To applique or NOT to applique

To applique or not applique. That is the question.

Today I finished the top for the lotus quilt, now I am still thinking I need to applique some flowers or a vine on the border.

Here's the main part of the top done.

Then I trimmed it down to 1/4" past the seam

Now the top is done, the border looks bare... hmmm

the Go! funky flowers I don't really like for this... maybe I will draw something.

Here's some EQ ideas

One with vines from two opposite corners.

Maybe also in the middle- but I think that's too much!

I like the one with the two vines, now WHICH flowers am I going to use?

I'll print out or sketch some flowers, I want more of a simple leaf as well.

Here's what else I did last night.

I signed up to be part of a geese in a ring block swap.

I printed out the template and cut out freezer paper for it.

Then started copying it, after 4 I realized that I printed it WRONG, my printer setting was set to SHRINK TO FIT, instead of NO CROPPING.

so. ARGH I had to scrap those and reprint and trace again.

I figured I had JUST enough kona white cotton left over from the barcode quilt, so it worked out perfect and I measured and cut out for all the blocks.

here's the block! am I NUTS?? no..... I DO have until feb. but I might be done before christmas :-)

asian lotus quilt and a kaleidoscope paper pieced block

Last night and today I worked some more on this lotus asian quilt I mentioned here.

I ironed on the little curve like a drunkard's path, I had decided to do that instead of making it a template and pinning and sewing a curve, it's only 2" so.... better this way

But PHEW that was 48 of EACH color.

(I guess it's NOTHING compared to Bonnie Hunter's ORCA mystery quilt! ha ha)

Last night I also button hole stitched all the way around on all of them in different threads.

Today I finished all the blocks and border blocks and currently I'm piecing the main part together.

I'm getting ideas for more applique, we'll see.....

here's a close up of the blocks, sure was bulky to iron right where the applique and the center block meet... hmm.

If you know me, you know I can't say no to a swap, it's a geese in a ring block swap.

I've been playing (as you know) with different paper piecing methods.

here's another way, where I just used the plain print out and pinned to the paper and otherwise folded or creased the paper and sewed next to it. I don't really like this method, I think I will stick with the freezer paper method, unless.... aren't there some freezer paper type packs that you can put thru the printer?? anyone know?

Well.... if I don't post tomorrow, have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I will be MIA next week, more about that later.

orca clue #1 and blue random blocks

I finished the blocks for the Bonnie Hunter ORCA quilt, clue #1

phew, that was a LOT of blocks, I had to scrap a few and recut some, but no biggie.

this was half way done

here they are done and dog ears cut off! made a nice dent in my whites and blues (I decided to do blues instead of the black, I won't tell what I substituted for the blue AND the red, until we NEED it)

I also finished this top from the 4 loose appliqued blocks I had, I just looked at the layouts I had created in EQ here and then looked at how much fabrics I needed and the ones on point, I didn't have enough, plus I was leaning toward this one anyways, I did have plenty of the blue for the outer border so I cut it wider :-) also cut the binding strips, I have some OTHER blue I will use for the backing, whenever I get to it.

So I guess today I was in my BLUE phase :-)



featured on Electric Quilt's blog

Just saw, I was featured on Electric quilts blog here.

( their blog links back to my blog entry about the block swap ideas)

busy weekend

Phew! I've had a busy weekend....

Saturday I was part of a craft show at my kids school, but I was also one of the planners, so the last few days have been busy with meetings and planning things etc.

anyways, it was fun and I sold 6 owls ( one was a raffle item) I had brought 8, so that was good!

here's a few pics.

Here's my booth and my kids! they brought their DS games and I had a comforter under the table, so they hid under there and my daughter fell asleep there at some point too.

Okay, now call me crazy! but I decided to join Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt "ORCA" so I've been busy cutting out and sewing as well, friday I cut out, and just tonight did I do a bit of sewing.

here is the link if you want to join it!

Here's the triangles cut out

two test hour glass blocks, perfect size!

time to sew some more sets

Also, friday night my husband bought this new craft table off of craigslist, it's ETHAN ALLEN!

my former craft table I liked too, my husband had made it for me years ago in FL.

Again tonight I played a bit with EQ :-)

here's a few ideas

this one was called rag tag cuddler in mccalls magazine sept 2011 I believe.

it was NICE in the magazine, kind of BLAH here.

so I changed the colors around a little

Then I added a border and nine patch in the corners

another blue border

Then I made the layout smaller with fewer blocks to be more of a baby size quilt, I think it's around 43" by maybe 55"

I found this cute applique fish and colored it blue

but I didn't like the bottom fin, they looked like feet to me, so I removed it and also made the top fin the same as the bottom AND removed the mouth so he just has a "nose"

Then added a bunch of fish at the top and bottom

how about a giant one in the middle?

I also forgot to show this.

I finally finished the binding on my circle in a star quilt

I had bought this fabric as part of a bundle and it was sort of a curvey strip but at an angle, just ODD, but it looks great for binding!

The backing is pieced from a left over block and some pink fabrics from connecting threads.

Just realized I didn't take a pic of a close up of the quilting...

Now here's a question:

would you rather see a long post like this with a bunch of different stuff or a post for maybe the craft show and then one for the EQ files etc.??? let me know

Winner for FQ giveaway

We have a ANOTHER WINNER!!

random.org picked 25 out of 26. ( I got two more comments after it closed so they don't count)

I never heard back from Beverly and there's no email contact on blogger, I tried emailing and never heard back, can't do it directly without the contact in blogger! anyways, I did what I could...

So Kell won!!

Kell  said...

I already receive FQS newsletter. I love that they have such a wide selection of products & fast service. :)

I emailed you, please email back, so I know you want it and I will email the FQS!
congrats!

here is the giveaway.

I'm sitting here tonight and again playing with EQ7.

I thought I would show a little bit of how I "play" with it.

I often copy layouts from quilt magazines and modify them or get inspired by them.

This was a layout from FP dec 2010 love of quilting magazine, not in these fabrics but the looks is sort of the same.

So I had the blocks saved under the same file and created a new quilt, I made it square also and added the star blocks in every other block, then added the flying geese to the block s by the edges and flipped them away from the middle star, I also added the trees and rotated away from the center, then I found a snowball block and added that to create some space and added a 2" border all the way around. the blocks are only8" so I think the finished quilt would be 44" or so.

Here's one called Elizabeth's star

From FP love of quilting june 2010

again I changed the fabrics around- I always do that when I copy it into EQ

so a simple star block on point, what would happen if I added sashing to it?

I got tired of this fabric and just colored it with the COLORS in EQ, I don't really like yellow, but a star is yellow so I just kept with it.

I really didn't like that yellow, how about green? and I added a stripe to the sashing strips- under SASHING blocks in EQ- something I just found recently.

 

And what about some appliqued stars on the empty blocks?

Well then I had to made it more patriotic!

so quite a change!!

here's another one, triangle surprise from FP jan 2011

it's all scrappy.

what if I DIDN't make it scrappy, I used some fabrics from connecting threads

Then I played with the border and a skinny border then a border with points OUT.

looks cool with a solid black.

 

what if I removed the skinny border on the inside and instead added one on the outside to it's sort of floating?

Then I played with the points and colored them green (one from the CT collection)

I also colored the small triangles in the blocks that touched the large points

and why not add a little diamond in the corners then?

Hope that gave you all some ideas :-)

EQ is FUN, look out for a give away from them in December