Appliqué in the front party at the back

These lovely ladies are Sandy and Patty my friends,

from my Sew day at the grange, 

They are modeling the In the Garden Appliqué Quilt so I can get a better picture of it

I'm thinking of Giving this one to my Grandson

And Here are my trouble children, the Pink and Blue birds Crazy Quilts

The 14" Squares were sewn by a guild member and I can see why she gave up on them!
She used some double knit fabric, that was probably from old clothing and whilst its not so bad, (unless you have to wear it!) for that,

The maroon, dark green and yellow interspersed with quilting cotton makes for a wonky square.

 it's a disaster in a crazy quilt! as it stretches 4 ways from Sunday

Double knit squirms more than a three year old trying to avoid a bath!

 more than velvet, almost more than velvet sewn to satin! 

and honestly doesn't look half good IMHO 

But I persevered and got it more or less square But that cut it down to 10.5"squares

To make them cuteish I found some old bird panels, we will probably see the smaller blocks from those again

I finished the pink one off with stripey 14.5" blocks from the pile to make them both roughly 47x60

These two make 15 Orphan Block quilts from the pile. 


 

CQJP 2024, Starting Ellies right side

That's a lot of open realestate!

That place where 4 patches come together 

is going to be hard to sew through because it's lumpy as hell and the patch below it must be reduced 

Also, that yellow patch is too big, it need to be bisected in some way to make it seem less                                     'LookAt MEEEE!' 

 

But first This little cutie

with wings

and a butterfly

Next we tackle the lumpy patch

I knew I needed to put something over it 

so if the next part failed there was something over it to hide the oppsie-doo 

That's where the Applique heart comes in

next I need to make a slit in the backing fabric 

to get to the lump of 4 patch togetherness 

and cut most of it away making it easy-er to sew through

Then to embroider the eye right in the middle 

of all the mess to keep it from fraying and closed

I then surrounded the heart with a lace trim daisy chain

Making the patch less big, I bisected it with a willow tree

I used 2 colors of floss and chain stitch for the trunk and branches then wrapped some of it with another color to make it more knarled

The leaves are detached lazy daisies 

 And gave it a satin stitched brown bunny with Bullion ears and head

 and a crow made of bullions 

but it needs more

So I added a branch and a swing made with an outline 

and detached needle weaving stitch

and a  squirrel

I made it with bullions and satin stitch 

a little underlay for the tail 

on which I will use turkey work to make fuzzy

She really needs her fuzzy tail!

Here's the whole thing so far

Now to start on the yellow patch

I found a piece of  jacquard ribbon 

added some lace trim 

which makes that patch muuuch smaller 

And easier to deal with

Once I figure out what to put there!

CQJP, RSC Progress

 And anything else that I joined willy-nilly to throw on the pile??

Anybody?      Anybody?

SO last month I was asked if I would help making costumes for Woodinville Reperatory Theaters production of "Act a Lady" I said yes aaaannnd Cue the chaos.

It was more a case of chaos in my normal staid  boring routine

Pick up another hobby and wouldn't you know it, 

Quilt guild called and would like their Quilter back, please, we're backlogged.

a daughter called and wants to surprise a girlfriend with a "Mom" made quilt, 

taxes need doing and there is this trip coming up I need to pack for soon

and did I say there was progress? Sheesh.

Now do I mind all this chaos? No, not really.

Am I going to bitch about it? Yes, a little.

I wouldn't be m'mothers daughter if I didn't.

Here are 9 of the 12 blocks I made for the 

Rainbow scrap challenge with this months color Purple

These are so simple to throw together It's like I knew, sOmewhere down the line, this year I was going to be busy

We are now working on the left side of the Ellie

where I have decided I need to break up some of the really big patches with something that makes them look not so big

And blank

Starting at this "corner" where several patches come together and make a lump underneath 

I Appliqued this patch over the lump then went in back, made a slit in the backing, cut away all the extra fabric making the lump blessedly flat

So I could then embroider a big eye right where the lump was. 

 When you start a project, even if, you have drawn it out 

and planned your piece you can't always predict 

what you are going to have to trouble-shoot.

or just shoot.

a border of daisy lace trim makes it stand out and blend in

Don't ask me how that works, it just does 

Next a willow tree right in the middle of the big grey patch 

to break it up into a more easily handled visual 

and less intimidating blank space for me

Now on to the critters, Knew I wanted at least a bunny 

and a crow, we have a Larch willow in our backyard 

and crows like to perch on the crown of the tree 

there is almost always one there on a nice day

And our yard has a rotten rabbit problem that I have a love/hate relationship with.

They're OK when the population is kept to proper levels

but when there is a boom the little rat-finks will eat all my bulbs down to a nub, before they get a chance to store up energy for next year. 

The balance of nature is important.

The Baltimore Album Quilt

I also finally put this together, thAt only took 27 years....0.0!

This was my third applique quilt.

I made a Noah's ark quilt from a kit, for my son, 3 years before which, I have no Idea what happened to,

and a Sunbonnet Sue quilt, that I drafted the Sue's myself, while on a family driving trip in 1994.

I started this whilst pregnant with my second child.

And it's not done. I wasn't expecting it to be so tiny! It measures in at only 36" x 48"

I think it needs 2 more rows or maybe a top and bottom row..........I don't know.

9 of the blocks were sewn between 1995 and 1997, the last three, blocks the baskets were sewn in 2000 And the Ship which I also drafted a year later. All the blocks come from one of Ellie Sankowicz Baltimore album quilt books.

The corners

Very slowly this project has been getting done

When last I posted on it cardinal corner was done

 except or the embroidery I planned to incorporate

A little decoration on the house

Some vanes for the the leaves

and eyes for the birds

nothing to fancy

Just a little extra

And here are the bottom 2 corners 

Done and dusted

                                                    The orange peels go in the middle

Then the other two corners

And the whole thing together, Finally

Now all that needs figuring out is to border or not?

Cardinal corner applique finished.

so here are mr. and mrs. Cardinal Keeping look out on their holly tree.

Those leaves took a bit of doing!

But I must say I am much better at turning nice tight corners now.

I need to do a bit more and I may need to add some embroidery to it but over all i'm pleased with it.

This was a BOM from a few years ago, I got it from an online quilt store, i can't remember just which one right now.

Time to start the next corner

Will it be the bunny corner or the bluebird?


 

Cardinal corner

 The cardinal corner already in progress,

those holly leaves really improve your point turning skills! 

I have done a little more than half of them here

And because I'm me it looks too plain 

so I may add some embroidery for more pizzazz

Easy in my vocabulary only applies to housework!

We had joy

So I have started to dip my toe back into Applique again

I flirt with it every once in a while

 and my past efforts have turned out 

allright buuut, nunghh......

I'm not a big fan of some of it (see it here and there)

It strikes me as blocky and meah The turtle is nice though

There is a bit more but we won't go into it here

I found this kit as a BOM from an online shop 

Meaning to do it whilst I ferried my MIL to her appointments 

And that did happen

I finished the 32 orange peel 3.5' blocks 

in a variety of parking lots, between running shopping chores 

and waiting on Robin to finish seeing whatever doctor had her next

Those took the year waiting for all the blocks and their instructions to filter in

Then they sat around 

Waiting

for another year, or so.

I took the sun parts to Chicago with me in march so I'd have something to do 

I finished those pretty quickly

But I had the wind by then

You know, 

That undeniable "Something" that gives you 

the desire to keep going until it's finished 

April has been busy with all sorts of other things too

Like our Quilt guilds bi-annual Quilt show, which was a roaring success by my count of oohs! and aahhhs! whilst standing as a door monitor, stewardess and goer.

I have a bunch of projects that I am working on between,

A new BOM in felt from SueSpargo which you can't see, as per the instruction I am not allowed to show it on line! well pooh!

It's really cute though!

 

also the lampbox which is mostly done with has one panel to go

And a few little embroidered things that scratch that new itch.

I finished the piecing parts of the top

and even got the sun even more or less 

Some of the points got lost, but I thought it more important that, the round part fit properly.

That cross where the 4 fabrics of the sun come together would have been waaay more distracting! 

Had it been off by even a smige, as that is where your eye goes first, it would have taken away from even the most precise of applique work.

So that part is done, it's off to the outside panels, 

which are all applique. 

Lets see how long this one takes me. 

Feeling my scraps

 I will argue here that Crazy quilts are the ultimate in scrap quilts

I might even go further and argue, Crazy quilts are the ultimate in crumb quilting

No fabric matches in any square 

is also harvested from old thrifted clothing

and is no larger than 2"-4" wide and 2"-6" long

Embroidery on a seam is no longer than half the size of the square.

In my case, I'm most comfortable with 10" squares so no seam is longer than 3" to 6"

Buttons are used with abandon, in blobs, sprays and scatters

As are beads and sequins

Embellishments are usually made from lace motifs 

Jewelry parts that are broken or have lost a mate

Every square uses no more than 3" of lace

The same for Gimp, Ribbon ends, braid and soutache

Lots of silk ribbon embroidery

Not that I'm biased 

I'll make a scrap Quilt out of anything

Applique

English paper piecing

Stuffed animals

Costumes

Quilts  

Even decorating my home with them

When life gives you scraps

Decorate

After a certain point Scrapping becomes a way of life

 relieving plainness or monotony by adding beauty of color or design or as is the usual all of them at once