Late Summer Flower Border

I played with putting some borders on my applique and half-square triangle center... using all the fabric I could... piecing together bits to make it all fit, while leaving enough expanse to rest the eye....

It reminds me of a riot of late summer flowers, spilling out of the bed, and onto the cool green lawn. Ahhh, I can almost feel the grass between my toes!

I was thinking of adding some more applique along the top, but I think it might be just perfect the way it is. Maybe just a little flower off to the left on the top border? What do you think?

Points

I've been plugging along on finishing my big stack of quilt tops, sewing on borders, quilting and binding. And quilting and binding some more. It is great to see the stack shrink and send out finished gifts of love... but it is Boring.

I mean, I love the conception stage of quilting the best- the colors! The fabrics! The design! The throw it all to the wind and just start sewing and see what happens! None of that is involved in finishing. So... I am taking a break, and working on other WIPs that are somewhere in progress before the finishing stage. Ahhh, I feel like my creative lungs are breathing again!

I'm playing with my needle-turn applique blocks that I made this spring. I fooled around with different settings, and decided on putting them on point, like this:


I added some borders, using mostly the pink batik and orange and pink dots, and filling in with some others when I ran out. I love it when that happens! Being forced to include more fabrics spontaneously results in a much more interesting quilt!

Then I need to add some setting triangles. I've been obsessing over half-square triangles, so I decided on setting triangles made of triangles. WHOOO! I am having fun now!

Here's how it looked when I laid it all out late last night:


I am really excited because I finally figured out how to square up my HSTs so my points match. I know it's basic quilting, but it was a recent revelation for me! Unfortunately, I did the math myself for the size of the setting triangles, and now that I've assembled one of them, I realized I miscalculated. I always knew that awful 10th grade geometry teacher I had would do me no good! It's just a little too big, though, so now I get to add a little border around the block sashing. It's going to be smashing!

Crows and Thanks and Summer, oh my!

Today was my daughter's last day of second grade. Every year her class does an expedition, or in depth study on a topic, and this year her expedition was crows and ravens. Fascinating creatures-- although they are all around us, I never realized how little I knew about them until now! Of, course, we made a thank you gift for her teacher that incorporates crows...

Her teacher is from Hawaii, like my family, so I experimented with a Hawaiian style quilt with hand-appliqued crows. I love the crisp contrast of the black birds against the white background. I did hand quilt it, which was a first. I love the look of the quilting, wonky and all.

My daughter loved studying crows, since they are so easy to observe. Her class wrote poems, built nests, and read tales about crows from around the world. I learned that crows are believed to be messengers of creativity in many cultures, which makes sense with how inspired I was to make this quilt! My daughter consulted with me on every step of the design, and when it was done, she wrote a special thank you to her teacher on the label.

This piece stretched my skills in design, applique and hand-quilting. I really enjoyed making it and hope it is always treasured. Now that I've finished all the handwork, I'm looking forward to finishing up a bunch of the quilts in progress that I've been neglecting in the meantime. But only after the sun goes down- I don't want to waste that summer light indoors!

I Heart Applique

One of my goals this year has been to learn needle-turn applique. Actually, it's been a goal for longer than that, but it's taken a while to overcome my intimidation of hand sewing-- and hand applique in particular. I've been hanging out with my applique book-- Piece O' Cake's New Applique Sampler-- since the beginning of the year, and this month, it finally happened.

I appliqued.

Not by the book, just cutting fabric freehand, and following the Piece O' Cake techniques....

My blocks are not perfect, but they are pretty. And I'm in love with applique! I'm trying to decide whether to make these into a table topper or wall hanging....

Travelling Companion

One of my goals this year is to learn needle turn applique, both because it's lovely and because it's a handy type of project for when I'm away from my sewing machine. I made this cute little hand sewing kit from a tutorial by Sophie of Blocks & Swaps & Patterns & Tips.


It's got handy felt pages for needles & pins...


A big interior pocket (I thought this Momo Wonderland fabric was perfect for this!)...

And some little pockets.

Made mostly of scraps & stash, including thrifted bias binding and button and a button loop leftover from a Buttercup Bag. It was very quick and easy to sew- if anything, I went too quickly on the binding, which could look better at the corners. Next time- slow down and don't rush to finish a project right before school pickup!

I LOVE these colors! I'll be so inspired to applique, and it will work waaaaay better than a Ziploc bag for holding all my pins and things!