Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Lots of Appliqué Going On!

Here is Allietare, the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt 2015. It was supposed to be my February finish and it came close. All is done but the binding and I must find a red that works and just haven't gotten that purchased. I went scrappy on my narrow gold border but I want the binding to be one fabric.
 Here is the appliqué! More circles - these are just a few I've sewn. Think I'm up to about 45 now and I began on February 28. My goal is to make 366 this year so I am playing catch up. Just can't help needing to have it all in one year.............crazy, isn't it?? They are fun and easy though. 
I am now moving into my Kaffe Fassett box as can be seen on the top right and bottom left. The bottom left is one of my favorites. It was used in Lollypop Trees and I think even reprinted years later. The tulips on the bottom right - of which I have about seven color ways, were a Jeffrey Gutcheon fabric from the early nineties I think. I just loved all those pretty tulips.
 Here is some finished appliqué from my Sarah Fielke BOM, Happy Days. I used the starch method for appliqué so it's a good bit of prep time but it sure makes it easy to stitch once you get that done.
 Here are more waiting to be stitched. It was fun choosing all the colorful leaves and arranging them.
I used a very unusual background - low volume - which I still wonder about but in the grand scheme of things, I think it will be fine. It's going to be a large quilt and these are just a few wreaths along the borders. 
 This is the pieced block for the second month. A challenge to put together but I am happy with the results.
One day I had the idea of making two BOM quilts so I pulled fabrics together and came up with this block. Once I received all the appliqué on the second month, I came back to reality and said no. I have way too many other things to finish but I like the block. I'll figure out somewhere to use it one day!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Quilty 365!

I kept looking at all the circles being made by others who had joined in the Quilty 365 and decided to join in. My personal deadline was February 29, since this year, there will be 366 days. Just think it's sort of cool and knew I had to begin by then. So here goes . . .
 For now, I am using fabrics from my stash that are mostly scraps. Many I can remember what quilt they may have been in or that I've had them for 20+ years or just liked the colors. So, I'll say this quilt will be a memory quilt in some ways. I began using some low volume fabrics for the background but since my circle is so large, very little of that will be seen. So now I'm rethinking the size of some of the circles. But can I handle more than one size?? I don't know. This tells a lot about my personality I suppose. . .we'll see.
Here are a few more already cut and ready to be starched with the appliqué method I am using which makes the stitching go very quickly. I also pulled quite a few cream on cream fabrics for backgrounds that my mother-in-law had left from some beautiful pillows she had made, doing crazy patches with embroidery on them. . . .more memories!
 At first I could not decide on my background so I had a large piece of gray fabric. I made a hand drawn circle - it looks like a misshapen rock - and put it on the gray. It just had no life to it so I tried some other backgrounds as you see below . . .
 This was good . . .
 So was this . . .
and this . . .but for some reason the odd shape circle just did not work for me. I got my scrapbook circle cutter out and made my own circles with freezer paper and templar plastic to get going. It's working for me now . . .I'm thinking of an on-point layout. . .
I am such an assembly line person, that I had to get a stack of them to sew instead of picking and choosing one a day. Of course, it's up to each individual but it's great fun to look at the others and see their progress. Here is a link for more circles!!