Remembering with Cherrywood Fabrics

When I left you on Sunday, I was well on my way with creating the uniform.

When I started the next morning, it was time to attach some of the 3-D pieces, starting with the lapels. This was a bit fraught with anxiety as I kept forgetting exactly WHAT had to be in place before I sewed, meaning that there was quite a bit of un-sewing going on….ARGH!!!!

But at last, the lapels, pockets, pocket flaps, and sleeves were all attached together…..

I decided that the background behind the uniform would be light grey, so added those two pieces as well……

One of the most stressful things about the Cherrywood Challenge is that they MUST be 20-inches square!! Now I had to decided exactly how wide the uniform would be and then trim it to a square…..

Next it was time to talk borders! I felt that the grey would be perfect and quickly sewed three sides on, pinning the top…..

….but it was just BORING and BLAND.

Not a combination that you ever want to have!!

I was fairly sure that I would have to remove the borders that I had already sewn, but before I did that, I put the piece on my design wall and spent some time just looking at it while I sipped my cup of tea……

I decided that I really like the grey, but there was just too much of it. What would happen if I added a strip of color in the middle of the border…. maybe something a similar color to the Good Conduct Medal……

OKAY….I am starting to like it better!

But first I had to decide what I was going to do with the top border.

I spent time at my computer, auditioning different sizes and types of fonts and came up with one that I liked…..

I pulled out my bag of “Wonder Under Bits” (you do have one of those don’t you?)….

….and prepared the letters for fusing…..

But, what was I going to fuse them to??

There were two red fabrics that I was interested in, so I cut three 2×3″ squares out of each fabric and auditioned them…..

It was DEFINITELY the darker red on the right!!

Before I could officially fuse them, I needed to sew all of the borders in place.

You may notice in the above photo, I have fixed the red inset border to go all the way to the top.

After making copious measurements, I came to the conclusion that the horizontal area needed to be a bit smaller. Instead of ripping off all of those borders (thankfully I had made them WAY too wide), I close to make another seam 1/4-inch inside the first one…..

….and trimming off the excess…..

Come back tomorrow for the harrowing journey of adding borders so that the quilt is EXACTLY 20-inches!!!

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Next Moves on the Cherrywood Challenge

Yesterday I told you of my first foray into the Cherrywood Challenge, ending with having to order more fabric.

Unfortunately, the shipment was delayed so the fabrics didn’t arrive until late on Monday evening.

But since it arrived, I have had SO much fun working on it. As a matter of fact I have struggled to remember to take photos, but there are a few that show what I have been doing.

I was a bit sad that the color was not quite the same as the original fabric, but with hand-dyes, I guess that is to be expected….

I am just going to roll with it and keep going!!

I started out by re-cutting the two largest side pieces….

….and adding sleeves and epaulet patterns …..

I sewed the first epaulet, turned it….

….and pinned it in place…..

Doesn’t that look great!!

I had planned to add real buttonholes to the uniform, but since my regular machine is straight-stitch only, I had to pull out my old machine. Unfortunately it wasn’t working right, so after making this disaster….

….I decided to forgo the buttonholes!! After all, I don’t have enough fabric to lose any from bad buttonholes!!

I continued to add bits and pieces to the uniform, including 3-D shirt collars….

…..and a tie….

With that done, I stopped for the day!!

Come back on Wednesday and we will continue this process!!

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Starting the Challenge

I posted on Thursday about my idea of using the Cherrywood challenge as a memorial honoring my Dad.

To start with, I needed replicas of his ribbons and awards. I did some searching and found a great store called the “Armed Forces Super Store”. There I was able to find ALL of his ribbons, awards and insignia……

….along with buttons that would fit the time period.

Next I needed to find a “pattern” to use to create the jacket. So, I started scouring photos of WWII army uniforms and finally found one that I thought would work…..

I then pulled this photo into “Canva” and started adding parts of other photos, ending up with this idea……

I made a line drawing of this photo and enlarged it to the size that I wanted (or so I thought)….

But when I laid the ribbons and buttons on top of this pattern, I realized that the scale was off and the uniform needed to be smaller.

I finally realized the the problem was because I had “zoomed in” too much on the uniform and that I needed to back away and use more of the uniform to fill in the space. More along these lines….

This is what I took to the retreat to work on!!

Now there were two problems….

Firstly, Dad’s uniform would have been a browny/olive green color and that particular colors was not in the fabrics that I could use. After a lot of thought, I decided to use the dark grey (almost black) fabric instead……

The second problem….. I only had a Fat Quarter to work with!!

My plan was to make the uniform 3-D, with the lapels, pockets and epaulets being loose on the top. BUT, that was going to take a lot of fabric!!

So, before I started cutting fabric, I decided to test my pattern on muslin, and IT WORKED…..

The next morning I decided to throw caution to the wind and start using the challenge fabrics, starting with the first lapel…..

It worked well, although, in an effort to save fabric, I I did use the light grey on the back of the lapel!!

I added one pocket and side of the jacket…..

….and then the other lapel and jacket side….

At this point, I realized that I would struggle to have enough fabric, so hopped online and ordered another 1/2-yard of the fabric.

I think that this is a good decision because I really need the jacket sides to be a bit wider and then also need fabric for the sleeves.

The only other thing that I have done to date is make the necktie. It was fun to stuff the “tie” portion with batting to make it 3-D…..

I don’t have a great color to use for the shirt so I am planning to add some color to one of the other pieces of fabric to change the color slightly. Apparently that is allowable in the challenge!!

So now I sit waiting for the fabric to arrive!!

After that, I need to finish the uniform and then decide on the rest of the quilt!!

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Remembering

I have finally started thinking about my Cherrywood Challenge….which is due VERY soon!!

YIKES….

Just to remind you, the challenge is Poppies….and uses these wonderful fabrics…..

When I think of Poppies, I remember the lapel flowers that everyone in any British country wears during November….the month of remembrance…..

I kept trying to come up with another idea but my mind would not leave this one alone!!

Then I started remembering….

Remembering my Dad and his service during World War II…..

Wasn’t he handsome!!

Remembering his Service Record that I found when I cleaned out Mom’s house….

Inside I found his decorations…..

….and his Insignia…

He was a Medic and proudly wore the Caduceus.

I started researching his record and found that he had been awarded…..

Asiatic Pacific Campaign Military ribbon with 2 stars
World War II Victory Military ribbon
American Campaign Military Ribbon
Army Good Conduct Military Ribbon
Good Conduct Medal

It made me so proud of his service and I started wondering exactly how I could use this challenge to honor him!

I am excited about this idea and especially that I can make a quilt that will have a personal meaning and not just a challenge entry!!

Over the next week, I will keep you updated on the decisions that I make and the progress on the challenge.

Thanks for sticking with me as…..

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Let’s talk Monarch’s!!

So, yesterday, I had the background finished and now it was time to think about the guest of honor….the butterfly!!

I found a great photo online and enlarged it to the size I wanted.

I started out by drawing the outline on a piece of black fabric and then roughly cutting it out.

Next, I added the wing bits…..

As I was trying to figure out how to add all of the small white areas, my friend Linda said “Why don’t you paint them??” At one point I thought I might do some painting on this quilt so I brought my paint supplies with me!!

It didn’t take long to paint the white spots. I decided to add a bit of grey to the edges to give them a bit more depth.

I also added a bit of green paint to the inner sections to give more depth there too.

Since I am NOT a painter, what I did was minimal but I think that it added a lot to the Monarch!!

Now it was time to tackle the Milkweed.

I brought this photo with me…..

….and used it as my guide.

Once again, I am going for depth so started with some paints on white fabric. I got excited doing this step and kept forgetting to take photos, but you can see it pretty well in this photo….

I started out with a sea sponge, then added brush strokes in green and then some brown as well.

Next, I used the photo and cut out lots and lots of flower shapes. The first set was fused onto the background and heavy embroidery threads were added to the centers. I also used a marker to add some more interest.

The next morning, I added a layer of batting to the back and another set of flowers…..this time sewing them on the machine….

I actually like those better than the hand-sewn ones but I think that the diversity will add to the design.

Once I saw that this idea was going to work okay, I cut out a bunch more flower shapes with fusible on the back and then also fused two fabrics together and cut out flowers that will be loose on the top.

Before I left for the retreat, I found a font that I liked and printed out the words. It was easy work to transfer them to the fusible web and cut them out of fabric. They didn’t show up well on the green background so I added a black fabric strip under them.

I will rough-cut the black before I fuse it down.

When I left the retreat, the quilt was at this stage…..