Prepping Tree of Life

Today's post is not about normal hand applique, it's about what happens before the applique starts.

Prepping Tree of Life is going to be a tedious process but once it's completed, I'll be able to keep appliqueing without stopping to do more prep.

I washed my fabrics in HOT water. Washing is a deceptive word though, never throw your fabrics into a washer to wash them. I put them into a pan of HOT water and swish them around. I keep changing the water until no dye comes out. Not all of the fabrics bled but the red definitely did. After I'm done washing them, I squeeze most of the water out then take them onto the porch, hang on the metal furniture and let them drip. Once they're done dripping, they are carried to the basement and hung on a clothes rack to finish drying. 

After they were dry, I heavily sprayed them with starch then left them to dry. Once the starch is dry, they are ready to be pressed. Once they're pressed, the freezer paper designs can be ironed onto them. 

I'm not going to recommend any certain starch, you use whatever starch you want to use! I've learned over the years that starch brand is a controversial subject.

The original fabrics have the pieces to be appliqued stamped onto the back side of the fabric, the pieces are even numbered to show you the order to applique. You do need to make sure you turn the edge enough that the stamping ink does not show on the outside.

When I prep applique pieces, I normally leave a larger 'turn-under' edge than what this shows, I won't be placing my pieces as close together as they show here. 

I placed the marked fabric on top of my light box then put freezer paper on top and traced the applique design onto the paper. The next step is to cut out the design. 

After the pieces are cut out of the freezer paper, I ironed them onto the back of the new fabric. 

I cut around the pieces making sure there is 'turn under' fabric.

I will have to do some trimming on the applique pieces before they're appliqued. I even wrote the numbers on the back of the pieces, just like the originals were.

My fabrics aren't an exact match for the fabrics from the kit but they're close enough. I know it looks like the new brown fabric has lines in it, it doesn't, it's a solid brown Kona fabric. All the pieces needed for this fabric have been prepped and are bagged together along with the original fabric.

This is a long process but I'm going to have a beautiful quilt when I'm finished. Remember, I'm planning to spend New Year's Day starting the applique on this quilt. I had better get more of the fabric prepped, January 1 is just 4 months away!

Here is something pretty to show you since this post was rather boring.

Autumn is coming soon and most of the perennials in my flowerbeds have finished blooming but the flowers in the pots are going strong!

These fushia flowers in the front are called SunPatiens, I'm definitely growing them again next year. I've saved the label so I know what they are next spring.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday 

Quilt Fail!

In 2024 I pieced a pineapple quilt, in blues of course! There were a LOT of blue strips leftover so last winter I pieced those strips into log cabin blocks. (I thought I had posted about those blocks but I can't find it.) 

The plan was to wait until this coming winter and sew the blocks together then but I can't wait to do everything in winter, I need a finish now! I decided to sew the blocks into a Perkioman Mountain setting, I think it's just a more interesting design. 

The first few strips in all of the blocks are light blue fabrics then the fabrics became medium blues then dark blues. When I sewed the blocks together, I couldn't see the design, the light blues are too light! The darker blue strips look like sticks sticking out into the white strips.

When you take a close up look, the light blues don't look so light but they disappear when you aren't close!

I'm very disappointed with this quilt but now I've decided on a plan B. This flimsy is 96.5" right now. I had planned to add outside borders but I'm going to wait. This quilt is going to become a backing for another quilt. I don't know what that quilt is yet but I'll let you know when it happens. The borders will be added once I know what the size of the unknown quilt flimsy. I did stitch the outer edge of the failure so all those seams won't unravel.

In 2020 I pieced a quilt which I called Scrappy Barn Quilt which is set in a Perkioman Mountain arrangement. The fabrics are all darker in that quilt, you can definitely see the design. 

I actually have a lot of the dark blue strips left, I might try this design again. Or, I might make a perkioman mountain quilt using split 9 patch blocks like this one I made for my niece in 2022. Which one do you like the best, log cabin blocks or split 9 patch blocks?

Linking to  To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Weight Loss, I Quilted This, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Quilting Elegant Garden

I was able to quilt the bottom half of four applique blocks on Elegant Garden. They're so pretty! I'm using a wool batt and that makes the applique slightly puff, the texture is wonderful!

Here are the blocks from right to left.

The pins show me where to start quilting. It's easy to miss some applique when there are a lot of little pieces.

Normally I quilt for an hour and stop but sometimes I stop sooner. It just depends on how my thumb feels. I don't wear the support brace while I'm quilting, my stitches aren't as good.

If you place the background stencil correctly, the lines match up at the seam lines. I like how they fit together. There should actually be a tiny little square in the middle of the square that is there now but it's so small, I decided to leave it out.

The blocks are stitched in the ditch along the seam lines and on both sides of the brown border. After I took these pictures, I rolled the bottom stick twice and I'll start quilting the top of these blocks this week.

Hand quilting isn't a race, it's a slow and steady process. 

Last Sunday I showed you several stencils I marked the quilt with. I was asked about the name of the stencils. Neither one has a name however the large background stencil does have a label that says it came from the Stencil Co. The other stencil does not have a label to say where it came from. It can probably be found on the Stencil Co. website also.

Elegant Garden is designed by Edyta Sita, Laundry Basket Quilts. My Elegant Garden is finished differently than the pattern, my outside border is different. After the trauma of piecing the center block, I decided I was NOT going to piece anymore of those stars and settled for a simple outside border. I made this quilt because I liked the applique blocks, not the pieced outside border.

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

Quilting Elegant Garden

The bottom border of Elegant Garden is completely quilted. The two sides have been quilted from the center toward the botton border. 

I stitched in the ditch along the outside brown border.

I took a low light picture of the quilting. You can see the design but it doesn't jump out at you.

This is the stencil I've used for the borders, it is one of the first stencil I ever bought. 

Back in those days, stencils were made with a hard plastic which can easily crack and break. This one is in pretty good shape, it's been used on a lot of quilts.

Since the outside borders are quilted, I rolled the bottom edge up and started the center section. 

I'm stitching in the ditch on both sides of the brown border and along the seamlines in between the blocks and I'm glad to report the stitching is much easier now than the borders were. It was the pink fabric causing the problem. I've quilted the bottom half of the first block.

The background fabric is quilted using this diagonal design and all the applique is stitched in the ditch around it. The top petal of the lavender center flower is not quilted, I'll stitch that when I roll again. There are five blocks in each row, it will take awhile to make my way across the row.

Here is the stencil I'm using for the background.

It is a large stencil, it measures 14" in diameter but it works for smaller blocks also. I used this same stencil on my Hearts & Wreaths quilt but I didn't carry the lines into the corner of the blocks. I used another design in the corners.

I decided the dark variegated thread was too dark to use in the center blocks, I'm using a lighter variegated thread. You can't really tell the thread is variegated on the background of the above block but I've got the thread so I'm using it.

This is the same thread I quilted my Pastor's Attic Quilt with. I think there's enough thread on there to quilt this small quilt.

This thread I'm using is NOT mercerized. The white and cream threads from YLI are and I don't need to run my thread through Thread Heaven to make it stitch more easily. 

I keep my small box of Thread Heaven in my applique box.

I watch Sue from Small Things every Sunday on YouTube. She recommends using Mack's Pillow Soft Silicone Putty (which is used for swimmers) in place of Thread Heaven.

I bought some, it is very maleable but I need to run the thread through it several times while I'm quilting, not once and done. I think I prefer actual Thread Heaven but I'm not sure if it's available anymore. 

I was in Wakarusa last week and took pictures of the quilt gardens. First is the quilt garden downtown. It was a foggy day so I didn't have bright sunlight shining into my phone like normal.

The corners are red dahlias, they look rather drab and washed out. We have gotten a lot of rain the last week which is rather unusual in August. They're still working on this lot, I'm looking forward to seeing the final transformation from parking lot to a park.

Then I went to Grandma's Pantry. Those pink begonias look so bright and cheery with the dusty Miller growing in the star points. The center of the star holds pots of yellow mums. I think they'll transplant them into the center but maybe they'll just leave them sitting in there for the rest of the season.

Here is a link to Quilt Gardens Along the Heritage Trail.

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

Elegant Garden in the Frame

I've missed hand quilting in the evenings and on Sunday afternoons so Elegant Garden has been placed into the hand quilting frame. I last posted about Elegant Garden in my May 18, 2025 post. The flimsy measures 60.5" square.

The flimsy has been basted to the batting and backing. There will be no quilting in the outside brown edge. The seam line will be stitched in the ditch. 

Right now I'm quilting the pink border and it stitches hard. I'm not sure if it's the pink fabric or the backing or what the problem is. I'll see what it quilts like when I get to the inside individual blocks, it's too late to change anything now. I'll quilt for shorter amounts of time so my thumbs don't get too tired. 

I had an appointment last week with Dr. Schramm, a hand specialist. I wasn't expecting to be told that the pain at the base of my thumbs was caused by arthritis! 😧 I got shots in the base of both thumbs, that helps but I'm not pain free. Oh well, I can still stitch!

I plan to quilt the pink border on the 3 sides of the quilt then start quilting the center blocks from the bottom. I wasn't able to get the 4th side in the frame. I'll quilt to the center row of the quilt then unpin and move the top edge into the frame. Not a problem, I do this all the time.

The quilting design doesn't show well on the pink fabric but I did take a picture of the quilting on the back side. The backing fabric is from one of Robert Kaufman's fusion collections. I bought a whole bolt.

The thread I'm using is a YLI variegated thread I purchased years ago. I must have quilted something else with this thread because it's not a full spool but I have no idea what the other project was. There is plenty of thread to finish Elegant Garden.

I think this thread works well with the civil war fabrics in the quilt. The colors range from a cream to rust to a reddish brown to dark brown. I'm not sure I'll use it on the inside blocks though, it might be too dark. 

Elegant Garden is designed by Edyta Sitar, Laundry Basket quilts.

Our Pennsylvania son and DIL were visiting last Sunday. Hannah was looking at my flowerbeds and noticed the butterfly weed plants were full of monarch caterpillars! Some of caterpillars were tiny, only an inch long.

On Tuesday afternoon, we had a tornado warning/straight line winds come through our area. (We had no damage.) I wondered how the caterpillars fared.

There weren't as many on this plant as there were earlier but there were some. The caterpillars travel from plant to plant. There are plenty of other plants to shelter in from the wind. 

These little guys are huge compared to what they had been just a few days earlier. The plant is definitely showing evidence of being munched on.

In the above picture of the butterfly weed, you can see the seed pods. When they dry, I remove them and scatter the seeds along the roadside ditch and the edge of the trees. Someday I hope there is a huge swath of butterfly weed growing along there. 

I don't gather the caterpillars and care for them like some people do. I just provide butterfly weed for them to eat and grow on. Butterfly weed is in the milkweed family, it has the same white sticky same as regular milkweed.

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

Framed Squares Crib Quilts & TGIFF

Welcome to TGIFF! This my first time hosting and the experience is out of my 'normal' routine. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the link up.

I did manage to piece two simple crib quilts during my sabbatical. For the first quilt I used the fabric left from the Twinkle quilt. The background fabric looks yellow in the Twinkle picture but it's not. 

A close up of the blocks.

For the second quilt a Berenstein Bears layer cake was used. I did have to piece the strips around the squares and I did have to use some solid Kona fabrics. There wasn't enough fabric left to use for binding but I think I have some blue turquoise Kona that will work.

I think this fabric is really cute!

Here is a picture of the layer cake tag. I bought this layer cake from the resale table at the Jane Stickle retreat several years ago. 

I supposed there is a pattern out there somewhere for this baby quilt but I didn't use one. The individual blocks finish at 6", the quilts measure 48".

Now I  need to get them quilted, the babies are coming this fall. I also just found out, there's a 3rd baby coming but not until January. The fabrics and different pattern have been pulled but it will have to wait October to be pieced.

I also helped our 14 year old grandson make refrigerator dill pickles in July. 

This isn't quit right but please click the blue code and it will take you to the linkup.   https://fresh.inlinkz.com/p/90cb7804425c4a199a629718f816c38c

Sorry, I am so NOT computer literate! 😒 😖

I'm linking to Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Tree of Life & TGIFF Heads Up!

Today I'm going to share the next applique project which is just in the process of prep work.

While at the Jane Stickle retreat back in November 2022, I purchased a Tree of Life Applique kit off of the resale table. I remember my mother appliqueing a Tree of Life kit back in the late 60's, early 70's. The ladies at church quilted it during the monthly 'sewing' then it was donated and sold through the Michiana Mennonite Relief sale. I had to buy this kit when I saw it and now I'm finally ready to start prepping.

This is an old kit, the background fabric is 50% cotton/50% polyester and the applique fabrics are too.  There is some embroidery but not a lot. 

When I opened the package and removed the fabrics, I found this yellow calico had been placed next to a red fabric. The red fabric had bled onto the yellow. A friend said the kit must have been stored in a damp place. The kit fabrics are thin, I can easily see my hand on the backside. I want to use quality fabrics if I'm going to invest hundreds of hours appliqueing this quilt then hand quilting it.

Here is a link to this quilt that has been machine quilted by Judi Madsen. Isn't it beautiful? Obviously the fabrics in that kit didn't bleed.

I purchased new 100% cotton fabrics during my birthday shopping/browsing spree in July 2024.

The new fabrics aren't a perfect match for the previous fabrics but they'll be just fine.

Now I've the process of tracing the designs onto freezer paper, then marking the background fabric because yes, I purchased new 100% cotton background fabric. Because I have new background fabric, my quilt will be larger than the kit. The marking process is going to take a lot of time. My goal is to be able to start the applique on January 1, 2027. 

Tree of Life is definitely going to be a long term project but it will be a stay at home applique project, it's too big to take anywhere!

I'm going to try something new, I'm going to be hosting the TGIFF Linky Party starting at 6PM EST, Thursday August 13. We'll see if it actually happens and I get all the connections correct.

Okay, I've got a problem already, I don't know how to get rid of that box under the TGIFF sign! We'll see what happens!

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