Inspiration in the Card Aisle

I was waiting at CVS for a prescription so I wandered down the greeting card aisle looking for inspiration.  Here's what I found:

There are lots of fun quilting patterns or applique designs in the border of this card!

Applique balloons with interesting prints!

Suzy

Appliqueing the Unexpected Tablerunner

I have been trying out all sorts of new things on this blog.  This time I decided to focus on changing up the size of the blanket-stitch on this block since there are only 4 different pieces.  Each color was done in a different size blanket-stitch:

If you look carefully, you can see the difference in scales.  The dark blue in the center is done in a 1.4  mm wide and 1.4 mm long stitch.  The light blue behind the dark blue is 2,0 mm x 2.0 mm blanket-stitch, my usual size.  The pale lavender dots are 1.8 mm by 1.8 mm blanket-stitch.  I was a little nervous to do the dark purple curves because I decided to stitch them in a 2.2 mm by 2.2 mm blanket stitch.  It was really fast to stitch because the stitches were so long, however it did come with it's challenges.  Going 2.2 mm into the fabric meant that when I got to the points the stitch would've gone beyond the fabric and over onto the background.  I angled the stitches in a little more to make sure they stayed on the purple fabric and it worked like a charm, but I had to remember to do that at each point.

Overall, I am very happy with the different sizes of stitch.  I think it adds a little more interest to the block and I want to play more with vary sizes of stitch.

Suzy

An Unexpected Tablerunner

I had already traced the fusible patterns for this block that I was originally planning to use in Blog Quilt #1.  It didn't work out in that quilt, but since I already had the fusible traced I figured I should make the blocks.

I picked a pale blue batik to use as a background and then started picking fabrics.  The inner "x" piece is a fantastic batik with circular patterns.  They look great cut into an x.  Then I started trying to decide what went behind the x:

Too dark!

Just Right!  It allows the fabric in the "x" to shine.

Now to decide on the curves.  I like this fabric.

Blue dots?  They don't really do much.

Lavender?!  It brings out the lavender in the "x" fabric and makes the block sparkle.  I love it!

Now to blanket-stitch it!  I've decided to call this project Unexpected Tablerunner.
Suzy

Playing with Possiblities

I started designing this motif from an element in a friend's mirror frame.  I like what I have, but the question is how to set it into a quilt.

I updated it a little by making the shapes overlap.   I am going to talk below about "feather in" and "feather out" designs.  The extra feather is on the left below.

Then I put it in front of my mirrors to see what happened.

Eight repetitions seems like too much.

5-fold symmetry is nice.

4-fold symmetry with the extra feather in.  I like it.

4-fold symmetry with the extra feather out.  It was better with the feather in.

5-fold symmetry with the feather out. I liked it better with the feather in.

Mirroring with the feather out.  Could be interesting in repeated strips?  I like the feather in as show below that the feather out.

Now I have a lot of possibilities to decide on!

Suzy

Hyperquilting Blog Quilt #2

I have always admired Patsy Thompson's work.  I have her book Feather Adventures and have admired it many times, but never tried her quilting style out!

Hyperquilting is done when you first stitch a feather (or other design) and then go back and add in another thread color on top of it.  It's a lot of thread, but the results are amazing!  As you can see from the photo on the outside of her book the feather was quilted in pink thread, then stitched again in gold thread.  The outside is also echoed in purple thread.  In stitching my own hyperquilting, I found that this outside echo was essential.

Here is Blog Quilt #2 with it's round of hyperquilting.  I did the quilting in Glide by Fil-Tec thread and Fufu thread.  It really helped the quilt sparkle once I added in the echo quilting around the edge.

Such fun!

Suzy

Beginning to Quilt Blog Quilt #2: I will NEVER get tired of Feathers

I love to free motion machine quilt.  Since I am working on lots of small projects for this blog I decided to try out different machine quilting techniques that I haven't explored, but have always wanted to.  I started with quilting around and between all the applique pieces.  I must admit I started with colored thread to match, but it was a lot of starting and stopping so I switched to using monofilament thread instead.  In the small spaces in the center I quilted pebbles to create a simple texture.

Then I was considering how to quilt the central area between the design and a circular border.  I knew radiating lines would be beautiful, but they've been done a lot.  So I decided to quilt them with radiating feathers instead.  I have quilted a lot of feathers in my life and I really enjoy them.  I will never, ever, get tired of feathers.

Here are the results so far.  And a sneak peek at my next blog!

Suzy

Flower Mandalas

My mother emailed me the other day and told me I had to google "flower Mandala."  I did and this is what I found:

These are made with real flowers and petals!  Amazing.

Suzy