed as well. GREAT ….something ELSE to worry about.
The bottom line here is that I was going to keep trying things until either the spots came out, or I ruined it trying!!!
Thankfully, I didn’t ruin it!!
There is one other little place that I found and I can’t figure out exactly what it is. See that pinkish stain next to the circle……
It doesn’t look like a bleed but looks like a bleach mark. There was never ANY bleach around so I have no idea where it came from.
It is small and I probably won’t do anything with it, however…..
Donna had mentioned using Intense Pencils and a fabric medium, so I MIGHT try that to fill in that small area. But then again, I may just leave it!!
The quilt is now awaiting a sleeve so I can hang it and take photos, but here is the photo from show-and-tell at my guild meeting…..
I AM …..
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