Poppy Pod Lane

I have a love of poppy flowers and 

have designed some larger quilts 

that the magazines maybe find
overwhelming...?

So I designed a smaller piece and

Primitive Quilts & Projects

picked it up:)  YAY!

Their magazine is so full of beauty.

I started previewing my fabrics

to see how they would look

as quarter-square triangles.

Once the top was finished,

it was time to work on the 

embroidery for the 

applique' section.

Once all my applique'

was fused in place,

on to basting....

Yes, I pin baste 

small projects for 

machine quilting.

My quilting was straight

stitching along the diagonal line

of the pieced area; and as

I stitched down my raw 

edges of applique' with 

free motion scribble stitch, that 

area became quilted as well.

I had some wonderful

pattern testers that shared

their final minis with me:)

Thank you Brenda and Mary!!

Mary gave me a fun

change up from the 

original color scheme

and she knows how 

much I love orange:)

Make it in whatever colors

make your heart sing and 

don't forget to show me!

You can always post on my FB page HERE!

I can't wait to see it:)

The magazine is still out 

on shelves now and there 

is plenty of time to have it 

done for July!!

Keep stitchin'

Bramble Blooms

 The May issue of AQ Magazine is out and you will 
find my Bramble Blooms within its fine pages.

Let's talk fabrics:)

My fabric supplier was very

generous with this HARLOW 

collection from Northcott.

There is some truth to having too many decisions:)

Sometimes you need to try a new

technique, quilt style, or in this

case, a new block.

I have an affinity for pinwheel

blocks and tried something new 

this time by splitting one square of 

a half-square triangle set up 

before stitching together.  

It gives some fun extra movement.

Then you chain piece

every step of the process

so that you can stay on 

track and not mix 

up the steps.

Remember when I said I had too

many choices?  

When it came time to decide how

to make my applique' POP, it

got hard:)

My color aesthetic is not to mix

cream and white due to the 

cool/warm tones possibly clashing.

I really thought my flowers should be 

cream to blend in with the cream

background tones of the prints.

The chartreuse really threw me and

I felt it would be too in your face against

the soft pastels of the hydrangeas; but it looked

SO good with the white and gave

that POP I wanted my flowers to have.

Sometimes going out of your comfort 

zone gives you a surprise and opens

your design choices up for the 

next project.

I mixed cool and warm, bright and soft tones

and ended up loving it.

This is one of my favorite 

quilting motifs that I like

to repeat throughout a project.

I also like to do scribble or 

wiggle stitches along a raw

edge applique' for the 

ease of getting it done.

Lastly, don't forget to label your work 

and it can be as easy as using a micron pen:}

Remember that digital issues are 

available of all issues of AQ.

Visit the website HERE 

Keep Stitchin:)

Tea & Crumpets

IT'S HERE!

August brings 

September AQ magazines

to mailboxes all over:)

Soon to be found on 

shop shelves near you.

Within the pages you

will find my cheerful

Tea & Crumpets.

This piece was originally

done in a completely 

different colorway

and in the end we

went with brights!

Before I can order fabrics,

I have to do a test block...

Luckily I had some 

brights laying around 

to play with.

I know paper piecing intimidates

some of you but I would encourage

everyone to have another go at it.

Organization is KEY!

See all the tidy piles and I only 

work on one section at a time 

almost like chain piecing.

Put your favorite movie on

that you know all the words to 

and …...

Add all the blue....

Add all the green...

Add all the red.....

This keeps you focused 

and less likely to goof a piece.

Plus you can play with the parts before 

assembly because you never know

what new shape you will come up with:)

Of course, eventually you will get 

to a step you loath...Mine is trimming!

I dread this step in regular

piecing as well but it is 

necessary to accuracy.

But then....My reward is 

APPLIQUE'!!

Did I hear a, "Nerd!", 

out there somewhere? LOL

YES! I Love it!!

This little flower has been so 

patient, waiting its turn to 

shine in a project:)

Time to stitch it all down 

and get ready for quilting!

I am the first to admit that 

quilting creativity evades me!

It is the dreaded blank page

to me but in recent years

I have started using the applique'

templates to fill in the 

negative space around.

So I start by outlining the 

original applique', then add additional 

leaves and swirls in the quilting.

Also added some contrasting

accents in the red.

So Cute!

(if I do say so myself:)

Meet Tea & Crumpets!!

THANK YOU AQ!

Didn't they do a great job on 

the header?!

Here are a couple of other

color ways to get your 

creative juices flowing.

If picking fabric isn't your thing,

shop for the kit over

at AQS!

Thank you for 

following along

and Enjoy!

Until next time~

Rockets Red Glare

LOOK what hit mailboxes

last week!!

The July issue is now out

and yours truly

has a new quilt within

titled, 'Rockets Red Glare'.

THANK YOU Connecting Threads for 

the perfect fabric line,

Hometown Americana II.

It saddens me that so many quilters

feel overwhelmed by applique' 

because, to me, it is such a 

creative and relaxing form of quilting.

Yes, there are sometimes

many pieces to handle but

no more than some of 

the pieced quilts I have seen.

There are times that even I look

at one of my designs and ask,

"who designed all this work?".

Then I realize how much I 

love it and set to breaking

down each task just as you

would do in piecing.

Piecing steps: 

Iron fabric, measure, 

cut out pieces, sew, 

press, trim, and assemble.

Applique' steps:

Iron fabric, trace templates, 

fuse to wrong sides,

cut out, press to 

backgrounds, stitch 

around edges.

Pretty even in my book:)

Plus, once I get all the pieces 

traced and fused to the 

wrong side of fabrics,

I can pop in a fun movie

and cut all the pieces in 

a relaxed setting.

I am all about the relaxing:)

(NOTE in pic above I 

marked each template with 

the color fabric so I couldn't

mess up while fusing.)

These Karen Kay Buckley 

scissors are the Best!!!

Another nice thing about my

designs is that they don't need

to be laid out exactly.

As long as you leave at least

a 1/4" from the seam 

allowance, (1/2"-3/4" from 

block edge) you are golden!

Fireworks every day of the year!

Machine quilting is not really

my 'thing' but sometimes

I have to rely on my skills.

My default is a set of loop

designs that I free motion

over the raw edge applique'

and then enlarge for the

all over quilting fill in

and around my applique'.

Add a quick triangle label

to my corner and Voila-done!

THANK YOU to AQ Magazine 

for another cool layout!

"Inspired Free Motion Quilting: 90 Antique Designs Reinterpreted for Today’s Quilter"

Bill Volckening and Amanda Leins have joined forces to bring us a quilting book full of antique quilt eye candy!  As an antique quilt student and avid hand quilter, these quilts and designs overwhelmed me with their beauty and creativity. Bill I have been following for a few years now and he provided the gorgeous quilts from his collection. Mandy is a newer name to me and I am so intrigued!! A history in archaeology......Wow! She brings her long arm quilting expertise to the design recreation process all the while making us feel how easy it is to do.

Ok, the book! It isn't just for antique quilt lovers though because the purpose is to make the quilting designs accessible to quilters today, in particular, machine quilters. I am not a machine quilter so the designs will be great for my hand quilting too since they are continuous line designs. Any time you can keep the thread continuous without knotting off is a good thing, adding strength to the quilting.  

The first thing that greets you when you open the book is a Fantastic Pictorial Table of Contents. Admittedly I don't buy a lot of books but I don't believe I have ever had a visual contents page before and I felt that was clever for dealing with a visual medium audience.

The book offers thought provoking moments like sometimes less is more.  
Mandy, “I’ve been so immersed in these
quilts, it would be unusual if I wasn’t affected,”
she says. Mandy has noticed particularly that her
quilting work has become less dense over time and
now incorporates many elements of design from the
top itself—piecing, appliqué, and prints—to create a
cohesive design that works to enhance the top.
This type of less-is-more quilting has a different set 
of issues than very dense quilting."
Then she explains what is meant by this.
That resonated with me because I have felt this way for some time and use it as an approach in my own commission work and my workshop, "Fabric Collaborations".

Mandy offers great marking tips and the big take away for me is a stencil grid that is a base for marking designs. Great idea!

Each antique quilt is discussed with detail pics of the amazing quilting all done by hand of course:) Even if there wasn't a picture, you would be able to see it via the wonderfully descriptive writing. So you get a bit of history (some ca 1790) before the designs from those quilts are broken down into accessible bites for the home quilter to recreate in their own works of art!

FULL QUILT

QUILT DETAIL SHOWING ORANGE PEEL QUILTING

My goal with this post is to show you how to go beyond the idea of quilting alone.  ANY outline design is perfectly set for applique and embroidery as well.  I hate limits:) Can you tell? 

The first one that struck me was this Orange Peel design.  For awhile now I have been looking for a cute clock to put in my workspace and when I saw this, I immediately thought, "clock"!! Very exciting.  Thankfully I already had some bias vine done and in the right lengths:)

 I traced out my circle and peel lines and started adding bias tape. These were then hand appliqued in place.

I then added applique petals just as the design shows in needle turn applique but you could just as easily fuse it all.  

It was done in 2 parts, a back petal that encompassed the side petals and a center petal that I fussy cut so that the noon tulip was straight and the other 3 bend counter clockwise. 

Then I had to decide whether more marks were needed to represent 1,2,4,5, etc.  I decided yes but not in applique so I found a lovely deep orange variegated machine quilting thread from YLI and used it to hand embroider the single petal in those places.  It is visible but very subtle so that the applique is the star!

Since there are only so many hours in a day, I had to stop with this Thistle even though I could have designed for hours!  

This design is from an antique applique 

quilt but I thought it would be lovely in embroidery.  

I have a wonderful selection of 

Weeks Dye Works variegated flosses.

I chose to make it a bit smaller and trace it out 4 up on a block.  This too may be a clock as a gift because 

I couldn't make a decision:)

It may also make a small decorative pillow.

The book is laid out for visual people. You have a lovely photo of an antique element and then Mandy walks you through step by step how to make it your own or combine it with other elements.

It was exactly what I was hoping it would be!

I will leave you with this lovely quote by Mandy:

“We never cut our threads to the past,” says Mandy. “We just knot on and continue with a different color". 

I hope you will visit the other participants to see how they are being inspired. 

Their blog links are found below.  There are giveaways too:)

For my giveaway, please leave a comment about your favorite part of the entire quilting process from choosing fabrics to binding and everything in between. Make sure your contact information is available.

On January 14th I will draw a winner and announce it here and on my FB page. The winner from my day will receive a FREE EBook from C&T Publishing.  Mandy will also have an additional giveaway on her day (the last one:).

Keep quilting!

January 7: C&T Publishing, Bill Volckening

January 8: Amanda Murphy of Amanda Murphy Design, Kim Lapacek of http://www.kimlapacek.com/

and Stephanie Palmer of The Quilter's Planner   

January 9: Teri Lucas, Lynn Harris, Debby Brown of Debby Brown Quilts

January 10: Robin Koehler of NESTLINGS by Robin, Patty Murphy of Patty Murphy Handmade,

Mary Abreu of Confessions of a Craft Addict

January 11: Joanna Marsh of Kustom Kwilts, and Amanda Leins of Mandalei Quilts