Blogger's Quilt Festival - Penny Garland Revised

Hi everyone!   I'm excited to be a first time participant in the "Blogger's Quilt Festival".

Many thanks to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for organizing this semi-annual event.  The festival is a place to share your creations with the blogging community.  There are some awesome inspirational posts out there so please jump over to Amy's site and scroll through the multiple categories of quilt related posts!!  

11/1 Update:  Voting is open -- you can see all the Applique Quilt entries here and vote for your favorite by clicking the heart in the upper right hand corner of the image. 

In the "Favorite Applique Quilt" category I want to share "Penny Garland Revised".    Penny Garland Revised is a wool / cotton hand stitched applique piece that was quilted on my domestic sewing machine.  The batting is Hobbs Tuscany Wool.

The original "Penny Garland" was designed and taught by Kim Diehl at a not so LQS.   I had the opportunity to attend this class with my friends Debbie and Bonnie -- we had so much fun!

Kim shared her wool applique techniques and the pattern for Penny Garland.

Holding true to form, I revised the layout of "Penny Garland" and I did not fuse the wool to the cotton.    I'm not one to use glue or fuse if I can avoid it.

A Clover bias tape maker was used to create the cotton fabric stem.  It was hand stitched down with an invisible applique stitch.

 

Each outside penny has two layers and is hand stitched with Valdani Pearl Cotton thread using an Overhand or Whip Stitch.  If there is any threat of the wool fraying, then a Blanket Stitch is perfect to use too.

Here is a picture of the back side of the applique - showing the Overhand / Whip Stitch.

The FUN part of taking a wool applique class with friends is that you can mix and match your wools!  Allows for a great scrappy look.

 

Most of the wools were hand dyed, and were purchased from a Local Shop, Liberty Cottage in Canandaigua, NY.  Sue has such beautiful wools -- it's heaven to visit her shop.

I love Valdani thread for wool applique.

Quilting this piece was fun too!   I've taken online quilting courses and scoured the blogs of Wendy Sheppard, Angela Walters and Leah Day amongst others.  Check out the wealth of information these ladies share.

An inside lighting view of Penny Garland Revised:

A view of the back - love to see the quilting from the backside!

Penny Garland Revised Quilt Back

Mr. Redbird enjoying a fall day by the lake on Penny Garland Revised.

If you would like to see more of my Wool Applique click here!

Oops I was suppose to include:

Title: Penny Garland Revised

Made by:  Karen Miller

Size: 29" x 29"

Division: Applique Quilt

Inspired by: Kim Diehl's Penny Garland

Thanks again for stopping by and have a wonderful day,

Hugs,

Karen