I have been plugging away at the dragonfly quilt... just seven blocks left to assemble. I have half of the sub-blocks done, working on color # 3. I think I mentioned in a previous blog that I was going to either have to make a trip to Kalamazoo (K-zoo from now on) for more green 'fairy frost' as I've been calling it ( it's actually 'rock candy') or just use what I have ( darker shade than what I'd been using). Since we were in K-zoo for the funeral, I was able to stop by the quilt shop ( Lucy in the Sky) and pick up more of the lighter green that I've been using.
I still don't know what size this quilt is going to end up being... have to wait and see what background fabric I have left after I get the sixteen blocks sewn together ( yes, I think the number of blocks changed, too).
The dragonfly quilt has been put aside since last Wed. so that I could get to working on my Ruth's Challenge quilt. A few months ago, Ruth gave out details for the quilts. We drew from 4 different boxes the size, the color(s), the pattern/print, and the technique to use. Each of us has something different. I drew 20"x30", red & black, leaf and multi techniques. I had a pretty good idea early on of what I was going to do, but continued to look for other ideas, which I never found. What I did was a version of a wall hanging I'd done before.
This is made from the original pattern.
It was the multi techniques that was the hardest for me - decisions, decisions, decisions. As you can see from the pic above, it's basically machine applique' and free motion quilting. Had to do something different this time... and had to make a smaller version.
First off, I sent for a sample of Texture Magic and copper sheeting (for crafts). Wasn't sure if I was going to use them or not, but at least I'd have them if I wanted.
Last Wed., I finally took the plunge and used 'discharge' (1/2 bleach and 1/2 water) on the black background after blocking off parts of the fabric with painter's tape.
The next step was fusing on the poinsettia and appliqueing it with satin stitching. Before satin stitching, I tried the Texture Magic..I took pics, but they really don't show the difference between the 'before' and 'after'.
Before
After
I cut a medium size ovally/circle shape out after shrinking the Texture Magic fabric and used it for the center of the poinsettia. THEN, did the satin stitching.
Once that was done, it was time to try a new 'trick'... I call it 3-D. I traced three of the poinsettia 'petals' a second time and, after applying fusible to red fabric, I fused the red fabric to red felt then cut each out. The next step was to satin stitch around the edges and then to place a fabric covered florist wire down the center of the top of the petal and satin stitch that down, too. I also straight stitched veins in.
first try
Because I wasn't sure how well the felt was going to go through my machine, I put a layer of phone book page underneath before doing the stitching. The petal shown above is actually a bright red, not pink as it looks in the pic.
Next up was sandwiching and quilting... I had orginally thought I would like red stitching using one of my fancy machine stitches riding along where the solid black and the discharge meet. After doing one 'row', I realized it wasn't the look I was looking for so ripped it out. Simple straight line stitching where the two blacks meet is all it really needed ( besides stitching around the flower petals, stem and leaves).
Up next was the beading for the stamen, etc (flower center). It covers up most of the Texture Magic, but that's ok.
Oh yeah, I inserted the 3-D petals before the quilting and beading... just made a small clip in the fabic and pushed the end of the floral wire in & bent it into the shape I wanted.
Then I decided I needed a second leaf on the stem, but smaller than the original one because I only had a 4" square of the copper and I wanted to use it on a leaf. Next up was heating the copper to cause it to change colors... it didn't come out exactly how I'd hoped it would, but it's still nice. ( no close up pics). After cutting out 3 shapes from the copper, I used an old sewing machine needle and punched holes along the outer edges so that I could attach the pieces with embroidery floss by hand and set them aside.
Up next was the 'faux' piping borders... taking a 1 3/4" strip of red and a 1 1/4" of black, I stitched them together (actually, I had three strips of each color). After joining the two together with a quarter inch seam, I brought the raw edges together so that there was a bit of red showing on the right side and hit with a hot steam iron - then stitched it to the quilt by sewing it to the back first with the red side up. Brought it around to the front and machine stitched in the ditch between the red 'piping' and the black.
While stitching the borders on, I included the label so that two sides of it were sewn in with the borders ( leaving me only two sides to hand stitch down), but forgot to add a sleeve.
backing fabric
I just went into my fabric stash for the backing fabric... found this Valentine print fabric that had lots of both black and red ( and I knew I'd probably never use it for a quilt front).
After stitching the pieces of copper down, I took two 3.5" squares, folded each in half on the diagonal right sides together, stitched around the raw edges while leaving an opening to turn right side out; pressed them and then hand stitched them to the top corners of the quilt and Voile' I could call this project DONE.
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