Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Baskets and Nine Patch (the final stretch), test sandwiches and more from the Nostalgia quilt

I’m in the final stretch of the Baskets and Nine Patch quilt. I’ve decided to use gold The Bottom Line thread by Superior to quilt little circles (also called pebbles) inside the feathered square wreathes. The fabric includes some metallic gold lines so the thread accentuates the metallic. This is one of my first attempts at circles so while they aren’t perfect, they’ll do!


Each time I sit down to quilt I have a routine I follow to make sure that everything is in tip top shape including me. One of the things that I do is warm up my quilting on a practice sandwich. If I’m trying out different techniques or motifs the sandwich takes on the appearance of a sampler. Here is one of my test sandwiches and it is getting filled up although there’s still a little more space. I was thinking it would be interesting to apply some colour and beading to this piece….maybe even a little applique. Could make an interesting little wall hanging!


 
And now a few more close-ups of the embroidery in my Mom’s quilt Nostalgia. Many of the flowers and bugs are found in her garden. The first picture has a bit of a story. Mom and my brother are both avid gardeners. He is always bringing her interesting seeds and plants. Since orange flowers are not as common as other colours, when he came across some seeds that promised lovely orange flowers he snapped them up and gave them tom Mom. She planted them thinking that they would be a lovely little plant with a pop of orange. The seeds sprouted and started growing, and growing and growing! By late summer the plant was more than 8’ tall! They didn’t plant those seeds again!

Crazy, big, orange plant!

Sampler

 Sampler

Violets
 
The theme for Quilting Gallery’s Show and Tell starting Friday, May 3 is applique so I’ve entered Floraand Fauna, Parts of the Garden. The voting will open on Friday morning. I’ll post a link so you can view all of the entries and vote for your favourites!
 
Until I post again, happy sewing!

1 comment:

  1. I like your test swatches of FMQ. I wish I was anywhere near that good! I only manage to do a bit of stippling and it doesn't look too good lol!
    I need a lot of practice still. And the violets are adorable!

    By the way, I have a secret swap on my blog. Maybe you wanna join :)

    ReplyDelete