Wednesday 17 January 2018

Work on Wed 17th Jan

Hi everyone,

Blogging got forgotten over Christmas and the New Year but do hope that it was a good time for you all and there was plenty of family and friends around you.
My time has been divided between stitching and gardening, we are finally after years of having building materials and may need one day things stored all around the yard getting outside things finished and the gardens in order so whenevr the weather has been not too hot have been outside.
After finishing Secret Garden put it aside until I found my backing. All my other quilt tops were finished as well so it was time for a new project.


In the Pink, another Esther's patterns from before I joined her group had been on my mind so it was time to make it. A lovely mix of piecing and applique that I found irresitible.

Had a fabric to use for the main fabric and found a wonderful hydrangea fabric to go with it so matched my other fabrics to that and was underway. Started with the pieced blocks, easiest one first




It is a straightforward nine patch that is then cut into four and rearrange and sewn back together. Straightaway could see I have far more contrast in my fabric than Esther so am ging to have a much stronger look.


Second of the blocks again a reassembled nine patch but you make the half square tringle blocks before you start, little more fiddly to get the points perfect but love how exact Esther's measurements always are. Cut correctly they go to together perfectly.


 Twelve blocks like this to make

With a few of these made started on to the first of the applique blocks, which I had to piece first.


A triangle strip which goes across the block. The first one, though I cut to measurement was too long so went back to my tried and true method of foundation or paper piecing it. Result was perfect and the triangles I had already cut worked perfectly. Next add to each side and the block is ready for applique. 


First applique block ready for stitching, have eight of these to make.
Doesn't show well here but am using two shade of purple for my flowers, single one and center one of the three are darker as are the little petals.



Next up five of these for the center, added a third purple as felt my other two were too similar in colour and wanted to get some more movement into the quilt.

The center is the trickiest part of this pattern. Esther puts five center blocks together and then adds the applique as the flower stems all crossover the seams into the center block. I decided to put nine blocks together and save myself having to worry about Y seams when adding the other blocks.


Put the first two rows of three together and suddenly realised my little applique swirls in the center had to go into those corner seams, thats why Esther had only put the five corner blocks together Lol
Luckily was able to add my swirls with only a little unpick of two seams before adding the bottom three blocks.


Laid out on the floor the pattern is starting to come together.

It took a couple of sessions to position the flowers and lay all the stems into the center


Love how the center looks.

Haven't started stitching it yet as got sidetracked into writing a tutorial on how I set up my machine and do my applique stitching. Wrote this up last week so have a look if you would like to know more.

Then it was the 1st Jan and Esther released her BOM's for 2018, all gorgeous and I did have trouble deciding which to make but Love Always had a special pull because of its relationship to Love Entwined. Couldn't get my head around a colourway so finally decided to make the center from my stash and see what happened. 
Didn't take many photo's along the way s wasn't sure if I would continue with it, even using an offcut of fabric not quite the right size for my background


Decided I want to make this without using batiks which are my turn to fabric for flowers and leaves.
Already failed with this as my circle is a batik.
Fussy cut my star center from an oriental fabric with gold accents and placed it on a cream with gold so that headed me down the metallic look as well, so finished it off with metallic thread.
Was very happy with my first flower so decided to make the other two from the same four fabrics and try for a different look for each one.




It worked, loving the varying tones in what is obviously the same flower.

Had a decision to make at this stage, metallic thread for the stems and leaves or not as had used it for everything else. 


Decision made, stayed with the gold and think it was the right choice, block just sparkles.
It is Maderia mettalic No3 a soft gold which gives a lovely aged look. My machine is set exactly the same as I stitch my other applique and gives me no problem
Have not stitched the outer edge of circle yet. Will do that when the center is placed on the next ring.


Closeup of fabrics and stitching

Hooray, my blogging is up to date and hopefull I can stay that way for a while.
Linking to Esther's  WOW then will get some stitching done.
Enjoy your stitching everyone.
Cheers Jenny

7 comments:

  1. Jenny your new quilts look beautiful. Thanks for the detail. I haven't decided which one of Esther's quilts to make but need to decide whether to use my stash of William Morris or French General!

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  2. Oh my goodness you are bringing In The Pink to life, I love your purple / green mix of fabrics, they zing beautifully. And you're making Love Always too? Jenny when do you sleep? Gorgeous block I just love your LA colour scheme if the centre is anything to go by. Inspirational.

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  3. The metallic thread is so pretty on this block! I wouldn't have thought of that, so I'm glad you shared this. I also really love your use of the same 4 fabrics in very different orientations for the three flowers. Doesn't Esther have the prettiest BOMs out this year? I wish so much I could make all 4.

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  4. I really likes your blog! You have shared the whole concept really well and very beautifully soulful read!Thanks for sharing.ดูหนังออนไลน์

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  5. Jenny is there a pattern available for your butterfly bargello quilt?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Shirley, the bargello was a pattern in an early APQ magazine and I added the butterflies myself.

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  6. Thank you for the quick response.

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