10 down...

Ten leaves done and only 57 more leaves, 7 flowers, 10 snowflakes and 1 cardinal to go.  I loooooooooove the way the leaves look.  The stems turned out really cool too.  They're three different shades of brown pearl cotton just held together and twisted a little and zig zagged down with invisible thread.  Well, the main stem is three strands, the smaller branches are two strands and the teeny one with just one leaf is one strand.


Yes, the background is already quilted.  I wanted straight lines and no stops and starts and the only way you're going to get that is quilt first.  Good thing I have that handy dandy super steam iron 'cause this is gonna be wrinkled some by the time I get everything appliqued!



previews!

The first picture is the flowers and leaves just scattered out on the background in the general areas where they're going.  There will also be a cardinal on the lower right between the last two flowers.  In this photo it's just laying on the ironing center.  The brown line around in the center is the pearl cotton threads I'm going to use for the vine.  I had thought maybe about cutting it in pieces but I think it'll look better if it's one solid line with branches coming off of it.  The flowers will be solid enough after I get them backed with thin batting you won't be able to see the vine thru it but you'll still have the impression of the vine.

In the second picture I have the background almost quilted.  I still have to pull the thread ends from quilting the top and bottom borders to the back and quilt around the outside of the accent strip.  I really like the way these snowflakes look.  I need to make two more small ones for the left hand side.  The quilting in the borders is asymetrical, there are 3 lines on one side and 4 on the other side.  There are 10 lines of quilting in both the top and bottom borders.

Next I'll couch down the vine and start appliquing the leaves.  Tomorrow.  When my husband isn't home.



zag

 I got some of the "snowflake" blocks made.  Hated them.  Snowflakes are six sided.  The blocks are 8 point stars.  Plus they do not line up in the centers.  Yes, my seams are consistent and pretty accurate.  So, I redesigned that part too.


It still bugged me there wasn't any of the added in fabric in the center so  decided to take that apart and add some in.  In the process I decided to take the dark purple out of the center and just use it as an accent strip between the center and the border.  In the pic I just have squares pinned over the dark purple ones to see how it would look.  Since I had to take it apart to take out the dark purple and add in the border fabric I also enlarged it by one square each way.  With as many leaves as I have I thought it would probably look scrunched into the center space.

I have top and bottom border to add today and then I can baste and do the basic quilting on it before I start the applique.

                                                                                                                                                                                   

back up and punt

I finally get back to working on the wall hanging.  I'm working on the border blocks now.  I have the centers done (13 pieces and they're barely 3 inches big) and I look at the next set of instructions for the blocks.  The designer, in her infinite wisdom, broke up all the cutting instructions into each section of instructions instead of having all the cutting instructions at the beginning and just the assembly instructions broken into the sections.  Uhhh, I have no fabric and the instructions call for 80 2.24 inch squares.  So I start hunting for the scraps.  And I hunt.  And hunt some more.  The only scraps I find are from the leaf fabrics.  I suspect I used up all the main fabrics since I don't find any scraps at all and I have the binding fabric in the Art Bin with the rest of it.  While I was hunting for the scraps I saw a purpley gray that works really, really well with what I already have.  I'll take apart some of the block spacer units and add in the new fabric there and take the parts I take out of the spacer units and use them for some of the block corners.  It should mix the new fabric in well enough that you won't be able to tell.

I'm thinking about calling this one "Such a Winter's Day."

quilt guild "Opportunity" quilt ready for the quilter!!

I thought I was never going to get all the blanket stitch applique done on the borders of this quilt!!  Next it goes to another guild member with a longarm to be quilted.  After it's quilted it'll come back to me for binding.

If anybody is interested in an opportunity to own this quilt leave me a comment and how to get a hold of you.  Tickets will be sold on this quilt until the first weekend in December and we'll draw for the winner at the end of the local craft show.



bye-bye ketchup

The people that lived here before us painted the entry/kitchen area a dark red and a dark gold.  The red really looks like ketchup.  Today hubby is priming it.