My first attempt was dismal. I tried regular applique, and my first star ended up looking like an electrocuted starfish!, so I carefully unpicked it and tried option two - reverse applique. I was taught how to do this several years ago by a Japanese lady who made you unpick anything that didn't look near perfect, I only hope she doesn't see this block!
I have been trying to get a few UFO's completed. One little quilt is a 'trip around the world' doll quilt.
So far I have it marked for handquilting, now to baste it completely and then enjoy the process of handquilting.
I have come to love small quilts over the past year or so, and then I discovered Kathleen Tracy and her blog http://www.sentimentalquilter.blogspot.com/ which I had followed for a while before jumping in and joining her Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smallquilttalk/. I have also been lucky enough to acquire all of her books so far, and am anxiously awaiting her fourth. She offered some beautiful small quilt patterns over a six month period calling the series The American Schoolgirl Club. If anyone had missed the first run of these patterns I believe she will be running them again sometime this year.
Below is my 'trip around the world' made out of scraps left over from previous projects. Just perfect for a small quilt.
Below was the first quilt in Kathy's series, called 'Eliza Jane'. I love the simplicity of this little quilt, it is one of my favourites. I have it pictured here with my lovely old treadle which I have had for nearly 20yrs. I bought it from a lady who said it had belonged to her deceased husband's mother. She no longer had the room for it as she was now living in a small flat after moving out of the family home. It is a 1953 Singer 201k. I sews like a dream, making perfect little stitches.
You may remember in my last post I mentioned that quilters have been asked to donate blocks for the Queensland Flood Appeal, well that seems to have now included NSW and Victoria. I have lots of leftover strips from a Log Cabin quilt I made several months ago, I have been sorting them out and so far have completed four QAYG blocks that measure 10 1/2" unfinished. I plan on making a few more before I send them down to Jan in Victoria.
I had not made QAYG blocks before but they went together easy peasy and were fun to do, I used a 100% cotton batt.
I hope you all have a safe, productive and happy week!
Merilyn
5 comments:
What a gorgeous array of projects! The background of the Seven Sisters block makes those stars shine, I am almost tempted to make a wish. You are in your element with the Amish colouring and the border quilting will frame those lovely colours perfectly. I have already met Eliza Jane and liked her from the first. The QAYG blocks look fun to make and are for a very good cause.
Gosh, you tackled the applique of the CW BOW heads on ... my knees are knocking already, maybe even chickening out ... :(
Love the TATW and the border quilting is going to be sooo cool!
Proud of you for doing the BB block. I chickened out. You used my favorite cheddar on a great blue, so maybe you have inspired me to revisit this one. All your other projects are very inspiring.
Your work is beautiful! I love all of the projects you pictured but especially the little doll quilt. I think your stars look perfect!
I love your applique stars, you should be proud! You have a great colour sense, much more my style than the brights ;) Thanks for the kind words you left on my blog; because you took the time to leave me such nice comments I was able to find you and enjoy your blog.
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