Big "Thank You"

I want to say "Thank You" to ALL of you for the great comments on my mug dilemma. Thanks to all your ideas and suggestions (bloggers are the best) I was able to come up with this to embroider on the mug for Bernice. Yellow roses, I think is suitable for someone about to have a operation, I used a variegated green for the vine and leaves. I can't take credit for the design, I copied it from one of my Crabapple Hill patterns. It was a bit more work than I intended to do but it came out lovely.
Here is the pincushion I received from Miet in Belgium. You can't see the base but she has cleverly used a jar lid for the pincushion base, the lid is covered a a green fabric, very cute. She sent a whole pile of Belgium chocolates with the pincushion. Thank you Miet I will enjoy using my new pincushion and eating my goodies. Thanks for being a great swap partner!
Since Miet doesn't have her own blog, I thought this would be a good place to show you the pincushion I made for her.

Pretty In Pink

I belong to a stitching group that meets most Tuesdays and two of the ladies in this group are going in for a cancer operations very soon. The group decided it would be nice to make Yvonne and Bernice a quilt to comfort them at this stage in their life. We've chosen this Pretty Dresses block for Yvonne, each of us is making one block using fabrics from our stash, the only requirement is that we keep the fabrics soft and pastel. The finished blocks are 10"x12" so if we get 20 blocks that will make a good size quilt.
This is the Mug block for Bernice, the fabric requirements were to be brighter and cheerful. I think the mug might need some extra embellishment....don't know what...big sigh.... but I'll come up with something. The sashing will be wonky so all the mug will be tipped in different directions when completed. I've hand appliqued both these blocks using my favourite method with freezer paper.
From the Hydrangea family but I'm not familiar enough to know what the name is. It's so lacy and delicate looking....pretty in pink.

Thanks for visiting, I really enjoy all your comments.

More Applique Method

If you missed my tutorial on appliqué visit my earlier post.Applique Method
I decided to take the plunge (a really big step for me...teehee) and machine appliqué my block (not enough time to do everything by hand). I used the Invisafil thread in the top and in the bobbin. Most of the appliqué pieces blended fine with using the black thread but the star being so light needed the beige thread. I'm very happy with how this turned out...whew. I think I might do the machine appliqué more often. Hmmm...opens lots of possibilities, need to do more thinking on that.
Here is a close up of the machine appliqué. Don't know if you can see it but, I did a very small zig zag around all my shapes.

Fun Mail!

I've been waiting for my needlekeeper from Susan to arrive any day, she received mine a couple of weeks ago and we mailed them around the same time. Hmmmm...what does the mail man do with our precious cargo for so long.

Susan has done a incredible job of crazy quilting on this needlekeeper, she must have spent hours working on this. Susan added beads, lace, silk ribbon and a picture of two little angel girls on the front, the back is equally as elaborate. I also received a FQ of lilac fabric and the cutest scissor fob ever. Thank you so much Susan, I will cherish this incredible piece of work!
I couldn't believe it when on the same day, I also received a package from Carole. I was teasing her about all the chocolate she received in the mail and that she couldn't possibly eat all that by herself, maybe sharing will ease the load (we quilters like to help each other). So Carole sent me some of her favourites. I've already eaten one of the Cherry Ripe.....yummy....where can I get more of these delicious bites???? The Crabapple Hill Pattern has some wool applique added with the embroidery.....I LOVE it! Thanks so much Carole you are the sweetest!
I received this magazine last week from Donna in Australia. She was so kind to just send me this for no particular reason....just because. Thank you so much!

I can't tell you how much fun I'm having meeting such incredible friends in Blogland or as my DH would say "imaginary friends". Thanks for visiting my blog, I enjoy getting to know everyone as I travel around the blogging world.

Maybe my pincushion from Belgium will arrive soon...I'll have to talk with the mail man to find out where it is....

Applique Method

This is my absolute favourite and the only method I like to use for appliqué "freezer paper and liquid starch". I promised in a previous post that I would show how I do my appliqué.

1. Trace all appliqué shapes onto dull side of freezer paper (reverse shapes as needed).
2. Cut out each shape on traced line.
3. Iron on "wrong" side of fabric (pictured above).
4. Ruff cut a generous 1/4" around each shape. You're not looking for that prefect 1/4" here.
Here are all the supplies I need for preparing my shapes.
a. Liquid Starch
b. Clover Mini Iron
c. Seam Ripper
d. Small Saucer
e. Artist Brush (available at dollar stores)

5. Spray a small amount of starch in the saucer and add a couple of drops of water.
6. Take the artist brush and dip in starch mixture.
7. On the right side of fabric shape, using the artist brush wet the seam allowance with the starch mixture (without soaking the fabric)
8. I use the seam ripper in my left hand and the Clover Mini Iron in my right hand.
9. Using the seam ripper to hold the seam allowance while ironing with mini iron. The iron will dry and press the seam allowance to freezer paper side.
10. Continue around shape until seam allowance is all flipped in and starch has dried from ironing.
The seam allowance will stay flipped over because of the starch. Hold the iron for a few seconds to let the iron dry the fabric. I use the iron on the hottest setting but be very careful it gets VERY HOT. The best part is that if you don't like how your shaped turn out ie points showing up around the circle, you can re-wet and start again. Be careful with this as the freezer paper doesn't stand up with wetting too much. That's the reason I tell you to wet the right side, it keeps the water away from the freezer paper as much as possible.
Here is what it looks like when the seam allowance is all dry. The smaller circle is where I've taken out the freezer paper. You can see how it holds very well. Now you are ready to place on your background fabric and start attaching the applique shapes.
See the star has some funny ends showing. I'll trim these just a little and then when I hand appliqué I will use the needle to push under the remainder of the ends sticking out. I've used this method for all kinds of shapes and sizes, even tiny circles.
Here is my layout ready for pinning or I like to use Roxanne's glue to hold in place. I only use a few tiny drops around the seam allowance and no pins to get in my way. This block is part of a kit I bought at The Quilted Crow....oh I guess a couple years ago now. The best appliqué thread I've found is called Invisafil and it's truly invisible when you sew with it. People don't believe me until they give it a try and then are totally amazed at how you can't see the stitches. The other nice thing is that you don't need every colour, I've been using one colour for all the shapes and it doesn't show.

A small update on my 9-patches....15 of them completed...

Happy Stitching.

Care and Feeding

Hanging baskets are beautiful this time of year. These are hanging on my front porch. They take much care and feeding to keep them looking so lovely. I water them everyday with 15-30-15 fertilizer and they bloom all summer. I've learned to not let the baskets dry out because the tender plants don't recover well after that. I'm showing these because I just love them.

The Shoofly Potpie doll quilt from Kim Diehl's book (Simple Traditions) is all done, well the top is complete at any rate. It looks especially nice draped over my DH antique radio from the 1920's(I think). When you turn it on, the radio lights up (dial is hiding under the lovely quilt) and a really nice humming comes out of it. DH might fix it up "one day", the original tubes are still in the back. Could you imagine the excitement for a family to be sitting around one of these and listening to the evenings programs. This radio is fairly fancy so was probably a big purchase for that time period. My how things have changed.

Thanks for visiting!

What's This???

I started making scrappy nine patches for a quilt that won't be done for a very long time...planning ahead LOL.... I'll do some each month until I have enough for a quilt. How many is a quilt you say??? Haven't even decided what the layout will be or what size it will be yet (did I say planning?) These are cut 1 1/2" strips for a finished size of 3"....sooo cute aren't they? Now see the yellow nine patch that's slightly bigger....I had a light bulb moment that went dim really fast...lol. I thought since I was cutting 1 1/2" strips why not make blocks for 2 other quilts (Acorn Quilt and Simple Traditions Doll Quilt).....hmmm not such a good idea. My thought was that I could make blocks for 3 quilts at once (ambitious huh...LOL, I think I'll need a bigger room for such a feat), they all use 1 1/2" strips....why can't I. It seems much more organization is needed then I was prepared to do (quilting is fun right?), besides the bigger one has a couple of different cuts. The shoofly block is 1 1/2" strips with the half square triangle being 2" and cut on the diagonal, I found this one being a smaller quilt much more manageable to track while making 9 patches. The blocks are all done for the shoofly, now I'm ready to assemble the top. So the end of the story is that the Acorn Quilt didn't get off the ground. That's it for now, from my scrambled thoughts...I hope you could follow.
More to come...