Sunny days

I wanted to set out the process I followed in doing my sunflower wall art. And especially the mistakes I made so someone else who does a similar one can avoid it. The photo that inspired it has been in my collection for about two years now. Who would have guessed that even in a climate like that of England one could grow large sunflowers.

It seemed a pretty simple flower to do and yet I procrastinated using other projects as excuses. Finally I pushed myself to do it a month back. To keep the challenge to a minimum I cropped the picture, editing out the wall and most of the leaves. In hindsight I feel it took away something from my finished work. The flower now looks too big and oversized. So note to self. Next time keep more background!

After tracing the printed picture on to a white background, (a mistake I realised later) I used reverse applique to sew. I started out with simple short straight stitches and switched to narrow satin stitch as I found that on trimming the foreground cloth there was a risk of the straight stitch coming off.

This was after I had trimmed the foreground cloth on all the pieces! There were a lot of loose threads that constantly kept coming out in spite of constant trimming. And the white showing through was also bothering me.So I used a matching colour pencil to shade the white and let it merge. The next step was to use machine embroidery to add the brown color. Looking back it seems that plain yellow looked better. Maybe I should redo this keeping it just yellow.

Since my yellow was a bit anemic I machine embroidered that too with some glowing yellow silk thread. That left the bits in between the bricks. To keep it realistic I had to color it gray. Machine embroidery or fmq seemed a bit daunting. Especially when I had stone gray paint. It was a touch dark but once I add some white it was just right. I would have been better off strating with that grey as foreground cloth.
Then all I needed to do was sandwich the piece and do some fmq on the bricks to give some texture and add some to the flower too.

Since the gray was painted fmq on that was ruled out. After debating on whether the white frame was necessary or not I decided to trim it rather than keep it. Binding and beadwork for the centre and some sleeves to hang it and there it was finished! 

Well not quite! I don't think I did justice to the photo and perhaps will revisit it. Fused raw edge and more background perhaps? Just plain yellow. Freezer paper applique. So many options to explore.

Never too late

It seems like there is some kind of jinx whenever I set a goal for the month. Last month I had no internet service and could neither blog or upload a photo. This month I completed the quilt top very early in the month and spent a week making gifts and stuff for family. I was going to my hometown and nowadays feel like nothing can compete with a handmade gift. Trip over and I was back to quilting the Old McDonald quilt top or flimsy as I believe it is called.

As you can see from the photo it is all applique and I had decided that I did not want to quilt it all over. It would interfere with the applique I felt and decided to tie the quilt using single stitches by machine.
That should have been a simple exercise except my machine started acting up. My needle was going beyond the slit in the needle plate and after breaking about half a dozen needles I am at a standstill. Straight stitch is no problem but for some reason when I thought I would fmq small flowers again a needle broke.
There is no sound more jarring than a needle breaking I feel. I have set aside that quilt for the day and am just catching up on my Splendid Sampler blocks. I often notice that when my machine has issues in fmq going back to regular sewing seems to make my machine sane. Tomorrow I will try the quilt again. I still think that I should be able to complete the quilting at least as this month's target though not the binding.
Linking with OMG
And the good news is that I managed to coax my machine into cooperating and the quilting is done. The quilt is still in need of cleaning and so I won't post a photo of it right now. Like I said it is Never too late to meet your goal. Just got to keep at it.

Starstruck

A friend of mine from the US of A by name Cindy Ellerbe remarked once, ‘You Indians jump in with both feet.’ She was commenting on the fact that many quilters in our group would embark on something complicated their first time out, something she felt quilters from her country never did. I have to plead guilty to that charge. I always seem to take on more than I ought to. The proof of that hangs before me – my peacock tapestry which took me three years to complete. And I have a crocheted runner that would add weight to the charge. And now here is my ‘starstruck’ quilt done over a period of one and half years. I must admit that now when I see it in full I wonder how I managed it.

 Madhu Mathur, a fellow quilter has designed the blocks on a free software called Quilt Assistant. The blocks were all paper pieced and were released fortnightly. ( You can find the blocks here). I was doing a quilt practically every month and so my blocks were often relegated to the backburner! Until I decided the quilt was going to be finished before the curtains rang on 2015. And I just about managed to keep my promise.

 The layout for the blocks were also designed by Madhu. I chose this as it was easy to break into panels and do it qayg.

 Details of the quilting. I wanted the blocks to shine and chose to quilt densely to make them stand out.

The spiked dresden framed by the border. I was thrilled to design the tiny compass in the corner something I would never have ventured if  Madhu had not encouraged me to do iṭ

 The first block and for me the most difficult.

 Geese at the pond. this was the second time I did it the first done as a tester and used in another quilt.

 The mariners' compass on the right was easily the most pretty and I cant think the colours could be any more perfect.

 The blocks are quilted using decorative stitches rather than fmq. You can see that here.

 And in this Card trick block too.

 Winding ways was a block Madhu used in her Saptapadi quilṭ The quilt went on to win a prize at Husqvarnaś competion for quilterṣ

 I did go overboard on the quilting I freely admiṭ

 The easiest block!

 Dozens squared glowing amidst the orange yellow flames !

 Quilting in between blocks.

This quilt was a journey as I learned to paint fabric to suit the blocks, paper piece and sew a little more precisely and even design a tiny block for the quilṭ. The journey would not have been possible without Madhu and I hope the other quilters who have put their blocks on hold will take it up and finisḥ It is really worth the effort. What do you think?
Linking this with ALYOF and Friday Spotlighṭ

Come September

I am hoping to get a lot  done this month - a baby quilt using up some blocks, fmq of my quilt blocks done qayg but this one is the target for the ALYOF. A double nine patch block quilt. The top is done but I want to fmq it and bind and finish it. Here is a picture of the top.

A year of lovely finishes

A year of lovely finishes

Now that is a great thing to aim for and a little nudge is always welcome when one sets a goal like that.

So  I aim to link up with so many others aiming to do the same. My target for January is to finish the tulip quilt that I am doing for my niece. I still have to do a bag and couple of pencil pouches for her but maybe that can be my target for the next month. 

I have done quite a bit of the fmq and the panels for the top and bottom are also ready. Hoping to finish it fully by the end of the month.