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.
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!
Blog post 1, 2
After a machine appliqué class from Sharon Schamber, I used her technique to make this small quilt. It’s a gift intended for my eye doctor, who has gone above and beyond for the past few years to get my eyes to work in a more normal fashion. The dragon on the quilt came from a pattern by Carol Bruce, and I added double corded piping between the quilt and the binding. I machine quilted the piece using a variegated thread in shades of lavender and raspberry to do feathers, small pebbles and flowing lines.
Here is a close-up shot of some of the quilting:
The quilt measures approximately 23 1/2″ x 16 1/2″ and was finished in February, 2009.
Once again, I found a paper-pieced dog pattern in Houston (this time in 2003) that I just couldn’t leave behind! Each dog is dreaming about something special: chasing a cat or a bird, chewing on a big bone, taking a ride in the car, curling up in a cozy house.
The quilt was maching pieced and appliquéed (satin stitch), and I outline quilted each dog and then did a large stipple in the background. It measures 13″ x 11″ and uses buttons for the dream items. I finished it in November, 2003. I also tried a new-to-me method of binding this one, but I think I’ll go back to my old method. 😉 The pattern was made by Patchwork Plus.
I’d been collecting dog fabrics for several years with absolutely no idea of how I was going to use them. However, so many people were raving over how much fun they were having making Yellow Brick Road quilts that I decided that this might be just what I was looking for. I figured out the measurements I’d need to make one in a double-bed size and set to work. I cut out my fabrics on a Friday afternoon, machine pieced the top (minus borders) over the next few days, and finally put the almost-finished top on the bed I’d intended it for on Wednesday evening. After that, I slowed down a bit and finally finished the machine quilting and binding at the end of May, 2003.
I had a lot of fun with the machine quilting, putting in lots of dog-related words, as well as dog bones and paw prints. Here’s a photo of part of it:
The bed this quilt is for is in our guest room, but it’s also the bed that our dogs back then (Tuppence and Dexter) liked best to curl up on for daytime naps. They apparently approved of the quilt! 🙂
The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted and measures approximately 80″ x 97″.
This is another of Linda Hibbert’s patterns. I made this as a retirement gift for my husband’s boss at his job supervising student teachers through the local university. This man, who was also my boss when I did the same job for a year, is a Doberman lover. Since I also used to have Dobermans and still love them, I thought a quilt to reflect that was appropriate. It is paper pieced and free-motion machine quilted. I used a variegated thread in the border, but it’s difficult to see. Here is the quilt:
This quiltlet measures 11.75″ square and was finished at the end of March, 2004.
I’ve hadn’t been a paper piecer prior to these little quilts, but when I saw the patterns, I just couldn’t resist. I saw them first at the Houston Quilt Festival in 2002 and bought them to make “someday”. That day arrived in March, 2003, when I was looking for something small and quick to play with. I tried to make them to resemble our two dogs at the time, Dexter and Tuppence. In order to do that, I changed the coloring a little on the cocker spaniel pattern, something that’s easy enough to do. However, the all-black Dexter was more of a challenge. How do you make details show up when the coloring is the same? Specifically, how could I make his ear show against the rest of his black coat? I don’t know that I succeeded very well, but I can see it — in person, anyway! 😉 See if you can in the detail below.
Here’s my attempt at Dexter, who was a lab-chow mix and a real sweetheart.
And here’s a detail showing his head in a close-up. Can you see his ear? 😉
Now here’s the quilt portraying Tuppence, our little cocker who was an affectionate bundle of energy.
And here’s the detail of her head. You might be able to guess that she was red and white parti-colored.
Finally, here are the two dogs as they really looked. You can see more of them on their own pages on this site.
Each little quilt measures 10 1/4″ square, and I finished them the same month that they were started — March, 2003. They’re machine pieced and machine quilted. The patterns were made by Linda Hibbert. You can judge for yourself whether the dogs and the quilts look alike.
The San Francisco Stitch Company gave away the embroidery files for four really cute little animal blocks with an autumn theme, and I couldn’t resist making them. The border and corner files were more than reasonably priced, so I opted to use them instead of plain borders. The quilt is approximately 18.25″ x 18.25″ and was machine embroidered and machine quilted. I finished it in November, 2018.
Here are a couple of detail pictures of the quilting. First I did free-motion feathers around the animals in the blocks:
Next, I used ruler work to do the diagonal lines in the borders:
In April, 2019, our local guild had its annual quilt show, and Autumn Twist earned a first place ribbon!
Blog posts: blocks 1-2, block 3, block 4, borders, finished
A friend of our daughter’s has a little three-year-old girl — absolutely adorable — who didn’t have a nap quilt to use at preschool. Uh-oh — that just isn’t right! 😉 So here’s the quickie I whipped up from a panel, adding borders and doing some simple quilting. It’s 33″ x 40″ and was finished in November, 2009.
Aidan, grandson number four, was almost ready for nursery school, so of course he needed a nap quilt to take with him. A friend of mine and I found a very cute panel while shopping in Phoenix, and it was perfect for the purpose. I machine quilted it, outlining a lot of the motifs and using green thread for most of them and black for others. It was finished in March, 2007, and measures approximately 33.5″ x 43.5″.
