"What I Love about Quilting" - red work quilting girls quilt

Here is the quilt I made last month for our Foothills Annual Quilt Challenge - the theme was "What I am grateful for about Foothills or Quilting".

I decided to use my little red work quilting girl blocks that had been languishing for about 9 years so it's a long-overdue UFO for me too.  I'm happy that they were right for the theme and are now made into a quilt.  The swag borders are pre-printed yardage.  I added hand applique bows at the corners.  It took a lot of calculating to make the pre-printed borders fit along the block edges evenly.  Thankfully trimming the blocks to a smaller size and choosing a good sashing width made it all fit together.

I did custom quilting on this quilt and it seemed to take half-of-forever (a total of about 62 hours).   I love quilting feathers and meandering, but struggle with ruler work, so was glad when that part was finished.  I put in some really long days getting this done on time - not what I want to repeat anytime soon.  We had been having our great grandson here so much, that I didn't think I'd ever be able to get enough time to finish it by the deadline, but it finally got finished.

Getting the marking out turned out to be a challenge.  I used Sewline pencil with pink lead and Bohin colored chalk, the purple.  I thought I had pre-tested them but not good enough I guess.  I'm going to have to be more careful in the future.

I plan to give the back a little bit more attention before I call this quilt completely finished.  It seems that when I was changing thread colors my longarm came unthreaded and I struggled getting it to sew evenly after I re-threaded.  The stitching looks okay on the front but there are some loops around some of the curved feather tips on the back.  I think I'll come up with an applique idea and do some back art to cover those "loopies".  I'll post some pictures when I get the back art finished. 

All in all, I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but I prefer a more leisurely experience when I'm quilting.  It's done though so now I can switch to doing a little bit of handwork - something I really enjoy.  A much slower pace too. 

Here are a few close-ups so you can see the quilting. 

Here's the back art:

 

. . .and a close-up

Crazy Quilt Block Progress at the end of April 2016

I finished my last crazy quilt class on the internet by Kathy Shaw.  I miss it already.  It was such a great series of classes.  These 10 blocks are the blocks that I worked on during the latest class:

 

 

I thought I'd separate out the next 6 blocks though they are among the 10 that I also worked on  during this latest class.  They are blocks that were given to me by my friend Kathy E in February.  I've been working on them by embellishing them with motifs and such.

These are the 3 blocks that are completely finished.  I need to move some more blocks into this category.  They are lots of fun to make and also very time consuming.

 

 

Here are a few more blocks that I have started:

 

Beaded Slips - the last task in my last Crazy Quilt Class - I'll miss these wonderful classes!

The beaded slip was another fun one to do.  I decided to give the process a good try and make 2 again.  The first one is a sea shell.  I used a piece of fabric as the pattern and 2 colors of beads.  I really like how this one turned out. 

 

Here are the steps.  I used a piece of fabric instead of a pattern, which I basted to a piece of muslin, and backed with stabilizer.  Then I hooped it and did the beading.  Then cut it out with a 1/4" seam allowance and turned the seam allowance over using Elmer's school glue.  Then I attached it to my beachy looking crazy quilt block.

 

 

The next beaded slip is a turtle.  I found him on a piece of fabric and decided to bead his shell and applique the head and legs as is.  I put him on the block with the teddy bear I made in task #2.

 

Here are pictures of the steps I used to make him.

 

 

 

Here he is on the block with the teddy bear. 

 

I'm sad that the crazy quilt classes are over.  I highly recommend Kathy Shaw's classes to everyone.  What a wonderful, creative, and well presented series of classes!

 

 

Crazy quilt image slips

The two crazy quilt slips for this task are image slips.  The first one I made is a teddy bear.  I used a piece of fabric as my pattern.

The next two pictures are of the teddy bear cut out with a 1/4" seam allowance and then the seam allowance turned under using Elmer's school glue before I appliqued him to my crazy quilt block.  I stuffed the teddy bear as I was attaching him to the crazy quilt block so he looks sort of puffy and cute.

 

My second image slip is a bunch of flowers.  Again I used a piece of fabric instead of a drawn pattern.  I decided to do this as an oval medallion and to work the flowers in 4mm silk ribbon.  I was able to use my ProMarkers to color my ribbon.  I decided not to stuff the medallion because I liked how it looked this way.  I added a neutral ric rac when I attached the medallion to my block.

 

 

The next 3 picture are the steps I used to make this slip.  Fabric selection and oval shape drawn, then silk ribbon embroidery completed and French knot centers, and finally the completed slip. 

 

 

Another Embroidered Slip

Thought I'd try making a second embroidered slip - this one was a little bit easier because I didn't cover the whole piece with thread - just highlighted with thread.  I also used a piece of fabric instead of a drawn pattern to make this bunch of grapes.

 

Here is the step-by-step process.  I started with a piece of fabric.

 

I embroidered the highlights.

Then I cut it out leaving about 1/4" seam allowance.

 

I then turned under the seam allowance using Elmer's School glue and it was ready to applique to my crazy quilt block.

Making Embroidered Slips is the next project in my Crazy Quilt Class

When I saw the original class write-up and pictures I could hardly wait to get to this task - making a little embroidered fox slip.  I've bought embroidered slips in the past but didn't really think about making one myself.  It was time consuming but I really enjoyed seeing it come together.  Here's my little fox finished and in a scene - resting in the tall grass in the forest:

Here are the steps to make the slip.  The first step is to do the embroidery in a hoop so it doesn't pucker due to using so much thread.  I did the long & short stitch on the head and a stem stitch on the body and tail using regular sewing thread (suggested by the instructor) instead of embroidery floss.  I used muslin to embroider on, and pressed 2 layers on tear-away stabilizer to the back, before I began.

 After the embroidery was finished I tore off the stabilizer, trimmed around the shape leaving about 1/4" seam allowance, and then used glue stick to turn over the edges.  Here is the back side.

 

This is how it looks from the front.  Now it's ready to be stitched down to one of my crazy quilt blocks.