This is a SLOW process!!!

I have continued to work today on the “Henna Girl”. Part of the slowness is because I have to get myself motivated before each step!!!

Here she is so far…..

Now….back to the studio!!!

A finished UFO!!!

To start this post, I have to go back to September of 2013!!! I first posted about this piece HERE, working thru the process that I used to discharge the fabric vase.

Then I started working on the applique of the vase and Sunflowers, enjoying the process greatly…..

But, as with most UFO’s, other things cropped up and the project got stuck on top of the fabric shelves. Amazingly, before I threw it up there, I had finished all of the applique except for ONE flower petal!!!

When I unexpectedly had a few hours in my studio, I really wanted to accomplish something so I pulled out the top, quickly finished the applique and set it up for quilting.

It didn’t take long to have a fun, FINISHED project….

Now if all of my other UFO’s are as easy to finish, I will be one happy camper!!!!

Two quilts in one day!!!

This post has to start with the way that I decorate my house. I have lots of stuff that I like to put out, but too much to have out all at once. So, over the years, I have sorted all of my bits and bobs into seasons and have enjoyed changing things up as the year goes on.

Now, with the new house, I have needed to add some bits and pieces to fill in the spots, and thus begins this post….

Last year I didn’t have time to really decorate for Spring, so the Winter blues had to hang around until May, but this year I had time and energy to redecorate at the start of April. However, I simply couldn’t figure out what to put on one of the mantles!!

I knew that I wanted spring flowers and first decided to use one of the photos taken in China at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden….

I remembered reading in one of my blogs that you could get photos printed onto a wrapped canvas, so I enlarged the center section and sent it off to be printed. I was thrilled with the result….

The next addition to the mantle was a funky metal bird that I had found (cheap) at a local store….

I added a brass pitcher of yellow flowers and the mantle looked like this….

It was ok, BUT I felt like it needed something….maybe some more birds or something yellow???

Then this afternoon, I had time to do something creative, so I decided to make a yellow bird quilt, modeled after this one that I found on the internet…..

In about 45 minutes I had this “quilt” finished…..

….but after placing it on the mantle, it was still lacking, so I went back upstairs and made another one…..

And, now my mantle decorations are complete…..

AND….more importantly…..I made TWO, count them, TWO quilts in one afternoon…..AND during tax season!!

I can see my busy season coming to an end and am now excitedly thinking about upcoming creative projects, including a quilt based on a photo from inside the Blue Mosque in Istanbul!! CANT WAIT!!!

Back in the studio…..

On Saturday, I felt good enough to spend some time upstairs in my studio. There were two projects that were ready for me to work on, but instead I did what any good quilter would do…..I started something new!!

This new project stemmed from a conversation with my 90 year old Mother where she was bemoaning the fact that she didn’t have any handwork to be doing, so I decided to start another one of our collaborative projects.

I picked a pattern that I had on hand…..one by Piece O’Cake Designs…..

I first found this fabric and think that I will work my colors around it…..

But, I wanted to change things around a bit, so decided to use dark backgrounds and pastel flowers……

I will probably need to buy a few more dark blues and purples before I am thru, but have enough to get started.

I had a lot of fun plowing thru my fabrics and coming up with pastels that would work…..

A few years back I realized that much of my stash was made of darks and medium fabrics, especially bright ones, so I have been trying to make a conscious effort to add some lighter colors. From the looks of this table full of fabric, I think that I have accomplished my goal!!!

I had a fun few hours of picking fabrics and getting them fused on and ready to send to Mom. Here are the first two….

When I get the next two done, I will send them to Mom who will perform her magical Buttonhole Stitch around the shapes. As always, my biggest task will be to keep up with her!!!

Oh yeah, I have had few more “mini pep talks” from my throat lozenges….

– Buckle down and push forth!

– You’ve survived tougher

– Don’t waist a precious minute

– Don’t wait to get started

– Fire up those engines

– Dust off and get up

– Conquer today

……….Such fun!!!

Applique the Frances way……

I have had the privilege of sitting under two different master Appliquer’s in the last month and it was eye-opening to see the techniques that each one employed.

But, it has even been more fun to figure out what my personal technique would be. Because of the close proximity of these two classes, I have been able to adopt the parts of each technique that I like best and leave the others behind.

I am loving the way that Becky Goldsmith holds the needle and does her applique, but I am not as happy with the needle turn process.

On the other hand, I really like using freezer paper to prepare the applique’s as Linda Cantrell suggested, but I didn’t like using glue to hold the applique pieces in place.

SO…..I am preparing with freezer paper (ala Linda Cantrell), placing on the background using a Clear Vinyl pattern (ala Becky Goldsmith).

Interestingly, I spent a couple of minutes online tonight and found two more wonderful tips for applique.

The first was posted today by Leah Day and concerns attaching large pieces to a background. She suggests placing the pieces on the background and then machine stitching around them using a wash-out thread. That way there will be no shifting when you do the hand or machine applique work.

The second hint was on a You-tube video from Connecting Threads (link is here). The thing that I learned from this video is to iron the freezer paper template to the front of the fabric first and use that as the pattern to cut out the fabric. You then peel the pattern off of the front and place it on the back of the fabric so that you can iron the edges over the shiny side of the freezer paper.

Not sure that those descriptions are all that great, but check out the links.

And, since I cant post this without at least one photo….here is the applique piece that I am currently working on……