Color It Red Blog Hop!

It's always such fun to participate in Carol from Just Let Me Quilt's blog hops!  This time the theme is color it red.  Simple....just has to be red.  I decided to play with this theme and create an all red flower.

I've been playing a lot lately with using nontraditional fabrics in my applique.  It's fun to try something different and to get different effects.  This flower has two different kinds of velvet (see the light orangey petals with the curves?  Velvet. 

I also has a bunch of different kinds of leather.  Look closely below.  You can see the curvy velvet.  The triangles just below it are leather as is the curve at the top.  The big dark piece in the flower?  Suede leather.  In fact, I think there are six different red leathers in this piece.  Can you tell I've been collecting? LOL..

Look closely...how many different fancy fabrics can you spot?  I also had fun doing all the blanket stitching in the same red thread.  That saved so much time!

Follow me in all my adventures in my Facebook Group Machine Applique Adventures.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Be sure to check out my fellow hoppers:

February 17^th

Creatin' in the Sticks

Websterquilt

Vroomans Quilts

Hill Valley Quilter

Selina Quilts

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Samelia's Mum

February 18^th

Ms P Designs USA

Podunk Pretties

DayBrook Designs

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sew Many Yarns

Karen's Korner

Stitchin At Home

February 19^th

MooseStash Quilting

Quilted Delights

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Storied Quilts

Just Sew Quilter

Kathy’s Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Words & Stitches

Scrapdash

February 20^th

Life in the Scrapatch

Songbird Designs

High Road Quilter

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Patchwork Breeze

Lynn's Blog

DesertSky Quilting

Seams To Be Sew

February 21^st

Just Let Me Quilt

Quilt Fabrication

Beaquilter

All Thingz Sewn

Karrin’s Crazy World

Den syende himmel

Daughters of Dorinda

Quilt to the Edge

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Four Continent Fish Bag - Part 1

Happy 4th of July America!  It seems like a good day to post about fish.  I started this project as part of the Minnesota Quilter's Global Challenge.  We got four Cherrywood Fabrics (red, yellow, blue, and green) and then were to add up to four more fabrics that were global.  I used Some silk (dark purple), Velvet I bought in Houston from an Australian vendor (the red fish face), fish leather from Iceland (the turquoise that looks like it has scales!), and something else too you'll have to wait to see.

Here's my fish all fused down.  I decided to add the yellow outline around him so you could see him better.

And here he is all blanket stitched up.  I decided to use black on this one so you could see the pieces clearly.

I hope you get to quilt today!  And maybe fish too...
Suzy

Quilt Qwazy Queens 2019 Blog Hop and Giveaway

Today Marian from Seams To Be Sew starts the Quilt Qwazy Queens blog hop!  This year she has challenged us to show you some of the craziest projects we have done. 

Today I donated these two pillows to the Senior Scholarship fundraiser in our school district.

The background fabric is this amazing purple taffeta.  Yes, taffeta.  You read that right.

I took some leather scraps I had and did an inset of the mesh fabric with sequins.  Then I stitched them down to the taffeta.  I used a blanket stitch around the leather pieces.  Sometimes the leather gets attracted to the foot of the machine so the blanket stitches aren't always as even as I'd like.

For this pillow I decided to do something different.  I did a straight stitch instead of a blanket stitch.  It's leather, so I didn't have to worry about it fraying.  I like the flowers this way, but the small dots were better with the blanket stitching.

I had fun quilting feathers and pebbles for this pillow.  The thread is all Glide 40 weight poly.

And here they are!  

Be sure to check out all the amazing bloggers on the hop which continues next week!

Marian is offering a giveaway over on her website - two gift certificates to the Fat Quarter Shop!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

March 15, 2019
Melva Loves Scraps
Words & Stitches
Websterquilt
Seams To Be Sew

March 18, 2019
Quiltscapes
Days Filled With Joy
Life In the Scrapatch
Rainbows. Bunnies. Cupcakes

March 19, 2019
Bumbleberry Stitches
Kathy's Kwilts and More
Ms. P. Designs USA
Quilt Schmilt
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

March 20, 2019
MooseStashQuilting
Thrift Shop Commando
Karrin’s Crazy World
Songbird Designs

Peculiar Posies Part 3 and a Tip!

Today it's time to show you what happened when I started stitching around my Peculiar Posies.  It's fun to see what happened with the velvet when I stitched around it with thread.  It's fun to see the contrast between the velvet and the straight lines.  The velvet was very stiff, but when I fluffed it up it got better.

This was a lot of fun to stitch too.  The bottom pink piece was hard to pick a color  of thread to use.

I decided this flower needed more color so I added some more color by stitching straight lines up the dark blue piece.  These are embroidery, not quilting lines as I haven't started quilting yet.

Sometimes stitching on leather can catch the presser foot and you don't move as smoothly as you want.  I've been working on how to combat this.  Sometimes I use a teflon presser foot, and sometimes I don't.  It's something I'm working on.  I'd love any advice you might have!

This was really fun to do.  I stuck the piece through the other one.  This is something I definitely want to do more of.  It's really fun.

I like leaving holes in piece too.  It's surprising and adds interest.

Here's a tip:  when your fabric is really large, roll it up and pin it before you do your stitching.  It makes it easier to manipulate under the machine.

I use a stabilizer on the back to help keep my stitches even and provide stabilization for silks and chambray.  I then rip off the extra area and only leave it under the applique pieces.  It adds a little puff to the finished quilt.

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Peculiar Posies Part 2

Here are the other three flowers in my Peculiar Posies.  This top flower includes a really fun silk that had gold threads woven into it.  Pink leather of two varieties, dark purple velvet and dupioni silk and some blue silk I bought in Houston from Burma.  The green leaves are also a fun leather.

This flower also features dupioni silk and velvet, but the really fun part is the big blue piece which is made from fish leather.  Yes, you read that right.  They were a vendor at our local show last year and I just had to try it.  It's magnificent to work with because it's nice and thin.

Here are all the flowers appliqued.  Now to figure out a fabric for the pot!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Peculiar Posies Part 1

I have become enamored with interesting textiles and textures lately.  Don't get my wrong, I LOVE batiks and cottons, but sometimes it's fun to do something really outside the box.

Two years ago I discovered Terial Magic which is a spray that makes fabric VERY stiff, like cardboard or paper.  It's great for working with challenging fabrics.  

Here's a peek at my new project, Peculiar Posies.  I have been having fun with leather, taffeta, silk, velvet, all sorts of fun things.  

Here you can see I've put some leathers through each other!  And I found a leather with dots poked in it.

Here's my fun new flower that includes lots of interesting fabrics.  Since I usually only use bits of fabric for applique, I have been cutting small pieces and then applying the Terial Magic.  That way I don't saturate the entire fabric, just the small part I need.  It saves in the cost of Terial Magic.

Here is a velvet flower I've created from four different colors of hand-dyed velvet.  Such fun!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Ombre Oaks Part 3

I'm having fun quilting away the leaves.  The inner leaf is slightly darker than the fill thread for the outer leaf.  The inner fill is circles, swirls, and paisleys. 

The outer fill is fans with a few lines going up them.

The picture below is one of my favorites because you can really see the different black textures in the leaves.  The outer leaf is black leather.  The inner pieces are leathers, taffeta, velvet, and satin.

More next week.  

I am happy to say this quilt safely made it to the National Quilt Museum.  I CANNOT WAIT to see it hanging in the museum!

Suzy

Inspired by International Traditions

I'm working on a project right now that includes some "international" fabrics that are traditional to places around the world.  I'm using leather from Iceland (fish leather!), hand dyed silk velvet from Australia, and Asian silk at the moment.  It's so much fun and it's truly amazing what fabrics you can find at quilt shows!  Here's a peek.

Here's the back of the fish leather.  It's salmon!  It's amazing to work with.  I haven't bought more.  YET....

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Ombre Oaks - Part 2

I found out yesterday that this quilt is a finalist in the New Quilts from an Old Favorite contest at the National Quilt Museum....my quilt will hang there!  I can't wait.  I'm so excited!  Let's now talk about it's making some more.  Here's where I left you.  I had a gradation of oak leaf blocks.  Now to find the perfect fabric for the large block.

Here were what I had a large enough piece of....orange?  NO.

No turquoise.

Love this, but no.

 This fabric was the original intention....NOPE.

What did I end up with?  A light pink batik that worked perfectly.  I drafted an oak leaf and started filling it with feathers and swirls.  I again used leather, taffeta, satin, and velvet.  It was a blast to see it come to life.

I wish you could see the different textures, but it's hard in a photograph.

I am so excited to see it hang in the National Quilt Museum!!!!!!

I hope you get to quilt today and have a fantastic Thanksgiving!
Suzy