New Product in the Store and Tidbits of This and That

August 27th, 2009

Do you ever feel like you are invested in so many projects that you’re not really getting anything done? That’s how I’ve been feeling lately…working very hard, but I’ve got my hands in so many projects that I feel like I’m not getting enough done because I can’t fully invest in just ONE thing. The Dresden plate block above is a case in point…I started quilting these a few months back and I’m still not done! here’s a close up:

These blocks are all being trapuntoed, so all the quilting is completed when they’re still just blocks, and then I’ll outline all the different pieces of the blocks with invisible thread once it’s been pieced and in the final quilt sandwich. Here’s what the backside of the block looks like:

I just love how it looks like a big sun! I’ve also made a bit of headway in quilting the wall hanging from the last post, the one with Texture Magic centers for the small flower blocks. Here’s a shot of the background quilting on the blue blocks:

That quilting design is called “improvisational pluming.” It’s a very lose version of “plumify it,” except you don’t actually stitch plume units and you don’t have to keep bringing that threadline back to a central axis point. Here’s a shot of the same background fill design on a green block:

…and here’s the quilting for the 4 corner triangles:

I’ve still got more quilting to go on this one, but it’s been a real pleasure to quilt. The batting is silk and it quilts just like buttah!

And we have a new product in the store. I just love using The Applique Pressing Sheet to compose my applique shapes before I place them on my quilt, so we’re now carrying it:

I have a few days in a row to get some quilting done, so hopefully, the next post won’t be so far off into the future!

Playing “Dress Up” With Texture Magic and Thread

August 11th, 2009

Don’t you love how easily you can really jazz up a simple block with some thread and Texture Magic?! I needed to throw a quick quilt together so I could use it to demo one way to use Texture Magic, and I started with a really simple block. The drawing below is what I used to trace my applique shapes with:

I used Wonder Under fusible web and started cutting out shapes; here are my good shapes as well as all the stuff that was cut away and I can use those pieces in another project:

Now here’s what a typical block would look like without Texture Magic or any threadwork…BORING!

Now here’s a block that’s just starting to be developed…it has a center made with Texture Magic (don’t you just want to touch it?!) and the EKG finishing design long the outer edges of the applique shapes…it’s getting more interesting but still not quite there:

Since this is fusible applique and all this threadwork is done within the area of fusible web, no stabilizer is needed; the fusible web acts as the stabilizer. It’s really easy to do all the detailed thread work when you’re just dealing with a block. Here’s a backside of a block once all the thread work was done-notice there is no hint or wisp of a stabilizer remnant!

…and here’s the front side of a block once the thread work has been finished…far more interesting than what I started with!

And completely unrelated, I had a lot of fun stitching this little block design:

It began as this:

…and I just couldn’t stop myself!