Sunday, August 29, 2021

Passionflower Quilt Part 3 - The Flower Beginning

The flowers for this quilt have ten petals and I knew I wanted them to be somewhat organic instead of perfectly symmetrical.  I cut some out of white paper first to determine size and placement.  The first silk I tried frayed a lot and just didn't work, so I switched over to a radiance fabric (half silk, half cotton) and it worked perfectly.

 Final placement before applique.

Stitching complete.  

If you've ever looked at passionflowers, you know they have these amazing purple tendrils.  I decided the easiest way to create this feature of the flower would be to add paint.  I pulled out my favorite Lumiere metallic paints and went to work.  I love how they turned out.

All three flowers painted.

If you look closely at passionflower tendrils they appear striped.  I didn't want to try to paint that so I decided to add silver metallic rhinestuds to the final project to get the effect.


Believe it or not there's even more in the center of these flowers.  Stay tuned!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Monday, August 23, 2021

Passionflower Quilt Part 2 - The Leaves

 It's time for the leaves!  



To figure out placement I used some construction paper and printer paper to figure out where to put my flowers and leaves.  I knew I wanted an odd number of flowers because it's more pleasing to have an odd number.

In trying to decide what fabric to use for the leaves I figured out quickly that it needed to contrast well with the background.  I decided on a darker blue-green color for this reason.  And what fabric is it?  Taffeta.  Yes, you read that right.  It's shimmery and fun and slippery, but it worked well.  

I started with some Appliquick fusible and created my shapes which I fused to the back of the taffeta.  That is if taffeta has a back as it's hard to tell!

I used my Appliquik tools to turn the edge and then quickly ironed the glue dry so the fabric wouldn't move.

Slow but steady progress.

One beautiful finished leaf.  Only 8 more to go!

Here's what the back looks like.

I added a layer of stabilizer behind the leaf and then did a double blanket stitch around it's edge.

To reduce bulk I cut away behind the leaf.


I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Friday, August 20, 2021

Passionflower Quilt Part 1 - The Background

I love the passionflower.  If you've never seen one before Google it.  They are very unique.  I decided to create my passionflowers on a trellis like background.  In order to do this I made wonky four patches.  The light colors are all specialty fabrics: velvet, silk, satin, etc.  The greens are all batiks.  I then sewed them together to form my trellis.  I added a satin stop border (never again....it ravels so) and a green outer border.


Squares all cut ready to make my wonky four patches.  You can see that I varied my lights from white to cream to blush to gray.  The greens also vary in tone and value.


First square complete!


Laying out the first few blocks to see what it looked like.  Yes, I currently have leftover John Deere flannel as my ironing board cover.


Here you can see me arranging blocks on my design wall.


This is the second larger top.  What I had planned for this one didn't pan out.  So it is waiting patiently for the day I do figure out what to put on it!


Stay tuned for more posts about this quilt in the days to come!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy


Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Island Batik Ambassador's Try a Tool Blog Hop

This month the Island Batik Ambassador's got to play with new collections and Deb Tucker's Studio 180 tools.




I received the Split Rects tool to try.  I have always loved this particular quilt unit, but have had a hard time getting them to turn out as nicely as I would like.  This tool solved that problem!  I was astounded with how well it worked and it will definitely be used again soon.


My new collection for this blog hop is called Free to Fly by Kathy Engle and features butterflies!


The included directions with my Split Rects tool were great and I had no trouble figuring out how to use the tool properly.  Here I am cutting my beautiful Island Batiks!


Over 200 Split Rects units ready for assembly!  Sewn with Schmetz Microtex Needles of course.


Here's a few peeks at the quilting done with my favorite Aurifil thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting.  I had fun making a feather design in the dark green area.


I wanted to unite these two different green fabrics so I made another spray of feathers in their combined area.


The large orange areas near the corners also got feather sprays.  This fabric is a combination of yellow and orange and it's interesting how the yellow stands out more because the area was quilted in yellow thread.


The finished project!  It needs a name....feel free to leave an idea in the comments!


Island Batik is giving away two precuts this week as part of the Try a Tool Blog Hop!  To enter click here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Follow my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors for maximum quilting inspiration, here:

Megan Best ~
Bestquilter
Pamela Boatright ~
Pamelaquilts
Elizabeth DeCroos ~
Epida Studio
Jennifer Eubank ~ Archipelago Quilting
Jennifer Fulton ~
Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts
Joanne Hart ~
Mania Hatziioannidi ~
Emily Leachman ~
Denise Looney ~
Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
Maryellen McAuliffe ~
Claudia Porter ~
Gail Renna ~
Brianna Roberts ~
Michelle Roberts ~
Gail Sheppard ~
Andi Stanfield ~
Jennifer Thomas ~
Janet Yamamoto ~