Sunday, January 18, 2009

There Be Flowers on My Quilts!

Piece Name: "My Blue Baltimore" Mini Quilt

This a mini quilt that I made for me...all me! Not giving this one away! No way! I made this just for fun because one day I wanted to do applique. This is what I came up with after flipping through my library. I pieced the background in beige and cream (which you can't see in the photos). It gives very subtle visual interest to the piece. A simple a thing as that and I've never done before...I've always used solid one piece backgrounds. I have to say I like the subtle difference and it was worth the extra work. The block design came from one of Elly Sienkiewicz' Baltimore Beauty books, and the border I designed after being inspired by traditional swagged borders. I decided to stay in all blues because I thought the look would be powerful and clean against the cream/biege background. The quilting is traditional cross hatch and I have to say I am mighty pleased with this little quilt (22"x22"). The applique is fusible machine applique. I love making traditional designs using modern applique methods (modern meaning it gets done in my hectic schedule without fiddly hand work!). This quilt will hang in my guild's quilt show this March 14-15th (Love Apple Quilters of Cherry Hill, NJ). Completed: January 4, 2009

Piece Name: "Elizabethan Gardens of Manteo, NC" Mini Quilt

This mini quilt (24"x24") is entirely machine embroidered with a design pack you can purchase on the Secrets of Embroidery website. It took many hours of work stitching out each block with all those thread changes and then joining all the blocks together like a jigsaw puzzle (that took some skilled easing!). I chose very traditional rose petal colors, and when it was all done it reminded me of the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, NC. This quilt will be a very belated wedding gift for a cousin. It's been done for awhile but I have procrastinated over putting a label on it (where have you read that before!!!). It is going to be even more belated because it too will hang in my guild's quilt show this March 14-15th. Completed: Jan. 2008

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