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

Appliquik and Silk...an Experiment

I've been a little slacking on blogging lately.  Blame the end of school and the chaos that always brings with end of the year events, recitals, graduations, etc.  Plus, I am moving school (same district, different building and grade) and that entails LOTS of packing.  I am at 34 boxes so far....and there is so much more.  I'm hoping it'll be under 80?!  AND the week after school gets out I am teaching three full days of classes at the Minnesota Quilters Show.  It's going to be a blast, but it's a lot of prep work.  I will be glad when school is OVER.  So....my actual quilting has gotten waylaid.  And the one thing I'm really working on I can't share yet.  However....here's something fun!

I've been playing with (and loving) the Apliquick system for turning pieces.  One day I got a question stuck in my head.  What would happen with silk?  I ironed the interfacing to a gorgeous silk I bought from Frieda Anderson.  It was a dyed red with a lot of subtle variation.  I made a BUNCH of circles.  It worked fabulously.  Here you can see a test layout.

Then I decided to glue them down to my white background.  OOPS.  Even though I used a REALLY think micro tip on my Elmers glue, some of the glue came through.  Will it come out with washing?  Sure.  SO not the the end of the world....if the fabric doesn't bleed...hmm.  

Since the circles all have a variation, I decided the threads to stitch them down should too.  So I went through my collection of red and pink Glide threads and had a blast picking colors.

What was supposed to happen with this?  I twas supposed to have these lacy leather and sequin leaves on top.  I didn't like the effect, so the leaves went on something else.  Stay tuned to see what how I quilted it!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Sapphire Challenge - Part 2

Here's part two of my Sapphire Challenge made with Island Batik's Indigo Morris collection..  At this point I've layered everything on the background fabric.  I turned all the edges of these pieces using the Apliquick system.  Then I glued them down to the background using Elmer's School Glue.  I wasn't sure that was going to stay while I manipulated the quilt under my machine, so I decided it needed basting before I put it under my needle.  I told my mom my plan and she said, "Why don't you do it by machine?"  Duh.  So I did.

Here you can see what my basting looks like.  It's the largest size stitch I can make on my machine.  I then did a blanket stitch all the way around each piece using matching thread.

Here's a peek at the quilting.  Come back Friday for more!

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy