Category: Applique Quilt

Making the quilt – Part 2

Yesterday I showed you the article that was my initial inspiration for the “Catherine Wheel of Color” quilt…..

During the day, I received a message from Abigail Dolinger…..the writer the of the article and designer of the “Pathways” quilt!!

I had a peek at her website and blog and you should really check it out!!! There is loads of great stuff there!!

But on with the quilt…..

When we left yesterday, it was at this stage….

While it looked nice, I had grown really fond of seeing the color wheel on point, so that meant adding corners!!

I did lots of mock-ups and finally came to the conclusion that I wanted it to look like this….

That meant making lots more circles and playing more with my yardage and the color wheel….

I also spent copious amounts of time doing geometry and trying to figure out the exact size of the triangles…..

But finally the circles were placed on the triangles and more applique ensued….

After a lot of squaring up (in my garage because that was the only place large enough to lay the top flat)…..

…. I was ready to think about quilting it!!

But then came another problem…..at that time, I only had my domestic Juki machine and I was fairly certain that I couldn’t quilt it there.

Then Julio (a Juki Sit-Down Longarm) entered my life….

While I loved quilting on the machine, I didn’t think that I was proficient enough to quilt this special quilt!!

After 2-1/2 years of practicing, I decided that I was indeed ready to quilt it…..

While quilting, I found that I truly enjoy quilting straight lines, and I found it quite relaxing to just sit and quilt!!

So in 2023…..four years after starting…..the quilt was finished, and as they say…..

“The Rest Is History”…..

Thanks for joining me on my walk down memory lane!!!

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Thank you…….

Christmas Snuggle

Have you ever made a quilt that took decades?

Back in the 1990’s I decided to make a Christmas quilt using lots of different blocks.

I planned to make a queen-sized quilt and HAND QUILT it in strips of blocks.

Well, I got one strip of 4 blocks made and partially quilted and had started on another strip with 2 blocks finished.

I was happy with the blocks, especially my hand-quilting….

THEN……IT SAT……..and SAT…….and SAT, living in the bottom of my UFO tub!!

My problem with finishing it was that I knew I would NEVER get it hand quilted and I was uncomfortable with mixing hand and machine quilting!!

Since we all know that…..

….I finally decided to use what I had and FINISH the quilt!

And as I write this post, Michael and I are cuddled up under it!!

It certainly isn’t a perfect quilt but it is doing what it is designed for…..snuggling!!

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Baby Quilt FINISHED!

Yesterday, I left you with the completed top….

I got it basted and sat down to do the quilting…..but where to begin?

My original plan was to video the quilting, but with the matching thread, you couldn’t see ANYTHING that I was doing….

….so….scratch that plan!!

I wanted to continue the flower theme so decided to work with Angela Walters “Petunia” ruler…..

If you use it correctly, it makes a fun flower!!….

I wanted to keep the quilting continuous, so I chose to quilt the flowers in a line.

I added the swirl in the center and the prongs leading out to the petals.

In the lower section, I wanted to do something different so just quilted parallel straight lines…..

That just left the center flowers!!

I outlined the flowers and leaves, going around each piece twice. I think that the double stitching will help secure the appliques for the long term.

…and in the background, I quilted the design that I call “You-turn”….

I am delighted with the quilt and am thinking about turning it into a pattern…what do you think?

Then, it was time to make the label. I printed the label, using a picture of the flowers on the quilt…..

To ship it, I rolled it into a cute roll, folded the label over and added my note…..

It is now winging its way to Kentucky, hopefully to be a comfort to a sweet little girl!!

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If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..

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It’s a plan!!

Last week, I discussed the appliques (cut-outs) for my upcoming Holiday Inn quilt. To recap, I was finding it too hard to cut out the fabrics…..

….so I had pretty much decided that I would applique them on.

In my practice quilting sessions, I played with different ways to stitch the appliques in place.

These were definitely a no…..

These looked okay but I still wanted them to look like they were UNDER the top fabric….

THEN…..I took the workshop about Reverse Applique and…..voila…..the solution appeared!!

I WILL DO THEM AS REVERSE APPLIQUE!!!

As soon as I got home from the workshop, I pulled two fabrics and drew in the shapes….

…and sewed around them…..

I cut out the top fabrics

….and then turned it over and cut out the backing fabric….

I played with stitching extra lines around the shapes on the front…..

I am not sure how much extra stitching/quilting that I will add after the fabrics are cut out, but I feel sure that this will be the perfect solution to my issue!!

Now I just have to get more fabric and find time to work on it!!

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Full-color pattern includes step-by-step instructions for blocks and border.

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Reversing the Applique

This past week, my guild presented a workshop about doing Reverse Applique by machine…… sounds interesting doesn’t it??

Well it WAS!!

Our teacher was guild member, Kay Davis…..

She is a master of Free-Motion Quilting on a Long-Arm and does some wonderful work.

These were two samples for the class…..

We started out by picking a stencil from Kay’s massive collection….

I picked this cute giraffe……

The first step was to trace the stencil on the dark fabric….

…..and make a quilt sandwich consisting of backing fabric, batting, batik (or print) fabric, and dark fabric on top…..

I grabbed a machine and quilted along each of the cut-outs, ensuring that I stitched all the way around each piece. If I needed to move to another cut-out, I simply stitched over to the new area.

The hardest part was seeing the lines through the free-motion foot. I am far too used to my open-toed foot!!

Next, I cut out the top fabric in each section, leaving the batik below.

I found that my Karen Buckley scissors were the best for this task……

They were sharp and got into even the smallest of spaces…..

One thing that I loved about this technique is that a small slit in the top fabric brings an amazing pop of color from the secondary fabric!

Before long I had my giraffe cut out……

Isn’t he cute??

Now I need to decide how to finish it off. I could add lots of FMQ to the surrounding fabric and cut out more shapes, but I don’t think that is where I am heading.

I want the giraffe to stay foremost in the piece so I may leave him just the way he is. But, that is a decision for another day.

There were several wonderful designs in progress, including Linda’s cat…..

Anne’s farm scene….

Sue went wild with a hummingbird and flowers…

Kyle worked on an amazing turtle….

….and Karry designed her own “MeMaw”…..

If you can’t tell, we had a MARVELOUS day!!

Have you tried this technique before??

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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.