Making Kits...and Some Finishes

I put an unusual binding on my "Garden Lace" CQ...I used jacquard ribbon, handsewn on the front, and then on the back. I liked adding that extra detail in the ribbon.
To finish "Elle and Dave", I mounted it on foam core, stretching it nice and taut. I wrote an article for CQMagOnline about how to do that here.

Both of these are ready to mail.
On the back they look like this....

I must have had that cotton lace panel fabric for 20 years! Kinda scary...

Now I am fully engaged in the final preparations for the workshops I'll be giving in Baltimore in early May. The components for the kits for Crazy Applique are cut out, the instructions written and printed, and all just needs to be assembled.

After that the in-progress block examples need to be sewn, and then the kits for the Embellished Flowers workshop need to be assembled. So I am not going to have much of interest to blog about here for the next week or so....but it is pretty fun work, pulling everything together.

I am so excited about my teaching debut! ;-)

Garden Lace...Embellishment Finished

The quilt just needs to have a back and some corded binding put on it, and then it is done!

It is my second contribution to the Alliance for American Quilts "Crazy for Quilts" contest....as a board member, I am not eligible to compete, but I am happy to provide another quilt for their online auction of all entries next fall.
So you'll be able to bid on it, and all the entries, in a few months... ;-)

I thoroughly enjoyed making this, working within my strict design parameters of lace seams and my home printed floral fabrics. I kept the beading and embroidered stitching on the laces simple, wanting not to overpower the flowers in the fabric.

It was a little hard not to add a bunch more fun stuff on here, but I was determined to keep it simple!

The lace in the print (lower left) is nice with the real lace on top of it.
I know I'll be doing more of that in the future.

In fact, I see this as a warm-up for a large quilt project...
...which is a great way to view the making of a quilt for the Alliance's contest. Exploring ideas and honing concepts, contributing to a major force for good in the quilting world, getting your work out there on exhibit...this is a win-win for everybody.

You've still got plenty of time. So jump in and enter! Details are here...

Not enough people know that the entire collections of such institutions as the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, the Museum of the American Quilters' Society, the Library of Congress American Folk Life Center, and so many more--these are their entire collections--are online and free for your viewing pleasure, inspiration, and education. When you take time to poke around the institutional collections here on the Alliance's Quilt Index , you will understand why I love supporting this fine non-profit, and hope you will, too.

The Quilt Index holds the above collections as well as thousands of other quilts. These can be accessed by:
--pattern name
--quilter
--quilting group
--location made
--time period
--project/collection
--fabric fiber
--fabric type
--fabric pattern
--religious/ethnic/or cultural affiliation
--publications, exhibitions, or contests

Pretty amazing, isn't it?
If you don't want to enter the contest, you can still support the Alliance by becoming a paying member or donating. Find out here....

Garden Lace....Lucite Bead Circle

I can't visit my son Max (he's a techie) and his girlfriend Esther in Seattle without a trip to Fusion Beads, which is literally just down the street from them.
Fusion always has a yummy supply of vintage lucite beads...so I bought some for my Garden Lace project.

I also stopped in on Weaving Works, which is in the vicinity as well. I brought home some goodies.

I was on a budget or else I would have gone pretty nuts with those flower beads!

I also spent a most splendid afternoon at the home of Paul and Jean Krynicki, who are the proprieters of River Silks, my favorite silk ribbon in all the world.
Paul and Jean have traveled extensively all over Asia to source the very highest quality silk. Their ribbon will NEVER run or shred while you are using it, because the thread count is so high.

They sent me home with a copy of the book they use in their classes. I plan on devouring it; you can have a look inside here.
Also shown is a sample of their 13mm (that's 1/2") ribbon. Non-shredding wide ribbon is something I can't wait to stitch with!

Jean showed me how to do this combination Folded Ribbon Stitch/French Knot.
You can see how dense the ribbon is, but it is not stiff at all. It just behaves itself beautifully.

I put my newly acquired lucite flowers and Swarovski pearls to fine use on my Garden Lace piece...but otherwise got no stitching done at all! The weather was just too nice....

I like how the five-petaled lucite flowers mimic the five-petaled borage and verbena blossoms in the round center print....
They really catch the light better than the above picture shows. Maybe from an angle...

That's better!
I hope to get the rest of my simple stitching done on this over the coming days...but while the weather stays nice I'll have to get into the garden......

Garden Lace...Embroidery Details

In keeping with my experiment of setting strict parameters for this crazy quilt--use of only home-printed flower fabrics, and only lace between all seams--I am putting very few kinds of embroidery stitches on my seams as well. Just herringbone and detached chain...plus a few beads here and there.

A highly unified look is my design goal this time around. Crazy quilts are not necessarily random!

Keeping the stitching simplified speeds things along, too, as there are fewer decisions to make along the way. I've started from the bottom and am working my way up the piece.

Some of the flower photographs I printed had lace in them, too, like this one in the bottom right. Makes it kind of fun...

I adjusted the central circle area so that it is more uniformly round. This involved some quick work with the seam ripper and repinning and resewing, but was actually quite painless!

I'm away for a long week-end....hopefully this embroidery will be done by the time I get home.

May we all enjoy some lovely spring sunshine this week-end!

"Garden Lace"....Creating Trim

What a superb play day yesterday was! 40 degrees and hard rain outside, cozy sewing room with pretty fabrics, ribbons, and lace inside, emailing on and off with my buddies, listening to good music as the rain poured down...it was pretty darn wonderful.

I call my project "Garden Lace" because all the flowers in the fabrics are indeed from my garden, and the dominant element to go with them is from my lace collection, which I have been shamefully ignoring lately.

To construct my little quilt (which as I said last time, will be another contribution to the Alliance for American Quilts Crazy about Quilts contest, which I do hope lots of you will enter), I used the same machine applique technique as I did for "Elle and Dave", which will be written up in the next issue of CQMagOnline, going live on April 25th. This is a fast way to work.

I needed solid trim to go between my fabric patches but wanted to use lace...so....

I got out some ribbons of various widths, some likely lace pieces (the short bits were perfect), and my Steam a Seam fusible strips in both 1/4" and 1/2" widths. (If I had had the Lite version of my Steam a Seam, that would have been better for embroidering through later, but I used what I had on hand.)

This shows the ribbon with the Steam a Seam on it below, and the lace I'm going to iron it to above.

Et voila!
Here's another one...

This is ironed on, viewed from the back.

Here it is from the front.

And here's the batch of them.
Most of these pieces of lace were short and I loved using them up this way.
The ribbon colors were chosen to go with my floral fabrics....

I do like how unified this looks. Controlling the elements going into a crazy quilt gives it some order...and I always love that balancing act between order and chaos....

I'm going to enjoy hanging some embroidery off the edges of the laces. Toward that end I just happened to have ordered some lovely new threads from Maureen Greeson's new website. Her prices are very good and her service is excellent. Visit her here:

www.MaureensVintageAcquisitions.com

and you will be glad you did!

She carries exactly the kind of supplies I love! I encourage you to check out her new site. ;-)

More rain on tap for today....you know what I'll be doing!