Letters

Jingle Block 3

Invisible Machine Appliqué Part 1

Jingle: Block 1

I joined Erin’s FREE (yes free!!) 2013 Block of the Month. Every year this very talented lady does a BOM and shares all of the patterns for free throughout the year. The only thing you have to buy is the center block for the quilt and it is a very reasonable $10. This year’s BOM is a Christmas themed quilt with appliqué and pieced blocks.

Happy Trees

I can’t say “happy trees” with out thinking of Bob Ross. I loved watching his show when I was little. I couldn’t wait for Saturdays so I could watch his show on PBS. Yeah, I was a weird kid who preferred Bob Ross over cartoons!

Welcome to my first time visitors! I’m glad to have ya here, and a big “Welcome Back” to my regular readers (you know I love ya!) Make sure you take a look around there’s lots of fun stuff going on. If you are new to quilting make sure you check out my “31 days” series that I’m doing this month on quilting with your walking foot.

I wanted to try something fun and whimsical for my block. I made a little sketch on paper then designed my applique template using Adobe Illustrator. I could have used my EQ6, but some things are just quicker in a program that I have been using for over 10 years. I decided to use fun prints for the trees but wanted to do something special for the main tree. I’ve never tried crazy piecing but decided to try it out for the this project.

I pulled lots of green scraps out of the scrap bin and just started piecing. I continued until I had a pieced fabric that was slightly larger than the oval needed for the main tree.

Then I treated it like a regular piece of fabric and applied fusible web to the back and applied it to my block. Then I picked out fun Fall-ish looking fabrics for the other trees. I’ll be turning my little block into a small pillow for an armchair in my living room.

The spider right in the center of the green tree was a complete fluke but I love that it looks like it was meant to be there hanging off the tree branch.

Giveaway
So I have this drafted up as an applique template but there are absolutely no instructions (at this point) on how to applique. Basically it’s a line drawing. If you know a thing or two about applique and would like to win a copy of the pattern (as it stands at this point) leave me a comment. I will pick 10 winners to receive a copy of the “Happy Trees” pattern. I will pick the winners one day after the end of the Blog Hop (on Thursday October 11th.)

 

Don’t forget to visit everyone else on the hop today
~ Norma

 

Mrs.Pickles Garden

Gingersnaps Quilts

Petit Design Co

A Passion For Applique

Annie Oak Designs

Michelle's Romantic Tangle

CherrysPrairiePrimitives

Krislovesfabric

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Needlework

I’m making excellent progress on the little project I mentioned earlier this week. I should be able to show it by this weekend. It’s coming together fairly quickly even with distractions like baby, Pinterest, Facebook, cooking, cleaning and baseball. In other words life in general. I think that’s why I like small projects. You feel like you accomplish so much even if you only get to work on it for 15 minutes in a day.

This project includes some hand embroidery work. My mom taught me to embroider (and cross stitch) when I was in my tweens. I love it but don’t often have the patience to do a whole embroidery project. In the time it would take me to complete a small 8x10 piece I could have a whole quilt finished. I’m all about results, the more bang for your buck the better!

Do you like to embroider by hand?
Do you like to combine quilts with a little hand embroidery or does the thought make you put the quilt pattern back on the shelf?
One more question. Do you hoop or not when you hand embroider?

I think I’m more comfortable without a hoop unless I’m doing a lot of satin stitching.

~ Norma

Applique WIP

I’m working on another small project that I hope to have ready to show by the end of the week. In the meantime here’s a peek of my project hanging out in my robins egg blue vintage Melmac bowl:

~ Norma

Smitten

I'm so in love with the "My Tweets" BOM that I just couldn't resist working it today. I even re-made the templates using the stitch and wash just so that everything would have the same "treatment" so that when it comes time to wash the quilt there will be no unintended surprises.




It took me quite a while to get all the pieces made for the peacocks but you have to remember that this is my first applique project. The thing that gave me the most trouble was those little top knots on the peacock heads. Oh and I lost the little beaks in the construction process, so I'll have to make more of those tomorrow. I pretty much worked on these two birds from lunch time until 8pm. Of course I have my share of distractions with kids that need to be fed, Lego creations that have to be admired, art work that needs to be praised, and bathroom breaks! The hardest thing for me is picking out fabrics. It seems like I auditioned 5-6 fabrics for each section of the bird. I have a stack of about 35-40 fabrics sitting on my desk right now and only 6 fabrics where used. I may go crazy by the time block 3 rolls around!




I can't decide which background fabric I want to use. The one on the left is Kona Charcoal and the one on the right is Kona Snow. I'll have to take another look at it tomorrow in some nice natural daylight. I think the Charcoal may be too dark but maybe Kona Coal or Med. Gray would be nice. What do you think?

~ Norma

I Couldn't Resist

I've gone and added another project to my list for 2011. Can you really blame me for falling in love with this awesomeness?

And that's only the middle block of Erin Russek's "My Tweets" BOM.

GORGEOUS.
right?

I don't even remember how I cam across Erin's blog but I'm glad I did. She has a wealth of information on applique, lots of eye candy, and lots of free patterns. Did I mention that she is offering up "My Tweets" for FREE? Well, you do have to buy the middle block from her etsy shop for a mere $10, but blocks 1-12 will be offered on her blog absolutely free! How can you not join in? Her amazing patterns would easily be sold for $10 a piece putting you at $130 just for the patterns. How can you pass up this great quilt pattern for only $10?

Erin already has block 1 up and ready for download.

I already cut out all of my freezer paper pieces for the left bird but right after I did I realized I didn't reverse the image. doh! Luckily the birds are pretty much the same size so I'll be using the the pieces for the right bird. I'm not very good at handwork, well actually I'm pretty good at it but it takes me forever and I usually loose interest midway into a project. So I'll be doing invisible machine applique to speed me up. This morning I realized that I should really be using the washable fusible I got for the Joseph's Coat quilt to make things easier. Good thing I realized this at block 1 and not at block 10!



This will be my first BOM and applique project. Hopefully I won't loose steam because this is going to be a lovely quilt.

~Norma

All "My Tweets" images are copyright Erin Russek and were used with permission.

Kawaii Cupcake pattern

In honor of "Cupcake Week" going on at Lolly's I decided to share one of my own patterns form my stash. I drew up this little gal ages ago and she has been sitting patiently in the cupboard of my "c:" drive. So here she is along with her sisters in PDF format for you to download.

Feel free to use this little pattern for embroidery, applique, needlework, punch needle etc. Just remember that is is for your own personal use on items for yourself or to give away, but not on items for sale. Please do not redistribute my work and claim it as your own.

Add your own flair by adding, sprinkles, candles, changing up the eyes etc. Oh and don't forget to add your finished item over to the Petit Flickr pool!