Here is a picture of my friend Pam T.'s newest quilt in progress. It is a pretty traditional quilt, made with mostly civil war reproduction fabrics. You can see why I made her a quilt with a vintage look last year.We had our January meeting and drew names for the coming year. I will be making a quilt for my friend Joan who also likes this look. She told me she likes log cabins, so I may be making some type of log cabin quilt for the third year in a row. It's what I seem to fall back on when I need a design for someone who likes the vintage look. I was kind of hoping to do something a little different this time around. Maybe I can throw in some applique for the border.
It was a busy weekend, mostly spent with my quilting friends. Our friend Sheryl gave us a lesson in the "freezer paper, starch, and glue baste" method of applique prep, and it works pretty well. I especially like removing the freezer paper BEFORE stitching. When you use a double layer of freezer paper it stands up to the starching and when you remove it first you can use the template again and again (helpful for things like leaves.) When you are used to the speed of fusing, it is pretty tedious, but I do like the crisp turned edge you get with the method we learned. The most frustrating part for me is trying to thread slender needles I can't even see. Most of my handwork in recent years has been with big fat embroidery needles and pearl cotton (texture, texture, texture), so making stitches you can't see at all is quite a change of pace. I am thinking I will try a project with turned edges and MACHINE applique. We shall see. I will at least finish the cute little table topper I started by hand.
The kids came back from Big Bear on Sunday, so I made lasagna dinner for Andy and his girlfriend Blair. I enjoyed meeting her, and she seemed friendly and easy to talk to. I liked her a lot. Shortly after dinner we dropped them off at the airport. It was a nice visit, but it seemed to go fast.
Now that I am back to work and the house is quiet again, I will try to spend more time in the studio. I have been drawing and painting again, hope it goes somewhere. Even if it doesn't, I'm having fun and getting lost in color.
4 comments:
thanks for stopping by Jen. Somehow I never tire of Log Cabins. Each one can be so different depending on the fabric choices. I do love the Civil War fabrics though-I have a pretty good collection and I started making an anniversary quilt for us about 5 years ago with them. It's in the rotation....somewhere.
Have fun with your applique-I loved doing it but suffer from the same problem with my eyes. I'm doing some redwork right now and finding the same problem.
Take good care.
I learned that applique method from Caryl Breyer Fallert. It is very effective.
I do a machine applique....but then I loathe hand sewing of any stripe! I'm curious to know more about this FP/starch technique...maybe a tutorial in the future??
I tried that method but probably didn't give it enough time. I think I like needle turn the best, because there isn't as my preparation time, but it isn't as neat an end product as that method. Beth Ferrier has a book out called Hand Applique by Machine where you prepare the pieces that way, and then stitch them down by machine.
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