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…..

Lot’s more to come…..I just have to find the time to do it!!!

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Borders for Pooh!!

Yesterday I showed the start of a Pooh baby quilt, leaving it at this stage…..

I had sewn sets of strips together and cut them into two patch blocks……

….and then sewed those into 4-patches that I placed around the blue border…..

I liked how it looked but felt that I needed to bring some more red into the design. I started trying an outside border…..

…..but decided that it would look better with an inside border.

My problem was that the side had to be divisible by 2 and since I hadn’t really planned my borders first, I ended up trimming off 1/8th inch pieces until I got it to the correct size.

I started adding the squares and loved how it was looking…..

I added the two side borders and…..

IT WAS FINISHED!!!!

It should be fun and easy to quilt and then it can be shipped off!!!

Come back on Friday for the quilting!!

Now a question for you….. what type of quilt do you make when you need a quick baby quilt???

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The Birth of Winnie…..

I have another baby quilt to make and this time the theme is “Winnie The Pooh”!!

I started out looking for fabric that I could use and do a simple pieced design, but apparently, Pooh is not in vogue right now, so I had to look for another idea.

I found a photo of Pooh bear and decided to use that as my inspiration……

I started out with the applique and quickly decided that he needed a lot of outlining, so out came the Fabrico markers and Pooh was born……

Now I needed to add some borders to make him larger. I was happy with the first blue one…..

….and now wanted to add some nine patches around the edge.

I had a stack of fabrics that I thought might go with the design….

….and started out by cutting a 2.5-inch strip from each fabric.

I then cut that strip down into as many 8.5-inch units as I could get from one strip.

I randomly (well….mostly randomly) selected sets of strips and sewed them together.

About this time, I decided that 4-patches would be okay, which meant that I didn’t have as much cutting and sewing to do…..always a good thing!!!!

It was bedtime so I left it hanging on the design wall to conquer the next day.

Come back tomorrow and see the finished product….I am really happy with it!!!!

In this blog, I post DAILY 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.

You also might also be interested in the free pattern that you receive when you subscribe to my email newsletter.

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Flowers Will Bloom Again!

On Friday I posted about building the Bargello top for my guild challenge which is named “Flowers Will Bloom Again.

Yesterday we took a break as I celebrated my 14th Blogoversary!!!

Today, let’s get the quilting done on this challenge!!

The first step was to follow the ups and downs of the bargello and divide the quilt into three sections…..

Much like the design for the piecing, I wanted to make the darker, bottom portion really austere and then have it become more fun as it moved to the top.

So, I started with 1/2-inch spaced straight lines…….

In the next section, I kept the lines spaced at 1/2-inch but made them wiggly and used a black & white variegated thread….

I wasn’t super happy with how it looked when the white thread had to travel along the already stitched black thread…..

But I quickly fixed that using a Fabrico Marker…..

That looks so much better!!

In the next section, I decided to quilt vines (which are pretty hard to see)….

As I rose further into the “fun” section, I debated about which flower meander to use…..

Of course, the obvious answer was BOTH….

So, I combined the two designs. This photo is actually from the back but you can see better……

I outlined the flowers and added some details to the petals….

….and finished off with a paisley meander between the flowers…..

I had a leftover strata strip and, knowing that I would NEVER use it in another project, I added it to the back…..

Here is the finished quilt……

It definitely reminds me that we have been through some hard times but that, in the end, the flowers will always bloom and life will be good!!!

Thanks for joining me on this bargello journey!!!

In this blog, I post DAILY 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.

You also might also be interested in the free pattern that you receive when you subscribe to my email newsletter.

Both of these sign-up forms are in the right column….scroll ALL the way up if you are on a desktop and ALL the way down if you are on your phone!! And, please share this post with someone who might enjoy it!!