Blanket Stitch Appliqué Process

I have been working on a quilt for my granddaughter to be born in July. The pattern I am using is Chubby Chicks by Black Mountain Quilts.
These are cute little appliqué blocks and I thought I would share with you how I am doing the appliqué. The pattern calls for fusible appliqué, but since this will hopefully be a much loved baby quilt, I have chosen to turn the edges under and do blanket stitchI









I begin tracing the appliqué pattern on freezer paper, cutting the pattern out on the traced line and then placing the freezer paper pattern on the back side of the fabric, shiny side of paper facing up.

Trim away excess fabric leaving approximately 1/4" fabric to fold over around the pattern.
Using a mini iron, fold the fabric over, pressing until the fabric adheres to the paper. You can do this with a regular iron, but the iron must be hot enough to cause the fabric to stick to the paper, just be careful you don't burn your fingers!
Once all edges are turned under, flip you appliqué over and give it a good press on all the edges.

My next step was to prepare the background fabric. I am using a Kona solid that has the look of unable ached muslin, but the wonderful feel of Kona fabrics. The only problem is that it ravels like crazy. My finished block size is 6", so normally would cut my squares at 6 1/2"' but since this is raveling and I have a good bit of handwork to do, I cut the squares at 7".
Using the placement guide in the pattern, I lightly traced the appliqué placement into the right side of the fabric, using a regular pencil. You will have to look closely to see the lines, but they are there. I used a brown micro01 pig a pen to trace the legs as these will be embroiderd after the appliqué is finished.

Remove the paper from the back of the appliqué piece, and pin in place on the background.
I simply love the small appliqué pins for this process. The white heads make the pin easier to pick up and I find that they do not get in my way when sewing.
Now the next step is something my Mom always did and I find it a big help, plus it adds strength to your appliqué. Using a thread that matches your appliqué (I am using black so you can see the stitches), sew the appliqué folded edges under, very close to the folded edge. Do this with a running stitch and a single thread of 40 or 50 wt thread of your choice. I use Coats & Clark Dual Duty, mainly because of all the colors I can easily find it in.
These stitches will remain in your appliqué, so keep them neat. The blanket stitch will cover them up so they are not noticeable, but they can be seen if you look closely and you want them to be neat.


I recorded a video of how I do the blanket stitch. This is a video of just a couple of the stitches but easier to show than to explain in writing.

I have used two strains of embroidery floss and chose to mach my thread to the applique. 

The finishing touches to the chick are embroidered eye and legs.
I used a plastic washer from the hardware store as my template for the eye. Embroidery is the satin stitch with two strains of embroidery floss. Once the satin stitch is completed, I do a stem stitch around the outer edge to give it a smooth finish.

The legs are back stitched using three strains of embroidery floss.

And now my little chick is ready to join the flock. I hope you enjoyed the dscription on how I did this little chick.
Teresa

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Twilling

I finished my twilled table runner just in time for Spring. This was so much fun to do, and thank you Cyndi over at BeetreeDesigns.blogspot.com for designing this cute pattern.

I am teaching a class on Twilling in May at a guild meeting and all in attendance will receive a kit to "twill" a red basket - that's 130 kits I have to get assembled...YIKES! It will be fun though and will be great to have others enjoying this technique along with me.

 

 

 

I had a run in with a coffee cup this month and ended up with a cut tendon in one finger and stitches in two fingers. I could show you pictures, but they really are rather gross. This has limited my sewing a good bit (right hand) but I have managed to do a little appliqué in addition to hemming the binding on the table runner.

 

I have made some progress on the appliqué border of my klosje quilt. This one makes me smile as I think of giving it to my yet-to-be-born granddaughter as her "big girl" quilt.

I have lots of time to finish the appliqué and get it hand quilted, but doesn't it look so sweet -just like I know she will be.

I have started a baby quilt for her using the Chubby Chicks pattern. Got as far as cutting out the chicks for appliqué when that darn coffee cup attacked me. Hopefully my hand will be well enough this weekend to finish cutting out the blocks and I can start on the appliqué.

 

 

 

Before the coffee cup attack, I finished house two of the Cottage Grove pattern. I still want to add a little embroidery - maybe some daisies along the sidewalk, but that will have to wait until the bandages come off. I also need to add something in that center gable, but I just can't make up my mind as to what. Maybe a round window? What do you think?

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

 

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Pipestem Resort State Park

Isn't this a beautiful view? Fred and I have escaped for the weekend to Pipestem in West Virginia. This is the view from outside our balcony this morning. The weather is mild and there is a fog rising from a stream in the gorge below us. A flock os Canadian geese flew over and I do love the sound of their "honking" in early morning and at dusk.

We did a little site seeing yesterday with me getting pictures of numerous quilt barns in the area, and Fred getting pictures o

 

...well....cemeteries. His genealogy hobby follow us everywhere, kind of like me looking for quilt shops. I have not found any quilt shops yet....but we have two more cemeteries to check out today.

 

This is my first post with my iPad, a learning curve needed for sure.

I hate to see google reader is shutting down. Have any of you found a replacement yet?

 

 

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Klosjes

I finally finished all the klosjes I need for my quilt and it really helped that I decided to make a much smaller quilt.  I thought I would show you the progress . 

Toby thought they were his personal play blocks - he is going to be so sad when he sees an empty basket.  I know the pictures are blurry...but he is  a blue in motion most of the time.

 

So here they are all neat, squared and pressed. Don't you just love the look of neatly pressed blocks.

The little square are then sewn into half of the four patch blocks...but not with out a few gliches. Looks simple enough don't you think?

 

Not so....I manage to sew two blocks together wrong (and I repeated this mistake many times over)!  Fortunately I had a new tool to play with, a "Seam Fix" seam ripper that a good friend gave me.  I learned the value of this seam ripper many times over - you see it had these rubber tips that just pull out the little threads with very little effort.

See the little tip on the end?  That was totally gone by the time I finished sewing all these little blocks together.  I lost count of how many times I had to use it.

Moving on....I finished all the four patches.  I do love the look of these cute little blocks - especially when they are all done!  I won't say that all the corners made it out alive - a few went missing, but I am not going to point them out.  Give the quilt judges something to criticize (not like there are enough things to critique.)

And then finally all the blocks sewn together and I am starting now to design a border.  This is where a normally get stumped.  I think I have a plan that works.

 Now the only problem - I don't have a hand sewing project!  Of course, as soon as I get the borders on, I can start the applique and then the hand quilting.

I have had a couple people ask me who this quilt is for.  I have an answer now - I have a new granddaughter on the way.  Its a little big for a baby quilt, but just right for a toddler, and that is what she will be by the time I finish it.

Happy Stitchin'
Teresa

Do-si-Do and Twill Around

Yeehaw - I finshed the snail trail borders and corners and sewed them on to my Do-si-Do quilt tonight.    This has been a long time coming.  I pinned it to my design wall to get a picture but it's a little too long. 

The snail trail borders have 3,520 pieces in them, the corners have 108 pieces and the quilt center has 672 pieces, for a total of 4,300 pieces in this quilt - now that is a lot of cutting, pressing and seaming. 

And now to get it quillted!  The quilt finished at 84 x 96 and that is a lot of handquilting!  This will definitely be "big stitch" quilting.   I want to get my good friend Donna to baste it for me on her long arm - pretty please with chocolate pound cake on top?

I ran out of my brown for the background and decided to just use the 2" squares of the various fabrics in each corner.  Going with the Fall theme, I like to think this looks a little like maize corn.  I literally had maybe 5 strips of the brown left over - about 1 1/2" wide by 8" long.

I also completed my small twilling project. This is the first project that I quilting on my Jasmine frame and was so much fun to do.  I added a few more beads just cause I thought it needed it.  Maybe if you enlarge it you can see the beading and quilting.

Not sure what to do with it now that it is done.  I did put a sleeve on it so that I could easily hang it up, but it is not very big at 10" square. 

Even so...it is a finish and one more item I can check off on my UFO list.

Happy stitching to you all and thanks for stopping by,
Teresa

Jasmine Quilt Frame

Yea...we finally got some snow - and to top that it was Thunder Snow!  I didn't realize how dangerous thunder snow is until they were talking about it on the news this morning.  My husband and I were babysitting with the grandkids when the snow came - Mom and Dad has gone out for a late Valentine Day Celebration.  We had so much fun watching the kids playing in the snow.

 I have an absolutely adorable picture of Toby (1 year old) holding his first snowball but I cannot get blogspot to rotate it to portrait.   Makes no sense...it is portrait in my folder, but when I import it, comes out landscape. 

Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

 



 

 Yesterday morning my Jasmine quilt frame arrived.  It is just beautiful.  I am showing you the back view here - it will adjust to several different angles - this one just happens to be perfect when I am sitting and quilting. 

I purchased mine on EBAY, but there is a site where you can find them - http://www.hellotrade.com/jasmine-heirlooms/hoops-and-stands.html .  I could not find a price chart anywhere on the site.

 Here is a view of the hoop.  Notice the nice thingie used to tighten the hoop - so easy to turn rather than one of those wing nuts that my regular hoop has.  The wood is very smooth and pretty - a very nice finish.

The hoop will rotate 360 degrees !



And here is where I will be spending a lot of time today - in my comfy chair quilting and watching the Hallmark Movie Channel.  Husband has made a big pot of  vegetable beef soup  - woohoo, gonna be a good day!  Oh hon,.....put some coffee on.

And finally, an update on my klosje progress - well somewhat of an update.  Toby discovered my basket of blocks. 

I think he was sorting them for me, or maybe un-sorting them.  Whatever, he got a lot of enjoyment out of those blocks.

Hope you all have a good day,
Teresa

February 2

You know, weather can be so unfair sometimes.  We have cold temperatures today (low of 22 this morning) and no snow to enjoy.  Now I am not a big fan of snow and getting out in it, but I do think it is beautiful when it is falling and everything looks so clean when covered in a new snowfall.  So come on Mother Nature, give us one nice snowfall (around 6 inches will be enough) that will last a couple of days, just so that we can find some joy with this cold weather.

This is a little wall hanging I made to demo beading (around the snowflake and the words Kindness and snow) for a recent retreat my quilt club went on.  It was a fun on and nearly everyone finished their project.  My husband made the display stand for me. In case you cannot see the embroidered saying it is "Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers."



I have been working away on my UFO's so not much new to show you.   I finished the two side borders and the top border for my Do-si-Do quilt and also finished the Hearts in Bloom table runner just in time for Valentines.

 

I also have been working on my klosjes (no picture) and just as a report I now have 30 circle blocks completed ( need 42 more) and 99 square blocks (need 185 more), so I am making progress.

 

I am really anxious to finish up these spools or klosjes as I have another English Paper Piecing project all set to go - the Lucy Boston Patchwork of Crosses pattern, book by Linda Franz.  This one has really captured my interest, I have the pattern, the paper foundations, the fabric and the storage unit to organize all the little pieces.  Anyone out there working on this beautiful quilt pattern? Would love to hear from you.



 

 

So stay warm, keep stitching, and thanks for stopping by!

Teresa

New Year - Old Projects

First let me wish you all a happy, healthy and safe new year.

I have been catching up on my blog reading and see lots of resolutions out there to finish up projects from years past and I will join you all in this effort.  My Stitchin Friends club has taken on this as our club goal for the upcoming year, and as the person in charge of programs, it can be challenging to use old projects in teaching new techniques....but we shall prevail, right ladies?

I have picked three of my projects to work towards completion:

1. Do-si-do:  I have the quilt center complete and now on to the borders.  Unfortunately I ran out of the brown fabric I needed to do the border I had planned (although I apparently did not plan well enough or I would have enough fabric) so I have modified my plan.  These blocks are paper pieced using an add-an-eigth ruler wich can be tricky, but fun. I have almost completed two of the 4 sides so I am getting excited about seeing this one done.  I plan to hand quilt this one though, so a finished quilt is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the road.

2. Cottage Grove:  This is a project my friend Darlene and I are both working on, trying to keep each other motivated to finish at least one block per month.  We have the borders and the four floral blocks done, now on to the six cottages. 

This is cottage #1 that I just finished yesterday. I found that the only way I could keep the tiny seams at a true 1/4 inch was to draw the seam line onto the fabric.  

There is also applique on this project, and while the pattern calls for fusible, Darlene and I decided to go the needle turn way.  I discovered some new thread in Houston this year, and gave it a try on this project.  The results are beautiful, but I really have trouble working with this light a weight of thread (100), which is why I gave up silk thread for applique.  The jury is still out on this one.

3. My third project - klosjes.  Yep, I am still working on these after a rather long break from doing them.  I was distracted by the hexies and now I have discovered the Patchwork of Crosses pattern that I am chomping at the bit to start working on, but I really must finish these spools first.  For my quilt, I need 72 of the spool in a circle blocks (23 completed) and 284 of the spool blocks (72 completed).  I am either going to have to adjust my quilt size or work very hard on getting these done.  Hmmm..maybe I could just add a really big border!

So there you have it - a new year's resolution of sorts.  I would love to see these three quilts completed in 2013 along with some smaller projects that I can work in now and then.  I hope to be around blogging more faithfully as I do love reading all your blogs and seeing what you are up to. The only problem being, I want to do everything you all are doing too!

Happy Stitching and thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

Do you have this fabric????

 



 Do you have this fabric??  I need 1 yard or more to finish a quilt.  I purchased it at Hancock Fabrics about a year ago and have search the web for some more - but not success.  I believe it sold for around $8 a yard, but it could have been more, not sure.  If you have some and are willing to sell - please let me know! 

 And a picture of my sweet granddaughter Taralyn as she celebrates her third birthday.  She received her "big girl" quilt this day  - a Be Attitudes quilt.  She really seemed to like it :)

Thanks for stopping by, and please, please, please let me know if you have some of the fabric and are willing to part with it.

Happy Stitching,
Teresa


 

Great organization tool

 Do you like to organize things?   I do, especially my fabric pieces when I am putting together a block with lots of parts.  I recently saw these wonderful boxes on Teresa's FabricTherapy blog (http://fabrictherapy.blogspot.com/ ) and had to go out that day to Michaels and see if we had them here.  We did, and they were 40% off!

The individual boxes sell for $1.99 and this wonderful case of 16 boxes for $40.  I grabbed up the only one in stock and have all my little snail's trail paper piecing pieces sorted.

Even a box for the paper foundation pieces - got to love it!


Speaking of paper piecing, here is a little tip on how I piece these tiny little triangles needed for the snail trail block, which measures 3 1/2 inches unfinished and has 20 pieces.

I use an Add-an-Eighth ruler, meaning the seams are only 1/8 inch and that can shift when you go to sew it.  I just use a piece of scotch tape to hold the fabric in place - but do not sew through the tape.  The tape can be used over and over and works great.

While on our trip to Houston I finished the embroidery on this label for my granddaughter's quilt.  My plan was to just add a few embroidery stitches to embellish it a little....and I ended up embroidering the whole thing. 

Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa

Time to go...and very overwhelmed

 Its time to leave Houston, and all these beautiful amazing quilts.  This was one of my favorite ones in the show and is a Malaysian child, I believe. Truely amazing artistry.

 The applique on this quilt was unbelievable, as were so many others. 

This is a the Lucy Boston, Patchwork of the Crosses, quilt that I recently purchased the pattern and english paper piecing pieces to make. It was great to see one made up, and oh so made me want to get started on mine.  I am thinking of using shirtings for the background and a red for the little squares in the sashing...but we will see. It will look quite different from this one which had a lovely soft color palette.

I did get to meet Gail Pan and have a picture somewhere.  She is delightful person, very friendly and easy to talk with. What a treat to get to meet her.

I also got one last picture of my quilt with people standing all around taking pictures, but I can't seem to find that one either.  I think they did not all transfer from my ipad to my computer. 

So many pictures I could share with you (I took around 350) and so many things I could tell you about all the quilts and techniques I saw and learned.  I listened to quite a few demos and learned some new techniques.  Its been a wonderful experience and one I hope I can do again sometime in the next few years.

Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa

Fun, Fun, Fun!

We made it to the International Quilt Festival and here is my quilt on display.  What a treat it was for me to see  it hanging for all to see.  I had fun telling people it was my quilt and answering questions. 

I was very surprised when I got the show catalog to see it was a "featured quilt". Not sure what that means but was great to see it pictured in the show catalog.

And here I am with Lynette Anderson.  I just love her designs and she is so generous with her free patterns on her blog. She was kind enough to take a picture with me and sign a couple of her patterns.  She told me to come back tomorrow and another of my favorite Australian designers would be there at her booth - Gail Pan.  Oh yes....I will be going back tomorrow.

I watched about 1 1/2 hours worth of demonstrations and could have spent the afternoon watching the professional teachers/quilters demonstrate techniques new to me or new products they have designed.  I plan to sit and watch more tomorrow.

One other special treat I had today was a visit to the EQ7 booth and met the gentleman who wrote the software program.  He gave me a lesson in designing motifs and adding them to a quilt border.  I will be playing with that tonight.

All in all it was a great day and I can not wait to go back tomorrow.
Teresa