Blog Hop and Book Giveaway - Recreating Antique Quilts

Welcome everyone!

I'm Karen from Redbird Quilt Co and I'm thrilled to be sharing the stage with some wonderfully talented ladies for Blog Hop Round #2 celebrating Wendy Sheppard's latest book:  

Recreating Antique Quilts

You're going to Love this book!
Be sure to jump to each person's blog today - see their beautiful projects, and get signed up for the book giveaway -- 4 books will be shared during the hop!!

Lisa: http://lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com/
Doreen: http://treadlemusic.wordpress.com/
Kay: http://kayharmon.blogspot.com/ 

Many thanks to Landauer Publishing for sponsoring this hop and giveaway!

Image Credit Landauer Publishing

If you've been following along on Instagram or Facebook you'll know that I've been sharing some teasers about my latest project from Wendy's book.
Well, the time has come to tell you about the book and reveal my project!!

Wendy Sheppard according to Karen:  

Let me first say that Wendy Sheppard is one of the most talented designers and domestic free motion quilters that I know!

I've been motivated and inspired by her awesome designs and free motion quilting classes and tutorials for several years now.  Matter of fact, Wendy, in her sweet and graceful way, has encouraged me to become a better designer and quilter and I'm so very grateful for that.
(Thank you friend). 

One awesome thing you'll find on Wendy's Blog (www.ivoryspring.wordpress.com) is Wendy's free motion quilting tips, Thread Talk.  If you FMQ then you must check it out!  All the most fantastic tips and tricks for quilting on a domestic machine!!  Really -- Thread Talk has helped me out of more than one FMQ jam.

To learn even more about Wendy check out this blog post by Landauer Press and also this interview with Pat Sloan!  Woot! Woot!

Recreating Antique Quilts Review:

(From Blog Hop Round #1 ~ My original review ~ Nov 2014)

Recreating Antique Quilts is all about re-interpreting antique quilts for the quilters of our time using contemporary fabrics and methods.  It's pretty neat to see antique quilt designs recreated with fun and modern fabrics in sizes that 

won't take forever to complete. 

Here is the book cover,
isn't it just beautiful?

Fresh colors, a beautiful bird, love!

Book Cover ~ Image Credit Landauer Publishing

The 96 page book contains patterns, complete instructions, full-color images, and full-size templates for 5 quilts, 2 table toppers/runners, 1 pillow, and 2 stunning wall hangings.   WOW!! 

In typical Wendy Sheppard style, the designs are fresh and unique and each pattern contains applicable cutting, piecing, applique and quilting tips including an awesome writeup sharing Wendy's machine applique methods.  Sweet!

In all, the book contains more than 27 full-color quilt images!   I love this because you can see full view images of the quilts that inspired Wendy's designs along side her updated design.

There are detail images that show you the beautiful piecing and applique along with the fantastic quilting stitched on Wendy's domestic machine.  

Wendy's Garden Lattice ~ Image Credit Landauer Publishing

You'll also love the detailed and helpful applique templates and quilting diagrams.  

The applique templates are full-size, color coded, reversed where applicable, and easy to follow.

The quilting tips, notes and diagrams are equally impressive.

I was excited to see a page dedicated to quilting an Off-Centered Feather Wreath.
I can see my FMQ skills improving already!

Blog Hop Round #1 Creation: Karen's Feathered Garden Lattice:

Here is a quick recap of what I created for Blog Hop Round #1.
Shown is Wendy's Garden Lattice quilt design - so beautiful!!  

Image Credit Landauer Publishing

And I interpreted the design like this:  Karen's "Feathered Garden Lattice".

You can read my Blog Hop Round #1 post and see more of Feathered Garden Lattice by clicking here:    What a fun project!!

Here we are!! Blog Hop Round #2  

I was thrilled and honored when Wendy invited a few of us to the 2nd round of her book Blog Hop -- it means creating yet another design from the book!  Woot!  Woot!

Of course I was drawn to this applique,  

Ivory Baltimore Wall Hanging.  

It's a mini -- 17" x 21"

It was first on my list of things to make.  

Isn't it beautiful?  

Ivory Baltimore ~ Image Credit Landauer Publishing

Wendy wrote an exceptional overview of how and why she created Ivory Baltimore -- you can read it by clicking here.

I was excited to adapt Ivory Baltimore to wool applique using somewhat more traditional Baltimore Album colors....

and here it is...  my Wool on Flannel version of Ivory Baltimore Wallhanging:

As I did with Feathered Garden Lattice, I decided to jump outside of my comfort zone with this project.  Although I rarely use fusible methods - it sure came in handy on this petite little applique wall hanging.

 For the background fabric I used Primitive Muslin Flannel (by Primitive Gatherings for Moda) and various and sundry pieces of hand dyed wool for the applique.  I used Heat 'n Bond Lite to prepare everything except the stems, baskets, and 3D flowers.  I was happy with how things anchored using the fusible (but you know me, generally I wouldn't use fusible or glue based products).   

 I used Aurifil Mako Cotton 12Wt Thread (and a little Valdani 12Wt) to hand stitch the wool pieces to the background.  I find it relaxing to hand stitch #slowstitching.  

If you want to create this design with machine applique (like Wendy did) and wool, the fusible would help stabilize the wool for you -- so you can machine blanket stitch it. 

I used a combination of a blanket stitch and an overhand stitch on the applique and added a little batting to the wool flowers to give them dimension. Where Wendy used YoYo Flowers, I had fun creating something a little different with wool!!

For the quilting, I paired the quilt top with a layer of Quilters Dream 100% Wool batting, a layer of 100% cotton batting and a flannel backing.  I used Aurifil 50Wt Mako Cotton for the quilting with a size 90/14 needle (because of all that batting).

I *LOVE* the way Aurifil thread stitches (hand and machine). 

 Don't you just love the look and dimension quilting adds to the overall pattern?

I could go on all day showing you pictures of Wooly Ivory Baltimore, but I want to be sure you have time to get to all the blogs that are reviewing and giving-away Wendy's book today.

Use the image below to see Wendy's main blog hop post from today:  And don't forget to hop to the other blogging friends...

Image Credit Landauer Publishing

Now how about that Giveaway!

The great folks at Landauer Publishing are giving away one copy of
Recreating Antique Quilts
at each blog hop stop today!

The book giveaway is open to United States and Canadian followers -- however, if an International follower is chosen, I would be happy to share a PDF copy of my Spring Basket pattern - so please everyone, join in the fun!

 To enter the giveaway, leave a comment and let me know what you thought about the book review or the projects in the book -- just let me know whatever you like!

The Giveaway will remain open through March 12th and the randomly drawn winner will be announced on March 13th.
 

In summary, I couldn't be more pleased with Wendy Sheppard's new book  
Recreating Antique Quilts.

The designs (and variety of designs), patterns, instructions, diagrams, layout, colors - just everything about the book is beautifully done.

Here are a couple of helpful links:

You can order the book from Landauer Publishing by clicking here.  

You can order a signed copy of the book from Wendy Sheppard by clicking here:
You can also find the book on Amazon.com or ask your favorite Patchwork shop to order it in.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a blessed week!
Karen