More work on Barbara's Quilt and Some More of Mom's Embroideries!

It is the Victoria Day Weekend in Canada. It is a celebration of the birthday (May 24) of the longest reigning English monarch, Queen Victoria. I understand it isn’t celebrated in England. In Canada it is affectionately called "the May two four weekend". There will be fireworks galore. For me it means three days of uninterrupted sewing and quilting. My goal is to finish the quilting on Barbara’s quilt!

The melon wedges in the sashing were completed yesterday. I like my way of quilting a big quilt on my domestic machine because it allows me to move around and work on different sections. Everything was anchored with stitch in the ditch and then I decided to quilt the sashing.

 

Now that the sashing is done it is on to the blocks. I spent several hours doodling last night and this is what I came up with. It is a melon shaped feathered wreath. I will fill the centre with small stippling. This is the corner block so I will also quilt Barbara's name in it.

 

I think it complements the blocks and the feather border that I quilted around the block.

Here you can see a block with the centre stippled.

 

The direction of the melon wreaths will be alternated, one pointing to the right and the next to the left so when the top is quilted it will be something of a cross hatch.

 

Once the blocks are quilted I’ll finish the border with feather swags, or at least that is what I am thinking at this point. Again I did lots of doodling to come up with ideas.

Well I've a lot of quilting to do so I'll leave you with a few more close-ups of Mom’s embroideries; they measure 3" by 4" so they are small and very cute. The entire quilt will be shown after the quilting is done and the quilt is bound.

 

Hollyhocks

 

Old fashioned little grey bird

 

Pansies

 

Dragonfly

 

Butterflies

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Thank you, someone’s hiding in Barbara’s quilt and another quilt identification tip!

First off thank you to everyone who voted for my quilt Flora and Fauna, Parts of the Garden in Quilting Gallery's Show and Tell. It came in first. There were so many beautiful quilts entered. I very much appreciate your support!

Barbara's quilt has a secret and she doesn't know about it! Can you see what I snuck into her quilt? It’s hiding in the border!
 

 

 Look a little closer- can you see it now?

 

No? Look just a little closer. There it is!
 

It’s a little grasshopper! He is under 1” in size! Here in southern Ontario we have these green grasshoppers and they have a red stripe on their hind legs, just like this guy. They don’t have antennae (I used a little artistic license).

 

I have this very busy print which has some really pretty and interesting motifs. I used it extensively in my Flora and Fauna quilt (and several others). You can see that it is starting to look like Swiss cheese!
 

Any useable scraps (1 ½” is usable in my books) are trimmed to size and stored in bags for future use. For example, I had one flower scrap in the 1 ½” scrap bag. I put it in the centre of a nine patch block. I like adding little kinds of little surprises in quilts.

  

 

In the case of the grasshopper, his body is cut from the calix of the large red flower. I cut it leaving a seam allowance and pinned it in place on the quilt. Needle-turn appliqué was the technique I used to stitch him down. The legs and antennae were embroidered afterwards with two strands of DMC floss.

I had previously blogged about quilting your name or initials into your quilt. It is a good way to identify it in the event that it is stolen. Labels are generally stitched down after the quilt is made and they are easily removed. Hiding you name (or initials) and the date in the quilting isn't noticeable and can assist with the identification of your quilt. Another thing you could do is to include a little "secret" in every quilt you make. Pick a motif that is special to you. If I liked butterflies, a tiny butterfly could be embroidered or appliquéd. If it is less than 1” in size it could be easily hidden in any quilt, even on the backing. It would be a trade-mark and even more fun, a little secret to share! Imagine making a quilt for someone and telling them that you hide a butterfly in every quilt. Think of the fun the recipient would have looking for it! I might just go back and start appliquéing grasshoppers on every quilt! But before I do that I had better work on Barbara’s quilt!

I leave you with a few more hexagons and stars!

 

 

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Barbara's quilt - making progress and a few more hexagons & stars

I'm making good progress on Barbara's quilt.

I've used a combination of different threads in order to achieve the look I want. Where I want only texture I've used monofilament. If you use it be sure to loosen the top tension. This means adjusting the "dial" to a lower number. The actual number will vary from machine to machine but my machine seems to be happiest at about 2.0.

The individual blocks have a 1" border and then a 2" border. I decided to quilt little plumes in the 1" border and used cotton thread to match the fabric.

I think I'll quilt a grid of some sort in the 2" borders. And then I have to decide on the blocks themselves (one will have  Barbara's initials and the year) and then last bit of the border. I like little surprises in quilts so I've decided I'm going to hide one in Barbara's quilt. I can't tell you what it is right now because she follows my blog but I will show you soon!

 

I thought I would leave you will a few pictures of some hexagons and stars. I'm itching to get basck to working on this quilt but have three quilts that must be quilted before I go back to this one.

 

 

Until I post again, happy sewing!