A Beautiful Surprise

Thanks MaryAnne Richardson! This gorgeous little fabric postcard arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon...inside an envelope for protection thankfully. It is one using my STITCH Templates and I adore the results! Thanks so very much MaryAnne for thinking about me!

Appreciate that it is "pink" too! Ha! You know me so well...it's almost scary!

ROFL!

Rose Bud Blocks Continued...

...finally all of the parts have been cut out. "Finally" because it seemed to take forever...but really, it took one afternoon to press the fusible/freezer-paper patterns to the fabric. Then, a weekend basically to cut them all out.

Now, I'm busy aligning and pressing them to the white background blocks. The stem lines are drawn on in pencil.

I'll be embroidering around each piece in perle green/red. Not sure if I'm going to like the stems in size 8 (which is what I'm using for the "around" stitching). Might need to find some size 5 in the same green color if possible. So, will go searching online...or drive to Hobby Lobby (about 30 miles) one day. We shall see....for now, it more pressing to get all 80 blocks ironed down.

This will be a great evening 'tv time' embroidery to work on...all Stem Stitch.

De-Stash Sale

Shawkl.net has new De-Stash photos...each baggie is $10...plus less than $4 shipping. Detailed photos show what is in bag...vintage linens, silkie prints, Czech glass button cabochons, cabochons, charms, lace motifs, lace trims, lace doilies, etc. Have fun!

Heads Up - Super Sale!

Heads Up...tune in to shawkl.net (Etsy Shop) at midnight...I'm de-stashing lace, silk fabric, doilies, cabochons, and printed silk images!

Serious Super Sale....limited number and first come.

Directions on items and payment post at midnight, CST!

Don't miss it!

Seriously, you'll be sorry that you did!

Hugs,

Edited to change: Sale begins NOON tomorrow, 8/16 CST

Rose Bud Quilt Continues...

A few days back, the Rosebud Quilt was discussed. Yesterday, I finally got down to business about piecing it. For days I've waivered between "traditional applique" or "fusible applique". The quilt was not going to get started, much less finished if I didn't make up my mind!

Plus, one rosebud or two per block?

Two is the more traditional setting for this Vintage Inspired design...so, finally after much consideration it will be two. I created an overlay on vellum to help me align the various applique parts.

Next, I needed to trace all of the different leaf, sepal, and bud shapes. Going with traditional applique...these would be traced to freezer paper. Going with fusible applique...these would be traced to double-sided fusible like Heat'n'Bond.

Considering that I already have a large traditional applique project underway...I decided to go with the fusible applique method. I'll be adding embroidery around each piece and extra for the stem and but accents.

The quilt will not have sashing between the blocks but will include outside border(s). I'm cutting the blocks 9-inches finished size. These will be set in eight columns of ten rows...for a total of 80 blocks in the quilt. So, doing the math...that's 960 small leaves, 160 sepals and 160 buds to applique. That's a LOT of tracing of shapes to fusible!

So, I'm taking a shortcut. My plan is to fuse the Heat'n'Bond to the fabric...then press these printable freezer paper sheets on top of that...and cut out. The paper will peel away along with the fusible backing paper when each piece is ready to go down. If you want to give this a try yourself, just trace one page of design...and copy this on to freezer paper sheets (purchase these from C&T Publications) made for a printer in standard 8.5 x 11.0 inch size. Works wonderfully!

If you are wondering, my tracings meant printing 12 pages of small leaves, and 8 pages each of sepal and buds. There will be a lot of pressing and cutting out this weekend...and into next week too perhaps! :)

Autumn is around the corner...

...and we'll all be hunting for pumpkins soon! Can't believe how fast this year is going by...summer vacation is basically in the rear-view mirror now...and we'll be looking for those gorgeous fall leaf colors soon.

I spent some time today checking out Pinterest...and quickly got lost in the varieties of pumpkins stitched. Of course, about 75% of them were machine done...embroidery mostly. But, a few were hand work and reminded me that there are various ways to approach a single embroidery design.

Simple is not necessarily boring...and a quick little idea is sometimes all that is needed.

If you have a bit more time to spend on a motif, perhaps adding some type of "doodling" to the larger spaces would be just the treatment needed. Pretty sure this specific motif is a machine variety, but still liked the idea just the same.

Or, a more spider-web kind of abstract art filling is more to your liking? This pumpkin above has a filling in each section that reminds me of a string art project. Can you see that? It would be cute and quick too.

Smaller motifs could be closer to realism if you totally filled the spaces. Satin Stitch would work for really tiny pumpkins; but most likely Stem Stitch, Stab Stitch or Long/Short Stitch is the best idea for motifs that are small...but not tiny in size. Again, think this is a machine embroidery version, but could see this done in long/short stitches by hand.

If the pumpkin design is really large, it could be done in fabric. I like the idea of different orange fabrics or just different all together as in this multi-colored idea. This art object could be painted? (maybe stenciled?)...but the idea translates well to the idea of using fabrics. I also like the floral arrangement at the top, but not too sure they are really of  "Autumn" timing...seems a bit Spring to me. Perhaps peppers and corn instead?

Whatever you choose...think about adding a pumpkin to your Autumn décor by creating a little pumpkin motif on a hand-towel, crazy quilt block, mug rug, or such. 

All of my Patreon Followers will get a little quick motif design to get you started.