Embroidered Hearts

In the January list of projects for 2025, I listed two embroidered blocks projects, #11 & 12. Both projects have the same problem, not enough blocks. I finally came up with a solution, applique blocks. Number 12 is the purple/lavender blocks.

While I was appliqueing the Elegant Garden blocks, I was asked to show more of the applique process. I will do that with this applique block.

I'm using colors for the applique that are the embroidery threads. I'm not going to change the green embroidery thread on the blocks but the green I use to applique might be slightly darker.

This type of embroidery is printed onto background fabric and the blocks were intended to finish at 18". That is fine if they're printed straight on the fabric but these blocks weren't so I needed to trim the edges more. They'll finish at 17". I have twelve completed blocks, I need four more blocks so I can make the quilt square.

The applique I'm using is from this book, A Baltimore Album, 25 applique patterns by Marsha D. Radtke. I appliqued this quilt several years ago and called it the Pastor's Attic quilt.

The first block is block 10, Rose & Rosebud Circle. These are basic instructions, you print off the pattern, in this case I had to print off 4 pages and tape them together to make a whole block. I lay the paper on a light-box and place the background fabric on top then trace the design onto the fabric using a Frixon pen (which disappears when pressed with a HOT iron).

Take the background fabric off then place freezer paper on top of the paper pattern and trace the pieces onto the freezer paper. You then need to cut out the individual pieces.

With a HOT iron, iron the applique pieces onto the fabric that you are going to use for each piece. I leave the paper templates on the fabric until I'm ready to use it. Make sure you label each baggie so you know what the contents are. Notice that I've marked where the stem is supposed to be on the flower. This will help with the flower placement.

Sometimes the templates are directional, make sure you trace them correctly so your applique is going the correct direction to the marked background fabric. Make sure you iron the templates onto the fabric with a bias orientation.

There are 3 different stems on this block, I have 3 different bags with stems. Write on a separate paper which stem these are for and stick it each individual bag.

I'm not sure if I'll stick with this yellow, I  might change to a more brighter shade. The instructions are to embroider a spiral onto the flowers, I'm going with a small circle applique. For the circles, I'm using the Wash Away Applique product I talk about in this post.

For the applique, cut around the design, make sure you leave enough 'turn under' fabric. I probably leave more 'turn under' than most people but it works for me!

Before appliqueing each piece, I lick my thumb & finger and finger press the 'turn under' fabric. The fabric will remember what it's supposed to do as I stitch.

Leaving the freezer paper on the applique for now, FOR NOW!, pin the piece to the background fabric of the design. I'm going to start stitching on the right side.

I've stitched up the right side and I'm ready to make the point. Stitch two stitches at the point. Stitching two stitches helps to lock the point.

Take a sharp pointed tooth pick, that you've had in your mouth, (the moisture really helps grip the fabric) and carefully turn under the fabric on the left side.

Once the fabric is tucked under and ready to be stitched, pull the thread at the point, it should 'pull out' into a sharp point then stitch down the left side. 

The left side is stitched, pull the freezer paper out of the underside of the fabric.

Trim the excess fabric off the to be appliqued piece. Take a sharp scissors and clip into the point.

Lay the template on top of the flower bud then pin in place. I use regular sized pins but you can buy small applique pins. Don't forget to finger press the edges of the stem.

Again I start stitching on the right side, since I'm right handed and stitch like I did the flower bud. One of the stem points is more rounded than the other, that's just fine. The quilt police will NOT show up and I have no intention of displaying this quilt in a quilt show.

I normally remove the freezer paper after I've started down the left side. Since the applique has been finger pressed, it remembers where it's supposed to turn under. The stem is a little longer than it needs to be, carefully snip that off so it won't stick out the bottom.

Two stitched flowers and stems, these little flowers are about 2.5" long.

I didn't take pictures of the next steps, you basically do the same for each piece like you do for the stems; trim off excess fabric, finger press, stitch it to the design. After the small flower stems were appliqued, the vine was stitched, then the mulberry purple flowers. The leaves were stitched last and the green is still a light green but slightly darker than the embroidered lazy daisy leaves.

After a good press with a hot iron, to make the frixon marking disappear, the Rose of Sharon block is completed. 

The applique block pattern finishes at 14" but I cut the background fabric larger. It's going to finish at 17", the same size as the embroidered blocks. There is plenty of space for pretty quilting. I don't know if this quilt will be hand quilted or machine quilted. I'm getting a backlog of quilts for hand quilting. It needs to be sewn into a flimsy first.

I will not go into detail for appliqueing the other three blocks.

I completed this block while I was also quilting the Amish crib quilt. I did not do all the applique in one week. Once the four blocks are finished, I'll put them with the embroidered blocks. Hopefully this flimsy will be pieced sometime this year.

At the November 2024 retreat, Rosemary gifted each of her table mates (which included me) project bags that she had made.

She bought old dresser scarves (that is what my family calls them) at thrift stores and used them for the back of the bag, what a great idea!

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Quadrangle Finish

The last of the 3 teal quilts for Joanna is back from the quilter. This quilt is called Quadrangle and I posted about the flimsy here.

The grass was too damp to display the quilt so the rest of the pictures were taken on our bed.

I had purchased a jelly roll to use in making the stars for Teal Stars but I didn't think they blended very well. I used strips from that roll for  binding this quilt, a lot of those fabrics also make an appearance in here.

I had purchased this border fabric several years ago, I knew someday I would be making quilts for Joanna and I didn't have many teal fabrics to work with.

All of Joana's quilts are square quilts, this one finished at 91". I didn't start out intending to make them all square but that's how they turned out.

Calico Point did the long arm quilting, this is the design I selected.

I never remember what the names of the quilting designs are. They keep a record on their computer so I can refer back if I want to use a design again.

Quadrangle is a free pattern by Moda. This is a very versatile pattern, I can see making this quilt again but making the squares larger. I used a variety of different teals in this quilt, both blue teals and green teals. They all seem to blend together just fine. The touches of purple add a nice contrast of color.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Two Border Amish Crib Quilt

There is something very satisfying about connecting the quilted sections. Again the green fabric did not photograph its true color.

The right side -

The middle section -

And the left side.

I removed the quilt from the frame, trimmed the edges then stitched the binding. Here he is on the floor, the color is better than the above photos. 

A close up of the center. This isn't the right color either, this looks more apple green, like granny Smith apples.

This is the back side. I needed to make the backing wider so I added the red strip. 

A closer view, this is the actual color, except it looks a little blotchy which it isn't.

I placed the quilt on the little quilt ladder in the dining room, I folded it so you can see the feathered wreath quilting. It looks kind of blah.

So I refolded it so the red borders show, this added contrast and he looks happier now. 

He doesn't quit fit in with the other quilts but that's okay. This little quilt measures 43" X 55".

I'm tempted to put another small project in the frame to quilt this summer but I have a lot of applique to stitch. 

As fast as the first five months of 2025 have passed by, soon it will be autumn and time to put the relief sale flimsy into the frame for quilting. Then you'll be getting weekly hand quilting updates for a long long time!

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Zippy Strippy Compassion Quilts

The last two compassion quilts are finished. I pieced the center sections before I went to retreat in April using an old jellyroll that has been guilting me for years. Deanna and I both bought the jelly rolls and extra fabrics years ago at the Pumpkinvine quilt store. She finished and gifted her quilt long ago, I didn't.

Remember when jellyrolls were first invented? Quilters were making zippy strippy quilts, some even participated in races to see who finished their quilt first. 

The problem with a zippy strippy quilt was it was too wide and not long enough. You could add borders which made it larger but then it was too big for me to quilt on my sewing machine. 

I started sewing these strips together but do the final doubling. I had a longer pieced strip which I cut in half to make the center. Sorry, I didn't take a picture.

I added borders to my centers and quilted them with simple straight line vertical quilting. The peach colored quilt was quilted in the ditch with lines 2" apart. The turquoise border quilt was quilted 1/2" from the seam line in the center then in the border. Both quilts were stitched in the ditch around the center sashing. Very simple but it works! 

They both measure 45.5" X 63.5".

This is the end of my machine quilting binge and I'm glad to be finished. Eight quilts have been quilted, five of them will be donated. The other three will be gifted eventually.

In the meantime, since I pieced these quilts, Michelle has published a jellyroll book, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts. Several bloggers made quilts and posted about the book. I won a free e-book from Quilting Jet Girl just by leaving a comment on her post. The next time I make a jellyroll quilt, I'll use one of the patterns Michelle designed, they really don't look like typical jellyroll quilts.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Free Motion Mavericks, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Two Border Amish Quilt

The quilting is speeding along on this little quilt.

This is the right side.

The center section.

And the left side.

The green doesn't show the true color in any of these pictures, rather a blah shade of green.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Two Little Quilts

Two more small quilts have been completed. One is a compassion quilt and the other one will be a gift to a special person in my life.

Several years ago I pieced a Moda Love layer cake quilt. I purchased yardage and cut it into 10" squares then sewed the HST's. I did not read the instructions thoroughly because I thought I knew what I was doing, wrong! I ended up making way too many HST's and needed to buy more fabric to have enough yardage to finish the quilt.

After the quilt was pieced, I placed the leftover fabrics and extra HST's in a bag with the intent of someday making something with them. That happened last winter when I pieced the small quilts that both measure 44" by 52".

They were easy to make, the first one has large broken dishes blocks.

The backing is very scrappy. I had finished piecing the teal quilts for Joanna so I incorporated leftover blocks into the backing. This quilt is the compassion quilt.

There aren't as many HST's in the second quilt. I could have pieced 2 more HST's and made a square quilt but I just didn't want to piece another HST!

The backing isn't as scrappy as the first quilt but I thought the flowered fabric went well with the teal/purple fabric. 

The quilting these quilts was very simple, first I quilted the blocks horizontally then vertically in the seam ditch. 

The next step was to  stitch diagonally. Lines were marked 2" from the seam lines. I stitched diagonally to the marking then stitched around the square which brought me back to where I had been on the diagonal then finished sewing the diagonal stitch in the ditch sewing. 

The border quilting was straight lines. I had planned to use the serpentine stitching in the borders but I couldn't find my machine book that has the different stitches. Oh well, straight line works.

It didn't take long to quilt these quilts. The light fabric was marked with a washable blue marker while the dark fabric was marked with a white Sewline marker.

Again this was simple quilting but no pleats or tucks on the back!

Here is a link to the Peacock Moda Love Star quilt I pieced in 2021.

My Christmas cactus plants are on the south porch but back against the wall so they don't receive direct sunlight. This one is in full bloom! It was full of buds when it came in the house last fall and starting blooming in October. It had some flowers all winter long. I've never had one do this well. Several of the other cactus have flowers also but not like this one. This must be the perfect place for them in the summer.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Free Motion Mavericks, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Two Border Amish Quilt

With a small quilt, it's easy to quilt across the long side. And this week I reached in farther than necessary, the quilt is halfway quilted!

This picture shows the true color of the green.

The center section of the quilt. I guess I don't have the frame centered under the lights correctly, the color is off shade.

WOW! This is even worse, definitely not the right color.

I have learned my lesson, don't buy off brand fabric no matter how less it costs. It's a sturdy fabric, it isn't going to fall apart when washed, it just quilts hard. I'm very glad this is a small quilt.

I won't be rolling this side anymore, I'm going to move my chair to the other side of the quilt and stitch toward the center.

This quilt is for my stash, I just wanted to make an Amish crib quilt.

I was in Wakarusa several weeks ago and took a picture of the quilt garden. They didn't have the sign up about the flower garden design but, to me, it looks it might be a pinwheel? I'll update you the next time I get my hair trimmed. Here is a link for you to peruse with information about the quilt gardens.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday