This isn’t exactly appliqué, but it’s sort of related. <G> It’s called “appli-bond”, a technique developed by Joan Shay. I took a class from her at Quilt Camp in the Pines in 2006 and finished the top reasonably soon afterwards. However, I didn’t get around to quilting it until August and September, 2007.
Each flower petal and leaf, as well as every feather on the hummingbird, is a separate piece. Each is double-sided, stitched on separately, then curled with a hot iron. These pieces all had to be sewn on by hand, using a leather needle. Here is a detail of the hummingbird and some of the quilting:
I machine quilted leaves and vines to continue the idea of the flowers and leaves. The quilt measures approximately 31 1/2″ square, and the piecing and quilting were all machine-done.
This quilt was the one that first caught my attention in the Fat Quarter Quilts book. It was fun to make, being machine pieced and machine quilted. It measures 61″ x 54 1/2″. Once again, I used variegated thread, in blue this time, to do the leafy border quilting. However, I did a pinwheel-like effect on each houndstooth block, stippling in the background.
Carol Doak posted a row by row quilt (one row each month) for her online group. It was supposed to be lap-quilt size, but I wanted a smaller version. I redrafted all of the rows at half-size and made my version. The finished quilt measures 20.5″ x 27.5″; I finished it in February, 2007. It’s machine quilted, with each row having a different motif, and the borders have stars, hearts and flowers.
Update: I entered this quilt into our local quilt show in February, 2008, and it won second prize in its category! Here it is with its ribbon:
I saw this pattern, designed by Madisen Hastings, and fell in love with it. After all, elephants are majestic, intelligent, endangered, magnificent. The appliqué pieces were laser-cut from Tula Pink fabrics, and I chose a Grunge fabric to put them onto. I did a lot of free-motion ruler work and fills in that background to set off the elephant. I finished it in August, 2017, and it measures approximately 39″ x 32″. This was finished in August, 2017.
And here’s a detail of some of the quilting:
Update: I entered Holi Ganesha into our local show in March, 2018, and it won a second-place ribbon!
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A local (but well-known national) quilter, Christa Watson, developed a pattern for a chevron quilt that my local group wanted to make (with Christa’s permission, of course). The original pattern called for 5″ squares to start with, but I decided to make mine a miniature, so my blocks finished at 1.5″, and I changed the layout to this herringbone design instead of the chevrons.
I did all of the free-motion quilting in straight lines to accent the design and to practice straight lines — they’re not easy to do in free motion with rulers. The border has a Greek key design, also in free-motion, and then I added my favorite piping before the binding, using four of the fabrics used in the quilt top. I finished this in just a couple of weeks in April, 2014.
Blog post
In January, 2005, I took a class from Sharyn Craig on how to make the Glorified Nine-Patch with her techniques. It was such fun! I spent some time machine piecing some blocks and then drafting the setting triangles, and in a week I had the top finished. Then I waited for inspiration on how to quilt it. I finally decided to put feathers around each block, but I ended up waiting more, since I was contemplating buying a new sewing machine and didn’t want to begin quilting on one and finish on the other. 😉 After buying the new machine, I waited some more while I got acquainted with its new capabilities. So this is the first project I’ve quilted using my then-brand-new Bernina 440QE, which has a stitch regulator. I finished it in April, 2005, and it measures 37″ x 37″. I’ll use the quilt as a spring table topper in my little dining room.
And here is the second piece from a Pam Holland class at Quilt Camp in the Pines in 2005. This one is also drappliqué; the gazebo itself is machine appliquéed in place, but all of the plants and pots are drawn onto the fabric with the same special pens as were used in the landscape quilt. I machine quilted this one, too, with flowers in the blue borders and leaves in the green cornerstones, stippling the muslin background. It measures 23 1/4″ x 26 3/4″, and I finished it in September, 2005.
Our granddaughter was going to start preschool and needed a quilt for nap times, of course. I found a panel of a fairy and added borders before quilting it. Here’s the quilt:
I did a lot of free-motion quilting, outlining all of the motifs in the panel and adding some clouds and leaves in some empty spots. Then I quilted feathers all around the borders.
The quilt measures approximately 31.5″ x 50″, and I finished it in February, 2010.
This quilt was for our only granddaughter. 🙂 I’d purchased the fabric for this several years earlier, but it was too feminine for the four grandsons who arrived in the meantime. As soon as we found out that the next grandchild was to be a girl, I dug out the fabric and started the quilt. I machine pieced it and machine quilted it with lots of hearts and flowers. I finished it in February, 2007 (the baby was due in May <g>), and it measures approximately 39″ x 48″.
Here you can see some of the floral quilting.
Gabriella Jacquelyn arrived on May 1, 2007, weighing 5lbs 7oz. Here’s a picture of our new granddaughter at two weeks old, resting on her quilt:
I took a class in January, 2009, from Sharon Schamber on how to make various background stipple patterns. She’s such a good teacher! We got a good start on the piece in class, and I finished it at home shortly after that. The little quilt measures about 15″ square and is an excellent reference for future projects.
