May 18 11
Re-Uniting with an Old Friend
Do you remember this quilt block from a few months ago? This is one of 4 blocks from a quilt I began a few months ago, just for the fun of it. Here’s a closeup of those swirled petals; they are my favorite part of this flower:
This 4-block quilt got started because I’d accumulated a lot of “waste” from die-cutting and I wanted to use up all those cast-off pieces of fabric already bonded to fusible web. One of my favorite cutting dies for using up waste is:
The petals come in 4 different sizes and I can pretty much always get 1-3 petals out of any cast-off piece. I collect all these “stray”petals and once I have enough, I start fusing them together into a flower shape. Here’s another block from that quilt that I finished a few months ago:
…and here’s a closeup of its center. I’ve been trying to stitch different designs inside the center circle and the surrounding small petals:
When I got to the large petals (those are not die-cut petals; they’re very large and I traced the shapes onto Wonder Under and then fused/cut the fabric with scissors), I stitched some stylized vein lines inside them:
I just wasn’t happy with them, though. They seemed pretty boring, so I went back in and stitched some inlining with solid gold rayon thread:
and now I like them much better! This leads me up to today, when I had the chance to work on block #3, for the first time in many months:
Here’s a closeup of its center stitching. All I did was stitch wavy lines that intersect at the perpendicular level:
(Can you tell I was running out of ideas?!) I kind of have a like/dislike thing going with satin stitching. Sometimes, it just seems like a boring way to finish an edge, but other times, I really like the power of that solid line. I really like the intensity of the thick turquoise edging on these outer petals:
All of these flowers have been trapuntoed, so here’s what the backside looked like at this point:
So the next step was to cut away all the excess batting outside the flower. I use those blunt-tipped child’s scissors for this step. I may be kidding myself, but I feel like I’m less likely to accidentally cut into my background fabric with them:
…and here are the petals once I added some feathers inside them:
…and now for block #4…(actually, it’ll be awhile because I left that block in North Carolina!)
I was trying a small art piece today and couldn’t figure out where my satin stitches are, lol. I really need to take lessons. I ended up doing a small blanket, so it will be more folk art now.
Debbie
Patsy your stitching takes that flower to an entire different level. It comes to life….it dances….what a wonderful gift you have. I’m inspired to do more with my stitching because I read your posts. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Kelly
What batting(s) do you use when you do the trapunto? I’m thinking of doing some on my current quilt. I usually use 100% wool batting.
I love being able to see how you quilt your pieces. They are so beautiful!
I look forward to seeing this one completed. The colors are so vibrant!
Your quilting on the flowers really makes it come to life! Thank you for all the neat pictures of your quilts. Finally–everything is planted on our farm!