WIP Wednesday Jenna's Quilt

Our DGD Jenna (now age 10) started this lovely little piece back in February (See more here...) at the same time that her sister, Emily finished her first quilt.  

Jenna's Quilt - Borders Added

Jenna received the charm pack for Christmas and couldn't wait to lay out a design, do the piecing and then add a bit of applique for charm.  She did a great job.

Well this week she turned 10 -- and for her birthday I decided to add the borders (that she had picked out in the spring) and do the quilting and binding for her....   We will present the gift to her this Sunday.

I used a real soft poly backing material so no batting required !!

I stitched around the applique first (before quilting)... and then pinned the backing down and went for it....

I just love the flowers in the charm blocks but wasn't real thrilled with my quilting around the applique-- I switched up the design a couple of times --- I guess it came out ok...  My sisters tell me that I'm too critical of my own work... {smile}

Once I finished the top, I removed the quilt from the machine and tried out several different designs for the border -- my DH helped me decide (as always - thanks honey).   Ended up with same flower in the border (enlarged to fit the space). 

 Remember the issue I had with thread breaking in the spring (Signature thread at the time)... Well last night, on the last two border flowers, I changed the needle plate from single hole to zig zag hole -- and my breaks went away!   Yippee!  OH how good it felt to quilt more than a flower without the thread breaking....  Maybe it wasn't the thread at all ??
 Tonight I will finish the cheating binding.  I cut the back 3/4 inch wider than the top and will double fold and stitch down with my machine.


It was fun -- I can't wait to see if she likes it !

Thanks for stopping by --

Linking up to Esther's WIP Wednesday !!  Check out the beautiful embroidered table topper that she will quilt soon... Just lovely !!

Hugs,
Karen

Woohoo Wool Baskets & More Lessons Learned

Don't you LOVE to celebrate when you finish one of your favorite pieces?

The pattern is "Flower Basket"  By Wooden Spool Designs.  

I hate to say how long ago I started this little gem {wink}.

My sister Janet and I took this class together -- our instructor is a friend and mentor, Debbie Wick.   
See a sampling of Debbie's beautiful work here.

Needless to say, Janet finished her piece MONTHS ago.  But I seem to be a bit slower than the average bear.

Working with wool is SO MUCH FUN !! It works up fast and easy.  There is no turning of edges.

Just trace your pattern on freezer paper, iron onto the wool piece, cut it on the line, and blanket (or overcast) stitch it to the backing.

It's really that easy !!  {and so much fun to choose from all the beautiful hand dyed wools that are available}.

On this piece, I did all the handwork, and the quilting (on my DSM).

A few Lessons Learned:

1.  Using a flannel sashing was probably NOT the best thing to do.  It gives more than cotton fabric and made it a bit of a challenge to piece with the wool blocks.

2.  When quilting, be sure to outline stitch the blocks first... to secure the blocks before doing any other stitching.  (Especially important if your sashing is flannel and it  s-t-r-e-c-h-e-s)

3.  Once that outline stitch is done -- get the sashing stitched.  In this piece, I did the outline and echo quilting around the baskets first.  I saved the sashing for last...ouch -- I have alot of folds in the quilting of my sashing. 

4.  Plan, Plan, Plan before you Quilt -- I sketched several ideas for my the quilting on the sashing -- and didn't really like any of them -- I went ahead and just started quilting.   Boooo !!   Next time I will sketch a design on paper before I quilt.  The design wasn't consistent from sash to sash -- and sides and top even more different. 

I still love it and I had a blast making it...

If you haven't tried wool applique -- you really should.

Thanks for stopping by.

Linking up to Ester's Blog, Applique Thursday with Angie and Freshly Pieced.

Hugs,

Karen

The Joys of Quilting - Mary Had A Little Lamb

Check out this beautiful Growth Chart by Susybee!!

My sister Janet pieced this one for her GD
Mary Morningstar.

She'll label it "Mary Had A Little Lamb"! 

She asked if I had time to quilt this for her -- it's hard to pass up a quilting session since I'm constantly in training on my DSM -- and my sister got me into this mess to begin with (thanks -- Love you!)...

So I had my hand at quilting the borders and some echo stitching around the sheep.  It was so much fun....

I wanted to do more echo quilting but we thought it might get in the way of writing the height and dates on the panel.

Here is a picture after Janet put the binding on...

Isn't it adorable?

Here is another panel by Susybee -- my favorite of course -- because of the Red Bird!!

There is a giraffe as well -- he is really cute.... and the coordinating fabrics are special!!


Thanks for stopping by today -- I'm linking into Angie's Applique Thursday.

Hugs,
Karen

Work in Progress Wednesday

I just can't pass up a good sale.  For the last 20 days Burgundy Buttons had a "Christmas In July" Sale!  Picked up this unique fabric by Ty Pennington "Impressions".    Not only am I a sucker for sales... but Birds & Sales... Count me in !

Threw together this cute little topper as a gift for my daughter-in-law and friend, Deanna.  Another sucker for birds (and sales) !!

I fell in love with the focus fabric and the coordinating pieces fell into place. Aren't those birds sweet ?

The design was "as you go" -- but after sewing "Keyholes" by Anka's Treasures I was familiar with how to sew around a center block -- it was fun to re-familiarize myself with the process  (and special thanks to DH for idea bouncing... fabric juggles).

It came together pretty well -- I only wish I had cut the border a bit wider.

Next up, choosing the backing fabric.  Although the white/gray flowers match perfectly, I'm leaning toward the batik as the color is just perfect for fall -- and you can flip the top and use it longer in the season.

Need to quilt it, bind it and gift it for Saturday night! 

Wish me luck !


Thanks for stopping by & have a wonderful week!

Karen

PS. Linking up to WIP Wednesday by Freshly Pieced and to Esther's WOW Blog.