Quilting like a madwoman since somewhere around 1984!
I saw this pattern at the 2018 Houston Festival and couldn’t resist those sweet faces. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong fusible for the appliqué, which meant that I couldn’t do the type of quilting in the background that I’d originally planned. Still, I had fun playing with ruler work for the simple straight lines I did. The quilt, completed in March, 2019, measures about 26.5″ x 32″.
This is the first large quilt I made. It is a Grandmother’s Fan pattern set in love rings, or rings radiating out from the center.It is in shades of lavender, because my husband’s favorite color is purple. Each machine-pieced fan block is hand quilted with hearts, and the whole thing was lap quilted, following Georgia Bonesteel’s ideas. The quilt was finished in early 1988, over two years after I began it, and is big enough to drop to the floor on a queen-sized bed, measuring 95″ x 114″. Unfortunately, it’s seen some hard use in the past few years and is now in pretty bad condition — it didn’t help that the fabrics weren’t the best quality! Lesson learned: always get the best fabrics possible.
This was the first piece I’ve made for which the quilting was done in the hoop — that is, it was all done with the embroidery module for my Bernina. Since I really enjoy free-motion quilting, though, I doubt that I’ll do much more of this type. The design came from Janine Babich Designs, and the finished hanging measures approximately 8.5″ x 24.5″. It will be nice for Valentine’s Day. I finished it in September, 2017.
In July, 2009, I took a class from Rose Hughes on making landscape quilts. It was a fun class, but it’s not a technique I think I’ll be using again; it’s just not something that appealed to me. Because I wasn’t that excited about it, the unfinished quilt sat around until the end of October, 2010, before I finally finished it. It was supposed to have quite a bit of beading and embroidery to embellish it, but that just wasn’t going to happen. It’s machine appliquéed, using yarn zigzagged around all pieces and extra stuffing under some of the saguaro arms. It’s also machine quilted very simply, and I used a facing to finish it, rather than binding. This piece measures approximately 17″ x 23″.
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!
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.
Another embroidered appliqué quilt, this was designed and digitized by Claudia Dinnell, though I did omit the title from the top border of the quilt. It measures approximately 25.25″ x 25.25″ and was finished in November, 2017.
All of the quilting is free-motion ruler work, using diagonal lines that join in the center of the borders with a zentangle design.
Update: I entered Enchanted Pumpkin into our local show in March, 2018, and it won a third-place ribbon!
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.
Calling this appliqué is probably correct, but it may be stretching the term a bit, too. Still, the plates were appliquéd onto the pieced background, so the term does fit. This was a pattern created by Susan Cleveland, and I really liked the double points on the plates’ wedges, made easy to do with Susan’s Prairie Pointer tool. The background is made from pieces of linen I’d purchased at a Houston show, and the wedges are bright batiks I had in my stash. I quilted straight lines in the background, dividing the quilt roughly into quarters and doing two of the quarters with horizontal lines and two with vertical lines. I added a few leftover plate wedges to the embroidered label on the back and used the narrow corded piping I like so much next to the binding. I finished the quilt in May, 2015, and it measures 26.5″ x 24″.
