Modern Quilts
May is for Maker’s: My Indie pattern company purchases
Hi, For the month of May, I have been participating in the May is for Maker’s campaign to purchase a pattern a week for each week of May from Indie pattern companies. The idea to honor and support all the Indie pattern designers this month was started by Lindsey Rhodes who blogs as LRStitched. It is now week 4 of the month of May and I have all ready purchased 8 new patterns. I thought I would share them all with you. I also am going to share the fun patterns I have purchased in the last 5 months that I purchased while I was off from blogging as it might inspire you to check them out this month as well.
In the top row are Cakewalk by Thimble Blossoms, Coastline by Sharon Holland Designs, and Double the Plus by Emily Dennis (Quilty Love).
In the middle row are Junebug by Lella Boutique, and Painted Basket by The Sometimes Crafter.
In the bottom row are Triangle Collage Pillow by Deborah Baron Art, Honor Roll by Hello Melly Designs and Breeze Quilt by For the Love of Fabric.
(I have all ready created a quilt with the Double the Plus by Emily Dennis and you can read about it in this blog post, if you missed it last week. )
In the top row are Katie’s Compass by Sterling Quilt Company, Go West by Bonjour Quilts, and The Rebel Quilt by Libs Elliott.
In the second row are St. David’s Cross (Welsh Blanket Quilt) by Mary Emmens, Chicken and Stars by Happy Zombie, and Wild Goose Chase by Live.Love.Sew.
In the bottom row are Diamonds in the Deep by Bonjour Quilts, Hexie Framed by Emily Dennis (Quilty Love) and City Tiles by Emily Dennis (Quilty Love.)
( I all ready have two versions of Go West by Bonjour Quilts cut out with one for my daughter and the other for myself. I am also working on City Tiles by Emily Dennis with it all cut out for a queen size version uping it from the original 16 to 25 blocks. I have 3 blocks pieced. I won the Diamonds in the Deep quilt pattern from a contest Bonjour Quilts had on Instagram and my friend Zafira who blogs at Zarkadia also won a copy. Emily Dennis had a pattern sale so I also purchased the Hexie Framed pattern. I have always wanted to try a hexie quilt of some kind.)
In the top row is the book Quilting from Every Angle by Nancy Purvis, the book Handmade Style by Noodlehead, the Stacked quilt pattern by Sew Many Creations and Outlined Plus by Meadow Mist Designs.
In the bottom rows are Maker’s Tote by Noodlehead, Purse Organizer by Sotak Handmade Patterns, Forest Friends quilt pattern (collection) by Sew Fresh Quilts and The Plus Side by Bonjour Quilts.
(I pretty much love every design in the Quilting from every Angle book. I purchased the Maker’s Tote and Sotak Purse Organizer patterns to make possible Christmas gifts. I did not get anything sew for gifts so this will be the first ones I go to for future gift making. )
I will be sharing in future blog posts my progress on these new quilty projects that I have started all ready from these wonderful patterns. Please consider supporting any and all of these talented Indie crafters this month!!
Thanks for stopping by my blog.
(If you are having a hard time finding out where to reply to blog posts, if you click on the actual title of the blog post it should open up to the full blog posting and have comments at the bottom. I am sorry for the confusion.)
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Friday Finish: Double the Plus Quilt
Hi, I am happy to share an actual quilt finish. I made Double the Plus by Quilty Love, which is Emily Dennis’ quilt company. It is meant to be a reversible quilt and plus quilt blocks are my favorites. This pattern goes together really easy but I needed a super fast finish so I only made the one side.
I picked this pattern to be a purchase for my part in the May is for Maker’s pattern campaign. You are purchase a new pattern a week for each week of the month of May by an Indie designer. I learned about this campaign on Instagram and have been following it there. #mayisformakers I have actually purchased more than 5 patterns by the 3rd week in to the campaign. I will write another blogpost to show off my fun purchases and projects I all ready have started.
My husband asked me to create a quilt for a former coworker of his who will be celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary this weekend. The gentleman has been a friend of our family for many years. He is in poor health and currently in the hospital. It was really important to my husband that this quilt be done in time for the party.
I chose a color scheme of blue and white. I had the needed 5 yards of each color to make the reversible quilt. Unfortunately, I made one simple mistake or actual stupid one and miscut the 5 inch strips needed for background piecing and cut them the size needed for the centers of the pluses. I literally tore my sewing room and storage area apart looking for more of that same blue or a similar shade that I could recut out another top of the blue areas. No such luck…I did find gray solid and decided that maybe I would have a gray with white pluses side with a white with blue pluses opposite side. I started cutting and piecing the gray version of this top. Well, I decided the next day to go see if I could locate a similar blue to make the quilt top over so it would look “correct” in my eyes. I found a shade of blue that I liked, though not the same. (Note to self, to not purchase odd shades called Indigo on Black Friday sales online. Hancock Fabrics is closing so that will not be happening again.)
Long story short, I have a white with indigo blue pluses quilt top half pieced. A gray with white pluses that is started piecing and the matching white with gray pluses matching side cut out. I needed to have this quilt completely pieced and quilted by Friday 6:30 AM as my husband needed to take it to work with him. I had to babysit our grandson that day and would not be able to attend the party at the hospital. We decided on a patriotic eagle all over print as the backing as our friend had been in the Air Force. I did my first all nighter and started quilting at 12:05 and finished binding at 5:55. It did a trip through the dryer to delint it and it was wrapped and out the door by 6:30 AM. Friday was the longest day ever since I had been up since Thursday 7 AM. I was up for 38 hours and slept a good 10 hours last night. The couple loved the quilt and both were almost in tears. The wife said she never had anything this nice. I hope to go visit them myself tomorrow.
This is the flimsy top without the last long side border pieces. I needed to take a full photo before my husband used the bed to go to sleep. So this is my only full layed out photo of this top. It is made with American Made Brand cotton fabrics. This was my first time using that fabric. It is really nice stuff and pressed nicely.
I ended up doing the most simple quilting possible. A 1/4 inch on either side of all seams. I really look forward to making the reversible gray and white quilt so I can do the allover gridded diamond quilting.
I had the patriotic eagle fabric in my stash. This is the first time in a long while that I used just one fabric print as a backing for a quilt. I tried to measure what I had extra careful and seamed it horizontally. I started my quilting on the horizontal rows and it seemed that a ripple was creating so I would have to move my pins a bit every couple rows to keep everything smooth. I ended up just a tad short in the end but was able to take a piece that I trimmed off the side and piece it to the back before trimming up to bind.
I apologize for not blogging much over the last 6 months. My husband finally was able to go back to work 2 weeks ago. He did not think his recovery from his back surgery would have taken quite that long. I hope to get a couple more blog posts up this coming week. If you happen to be on Instagram, I can be found as @shelleymichellefolkerts and you can see of my new WIPs over there.
Thank you for stopping by my blog. I will be sharing this quilt finish on Finish It Friday over at CrazyMom Quilts.
(Check out my next blog post for lots of ideas for May is for Makers pattern purchases. )
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Irish Rose Chain Block Tutorial Uploaded
Hi, This is a quick note to say that I have completed and uploaded my 2016 Paintbrush Studios New Block Blog Hop quilt tutorial. I am calling my block, Irish Rose Chain. You can find a full tutorial for the block on my previous blog post from my day on the blog hop on Wednesday, March 30th.
This is what my completed block could look if you made 30 blocks creating an approximate 60 by 72 inch quilt.
This was created using Photoscape photo editing software. I did two previous blog posts on how to use the software here and here. I am looking to write up additional quilt designs based on a larger version of my block.
Thank you to all of you that sent condolences and well wishes on the passing of my Father inlaw. It was greatly appreciated. I will be writing you all back soon.
I will be linking my block’s tutorial with various weekly linky parties that can be found on the linky party page at the top of my blog.
Thank you for stopping by.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
TBT: Rocky Mountain Sparkler Quilt
On the first Thursday of the month, Jenn who blogs over at A Quarter Inch From the Edge holds a Throw Back Thursday linky party. You are able to share any quilts whether they maybe good, bad or ugly from your pre-blogging days. This will be my first time sharing one of my quilts there. I have shown pretty much all my pre-blogging days quilts all ready on my blog that I had photos of. There are numerous ones that did not get photographed that I wish I now had a record of making. This quilt that I am sharing today is one of my favorite smaller quilts that hangs currently from a quilt rack in our living room. (My WordPress was not allowing me to write or edit my posts, but after upgrading it appears to be working again. So my Thursday posting is now a Sunday post.)
Please head over to Jenn’s page and check out the neat quilts that have been shared this week on Throwback Thursday.
Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Back to Sewing and Quilting
Hi, Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that 2016 is off to a good start for you all as well. I certainly did not intend to be away from quilting and my blogging for 2 months.
I do have a quilt top to show off this week. We received the final instructions on the Midnight Mystery Quiltalong by Meadow Mist Designs this week and I finished piecing my blocks into the finished design. I really like it and my husband said it turned out really cool and of course always asks, And who is this one going to?? I explained what a quiltalong was and told him that it may go to one of two people. I was undecided on which one yet.
I have started to lay out the squares for my Modernized Disappearing Nine Patch made with Get A Clue Nancy Drew fabrics. I had hoped to get this quilt made in time for Christmas but it just was not possible so I am hoping to get it completed for Ali’s birthday in February.
I am working with three charm packs of the Nancy Drew fabrics and added a set of 5 fat quarters of the bright mottled colors in addition to the white solid background. With this layout, it should be approximately 45 by 60 inches when pieced together. I of course want it larger than that to be a nice throw size. I have cut more white squares to make more nine patches.
The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays were pretty rough around here as my husband has been recuperating from spinal fusion surgery. His back pain is basically gone, but unfortunately he now has alot of pain in his left leg. He got to take a nice ambulance ride for a second trip to the hospital the second week of December. The ER doctors had him on enough really strong painkillers that it should have put out a 1500 pound steer. It is nerve pain in his leg caused by the doctors touching and moving the cluster of nerves down the left side of his body. No one can tell us if his leg will feel normal again in 6 months or ever…yet.
My husband’s back now looks like a poorly made kid’s 4 H project or an Erector Toy Set gone bad. He laughs he will never be able to go through a metal detector again.
Our family suffered a great loss just two days before Christmas. Our 9 month old Australian Shepherd puppy Katie decided to chase after a car speeding by our house and was hit and killed instantly. We are all devastated. We are extremely upset with the lady who hit her. She drives by our house twice a day at great speeds and we live on a gravel road that is not always maintained in the best way. Last year, she almost hit a black cow that was standing in the middle of the road at the bottom of our hill. It was not one of ours. I was doing dishes and saw her fly by and saw brake lights and crunching gravel. I just assumed she finally hit a deer. Thankfully she did not hit the cow. My husband says he can not go through this again. No more pets. We did bury three this past year. We had been saying all along no more puppies but I have told him that since we are still young (50 and 55) that I can not see never having another dog. If we stay healthy, we could have a good 30-35 years here at home. I have to have a dog. Abbey, our Black Lab is 10 and will not be with us forever. In the weeks before Katie’s passing, he had decided that if we could find a big fluffy cat similar to Buddy, that he gave us permission to bring it home. He continued to say that even after Katie was gone. We have been in the works to adopt from a local rescue, a male gray Maine Coon cat very similar to Buddy that lost his front leg to a likely nasty steel jaw trap. He has been recuperating at a foster home and gets along amazing well. I was concerned that he would have issues getting around in our two story house, but supposedly he is still able to jump and clear a baby gate so venturing around in our house should be fine. We should be able to bring him on Thursday this week. I can also add that my husband has had a lot of time to think in the last couple weeks, and he has said that if we could find a nice young female Australian Shepherd that was well past all the puppy stage that he would consider having another. This will be no small feat.
I have lots planned for the new year. There are lots of new quilt patterns to play with that I have acquired in the last two months. I apologize to everyone that I owe an email back to yet. There have been many weeks with many nights with little sleep for everyone here. Things are slowly getting better. I have really missed sewing and quilting and my blog has gotten neglected as well. I have been working on this post all weekend long, as the software has not been loading my photos correctly. I think I have it figured out.
Thank you to all who have read this to the end. I hope to have more quilting to share yet this week.
Happy Sewing until then,
Shelley
Flying Happy Flimsy Completed
Hi, I am extra happy to share my completed Flying Happy quilt top today. It took me a couple extra days longer than I thought it would to get all the flying geese and the other block components assembled into the 36 blocks needed for this 72 inch square quilt top.
Flying Happy in Batiks quilt flimsy
I laid out all my quilt blocks on top of my bed and determined how I wanted them to be sewn up colorwise. I even took a photo. I carefully picked them back up last to first. While the block is able to be switched top to bottom and the geese stay in the same formation, I think I got a couple blocks switched around in how I wanted the center cross block to lay. I had to switch a couple blocks back around while sewing and it must be why I ended up with a cluster of turquoise in the bottom section. There are two different turquoise batik prints and they look very similar from a distance. A few of my fat quarters were larger than standard and I was able to cut more blocks out those particular colors so more squares show up in the mix.
Flying Happy
I tried my best to get 6 different colored batiks in each block. It is amazing how many different variations appear when you cut one fat quarter into the needed squares. I think only one block ended up with both turquoise batiks in it.
Flying Happy
When looking through the camera lens and using the flash, this corner of the quilt showed alot of bright pink. There are actually numerous color variations in this corner. I probably could have done a little more mixing in the top two rows, but it is all together and I really do not want to attempt to take any of it apart. I was rather anxious about all the geese playing nice, but in general they went together well. I finger pressed for the main part until all my blocks were made and then I gave them a good steam press when completed first from the back working on getting my seams to lay in correct direction and then I flipped the block right side. I then pressed from the center out to the edges. I did have a few geese that were a bit off but when I made sure I sewed them together and my stitching went through the little intersecting x, I was able to make all my points pointy.
Flying Happy
I really love how this quilt top turned out. It has many of my favorite batik prints in it. I am usually one who thinks bigger is better with quilts. I really love flying geese but 288 flying geese is ALOT of geese to make. I do not think I would want to size up this quilt to make it king size. It fits the top of our king size anyway at it’s finished 72 inch size. I would think there should be a bit of shrinkage after quilting and washing. This will be a throw quilt that I will be keeping for my own use.
I will be linking up my flimsy finish with Fabric Tuesday, Linky Tuesday, WIP Wednesday and Let’s Bee Social.
Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
WIP: Many Projects Midweek
Hi, I thought I would share what I am working on this week and give some progress reports. (Updated for Friday)
I have been attempting to make some headway on the 288 flying geese needed for my Batik Flying Happy quilt. I think I have over 80 completed.
Flying Happy Geese in Formation
Here is one pile laid out in flying formation.
Rows of Geese Flying Happy
I love chain piecing. It just seems to take forever to make these geese because I have handle them so much. I started finger pressing my cream squares to get a sewing line. I now have decided to just wing it sewing the diagonal of the 2.5 inch squares. It is not too hard to sew a straight line for that short of a distance. Everyone will get a good press before being assembled into the rest of the block.
I am working on designing a back for my The Cowboy Way quilt which is a Grande Scrappy Tiles design by Meadow Mist Designs. It is for my daughter who is studying Animal Science and Veterinary Tech. She loves her cowboy boots, cowboys and horses. My daughter started a personal blog but did not get too far with it. She has kept the name and is looking to revamp the page and maybe use the name to sell some of the things she likes to make like jewelry, headbands, and tooled/beaded leather items. She calls herself “Shunned From the Herd”. I had one of those lightbulb moments in the shower a couple weeks ago to (of course) make an appliqued back for this quilt. I remembered that I had Holstein cow print leftover from my grandson Sawyer’s 2nd birthday quilt Oinka Doodle Moo. Years ago we bought a Holstein calf and grafted it onto one of our favorite Gelbveih Momma cows who had lost her calf. We named him, Daryl as in “Daryl and my other brother Daryl from the Bob Newhart show”.
The Cowboy Way backing concept
I did have the two cowprint strips sewn to my appliqued strip but cut them apart as it appeared to be too much white and black. I am looking at adding a strip of the red print to both sides of the applique to frame it. The length of the word applique by itself is 57 inches. I am needing a 80 by 100 inch backing so I have some more piecing that needs to be designed for this backing yet. Maybe some plaid shirting, stars and stripes bunting??? Digging deep in the fabric bins for this one.
Backing center prints
The red is from the front of the quilt, and has a really neat old barn scenery design inked on to the barn red color.
I did not do any new sewing over my birthday weekend, but I did finalize two new quilting project ideas.
Get A Clue Nancy Drew
I have finally decided what I can make with my two charm packs of Get A Clue Nancy Drew fabric. I will be making a modernized disappearing nine patch quilt for my son’s girlfriend. I discovered that her Mom shared the love for reading and the Nancy Drew Mysteries with her as a child just like my Mom did with me. So it seems fitting to make her a quilt with these fun prints. I miss I could find more squares as it is out of stock and out of print.
Any One have some in their stash hidden away???
My second quilt project idea is a way to use the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fabric I bought my grandson Sawyer. It will be for a quilt to stay at Grandma’s house. I love these design so much that if it all goes together nicely, I have other fabrics to use in this quilt pattern.
Turtles Gridlock Fabric Pull
This quilt pattern is Giddy Gridlock by Tanya Finken and it is in the last Quilty magazine issue ever (May/June 2015). I thought about using Thimble Blossom’s Framed to make this quilt idea, but I really like the angular longer rectangles to show off my turtles. I of course have ideas all ready for a special backing for this quilt. I am pretty excited to start piecing this one, but I need to finish up my flying geese first.
I got some exciting news this week that the Blue Island Tribal block that I designed for the Fabri-Quilt Block Hop was chosen to be entered into The Quilter’s Planner that my quilty friend, Stephanie over at LateNight Quilter designed and is publishing. You can preorder this wonderful and useful planner for holiday gifts.
Updated for Friday:
I have finished piecing all the flying geese for Flying Happy. I may have gotten off count and made more than I needed. Any extras may be worked in to a backing design.
Flying Geese and More Flying Geese
The piles on the outer perimeter are sewn into two patches. The center three rows of sorted flying geese needed to be sewn into matching pairs yet. In my counting of blocks this is where I am possibly off, as I count enough geese to make 37 blocks and I all ready have 4 blocks completed. This would make a possible 41 blocks when I need 36. I only have centers pieced for 36 blocks.
Flying Happy 4 of 36 blocks completed
With four blocks completed, you can get a better idea of what the Flying Happy quilt pattern will look like in batiks. I am pretty happy with the color choices. I am doing my best to make sure that each block has 6 different colors.
All my flying geese trimmings in a gallon bag
I save all the trimmings from cutting my 288 flying geese. It fills a gallon size ziplock bag. It looks quite pretty. They would make 1 inch finished half square triangles when sewn and trimmed.
I am hoping to get my Flying Happy flimsy completed this weekend. I had hoped for a Friday finish but it will more likely be a Saturday finish. I have made a lot of progress in just two days.
I hope that everyone is having a great week. I will be linking my WIP with various weekly linky parties that the links are on my linky page at the top of this page.
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
TGIFF: Mod Gears Harley Inspired Baby Quilt
Welcome to TGIFF! I am Shelley and I blog as The Carpenters Daughter who Quilts. I am excited to share with all of you my Friday finish this week. Today (Friday) is also my 50th birthday and my blog is also celebrating having over 100 postings. I am holding a giveaway contest to celebrate both events.
Let me first share my fun quilt that I made. It is Mod Gears by Elizabeth Dackson (Don’t Call Me Betsy). I made it in similar to Harley Davidson motorcycle colors. This is a quilt for our friend’s first grandson. Both Mom and Dad have their own Harleys. I decided to personalize the back with the little boy’s name, Eli John. He is named after a beloved cousin and his grandfather.
Mod Gears (Harley Inspired)
I decided to add the extra white border and rounded the corners with a dinner plate. I made bias binding in orange that is in the main quilt. I planned to hand sew down the binding but at the last moment and it was after midnight, I decided to sew it down by machine. It is sturdy and should hold up in the wash.
Mod Gears on the clothes line blowing in the wind
I really like how the quilting shows up on the backing. I really enjoy making pieced backs for all my quilts. Many could be reversible.
Appliqued Name block
I design my names or wordings that I applique on my quilts with a simple program called Print Artist. It is software that you can design your own printables like gift cards to business cards. I chose how long I need my words to be and how tall. There are hundreds of fonts to choose from. I print out my names in coloring book format. I cut out all my letters and trace them backwards on to Lite Steam A Seam 2 double layer fusible. I fuse my letters into position and usually stitch close to the edge of the letters in a straight stitch.
Mod Gears hanging out on the garden bench
Mod Gears
I am excited to present this quilt to my friends. I think they should love it ( or hope they do) as much I as I do.
In honor of my 50th birthday and passing the 100th blog post (actually happened in August when we did all the work on our house) I am giving away some of my favorite things. Batik fabrics and my favorite fusible product so that one of you can try your hand at some type of appliquing.
A lovely Bali Crackers layer cake in Rum Raisin.
These prints would look lovely in just about any design.
Two Sided Lite fusible web product
I discovered today that JoAnn’s now is selling this version of the Lite Steam A Seam 2 that I previously have been purchasing. There is 5 (9 x 12inch) sheets. You can create numerous projects.
***To enter this contest, please leave a comment telling me a favorite birthday memory or gift that you have received in the past. If you are a reader follower of my blog, you can have a second entry. Just tell me in a second comment how you follow. I will keep the contest open til Sunday the 18th Midnight (US Central Time zone). I will announce the winner by noon on Monday October 19th. If you think you maybe a non-reply blogger, please include your email so I can get ahold of you. Thanks!***
Contest Has Ended
It’s time to link up your Friday Finishes. Please visit as many of your other linky party neighbors as you can and share your support. Everyone loves comments! Thank you for hanging out with me on my birthday. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Wed. QIP: Mod Gears
Hi, I thought I would give a quick peek at the quilting I started today on my Mod Gears quilt top. Mod Gears is a pattern by Elizabeth Dackson (Don’t Call Me Betsey). I am making it as a baby quilt for a special little boy whose parents love Harley Davidson motorcycles.
Mod Gears
This version of the quilt is to be approximately 56.5 inches square. I chose to add a white border and then I rounded the corners with a dinner plate. With my added borders, my quilt top is approximately 62 inches square.
Close up of a Mod Gears block quilted
I am quilting inside each churn dash and cross section with coordinating thread colors.
Backside of the quilting
I am using white in the bobbin for simplicity and it does set of the overall quilting design nicely. I do not want additional colors taking away from my center name applique work.
Full back view of Mod Gears
My basted backing is smoother than this photo looks. Picking it up and flipping around causes wrinkles. I did get the top centered so the top and bottom last black rows will likely be cut off when finished. I will be making bias binding out of the orange colored grunge fabric used in the cross blocks on the front. I will be hand stitching to finish this binding which is the first I have done in ages. I will be using the Wonder Clips that I won from Scraptastic Tuesday.
I can see that the quilting will take a little longer on this quilt with working around all the churn dashes. It should be neat in the end.
I am linking up this post with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.
Thank you for stopping by my blog.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Lions Roar! Quilt Finish
Hi, I am happy to be able to share today my finished Modernized Disappearing Nine Patch baby quilt that I am calling Lions Roar. It was made from a set of five fat quarters and three bright solid half yard cuts and white solid yardage. All of the fabrics in the quilt( except the 2 yards of brown mottled fabric used in the backing) came from my stash. The fat quarters had been purchased 5 years ago before we knew whether our grandson was going to be a girl or boy. I ended up using a different fabric theme for my grandson, so these fabrics sat in storage.
Lions Roar, a modernized disappearing nine patch quilt
I really like how this quilt turned out. I originally hoped for a larger quilt and had cut extra squares of fabric. I did not use all my pieced blocks because the left over ones did not have much of the main 5 focus prints in them, just solids. This is just shy of 60 inches square and that is a nice size quilt. Mom or Dad can cuddle under it with the baby or it can be used in the future for floor play or in a play pen.
Lions Roar
It unfortunately is not very sunny today. I think the quilt looks like it is in a jungle setting hung in amongst the hackberry tree’s changing leaves. Even the lawn is getting ready for fall and changing colors. I quilted in an all over diagonal grid in white and then went back in to add some accents of yellow, green and orange straight line stitching. I added bias cut striped binding that has all the colors of the quilt with a touch of blue.
Appliqued Backing to Lions Roar
This is my appliqued backing. I used Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 for my fusible. I did fold my white strip in half and had Thomas’ name centered on my length. I must not have had true center to the rest of the backing when I sew the strips together. If you are wondering about the lion’s head?? When I was almost finished with the quilt and had half of it bound, I noticed a series of tiny holes in my brown fabric. I did not see them when I purchased the fabric. I purchased 2 yards and cut my fabric down the center fold to get the pieces I used. When the dark fabric was folded on itself, you would not have seen them I guess. I did some quick thinking and come up with a lion’s head from some clip art online and made a quick layered applique. I cut the orange first and cut out the lion’s face and ears. I cut the face out of the gold and cut out his eyes. I layered small pieces of brown in behind for the eyes and ears. It was very easy to accomplish with the double sided Lite Steam -A Seam 2 fusible sheets. You peel off one layer and lay your fabric on it. You can trace your design on the other backing sheet. You cut out your design and can lay in position. It can be lifted again to reposition and then give a final press to make permanent. I stitched closely in matching colors around the cut openings of the applique to permanently adhere it.
Lions Head Applique
Front of Quilt
I was not sure how to handle stitching the applique on to the back of a finished quilt. I thought about using a monofilament thread in the bobbin but I could not find where mine was stashed. It is not something I have used very often. I chose to use white thread in the bobbin. Since there is so much white background and all the quilting criss crossing the quilt in white and the other colors, the lion head design will not be too noticeable. You only really see it because of zooming in the photo.
Lions Roar on the garden bench
I really like how this quilt turned out. 60 inches square is probably considered a small quilt for me. I really do not find use for much smaller. I guess I think all my effort is better shown in a larger format.
The back of Lions Roar quilt
I showed off the quilt before finished binding and making the applique. Thomas’ Mom loved it. I sent a finished photo of the applique to my best friend and she shared it with her niece. She thought it was so cool. I guess that is all that matters. I make quilts to be loved and used up and know that this one will be going to a loving home.
I am off to work on finish quilting another baby quilt. My Mod Gears that I made the top earlier this Spring. I have heard there maybe another baby on the way, so need to the first little guy his quilt.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I do appreciate all comments and do my best to get personal repliessent back. I am linking up this finish with various linky parties this week that can be found on my Linky Parties tab at the top of this page.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
