Aunt Grace’s Garden Party almost done….

My Aunt Grace’s Garden Party BOM is almost all done, I just need to go in the Quilt shop and get my last month’s BOM! I’ve got all of the strips done and now I just need to add a few smaller borders and then the outer border….Good for me!

I’ve finally figured out how to do the Grandmother’s flower garden pieces that are English paper pieced. I’ve always known what I needed to do, but had never really put it into practice, but by the last four that were made I had it completely figured out and I’m very happy with how they look. I’m also very happy with all of my hand applique work. Like I’ve said before….straw needles and silk thread make all of the difference in the world!

English paper piecing……very time consuming, but I love how they look.

The next question is whether or not to put on a small colored strip inside of the outer wide white border of Lesley’s Retro Flower quilt…..I think it needs it, but I’m not sure what to do. I think I need my daughter Lesley to look at this and tell me what she thinks. I want to put a smaller 3” border on and then about a 6” white border on the outside edge. I want to use a bunch of the brighter scraps from the flowers to make the binding.It will really show up against the white. If I didn’t have bunches of other quilts already lined up to get started on….I think I would be looking to do another quilt that had quite a bit of applique in it. I’m feeling it! I think I need to keep at it until I’m completely comfortable doing it. I’m almost there. I think when I get these two done, I need to do a bunch of free motion quilting. I will have a total of 8 tops done that need quilted…It just keeps getting scarier thinking about it.

Happy quilting! Kris

Hand Applique….I feel like I’ve finally won!

I’ve always loved the look of hand applique on quilts but I’ve always been afraid to try it.  It looked hard and I just didn’t know where to start, so when I saw this Aunt Grace’s Garden Party BOM, I thought this is my chance to learn how. According to the information about it, they would walk you through the steps of applique, so anyone could do it. Well, I should have known it was too good to be true! Basically they would just say….’prep for applique’ and then you were on your own. At first I was a bit frustrated, but then I decided that ‘I can do this!’….and I read and watched YouTube videos of people doing different kinds of applique. A gal at one of the quilt shops I go to also gave me some hands on teaching for about 10 minutes and that helped more than any thing. Thanks so much Norma!

I’ve figured out that straw (milliners) needles and silk thread work wonders. I’ve tried fine thread and regular needles, but have had wonderful results using the straw needles and the silk thread. So here are some pictures of my latest tries of hand applique. The picture below is of the two panels that I will need to sew together to make the large center strip of my quilt. I have half of it done and now to the other half. It might be a little difficult to get them both looking the same.

These baskets gave me fits this weekend. I had one done and then realized I hadn’t squared up the half square triangles and my basket was too big,  so I tore it all apart and squared them up and then sewed it back together and now it looks great and is the right size! That is very important when quilting! So another few hours of hand stitching and this center strip will be done!

Happy quilting! Kris