A Short Video of some Motifs/Techniques Learned in the Free Courses!
It's been a while since I have worked on my Merry Merry Snowman blocks...and this past week I found time to complete the set. Yeah! Here is block #9...the last block for the quilt top. Next is to cut and sew the borders and assemble the quilt. For me, that's the hardest part! When I can "visualize" the finished project...my muse gets bored and doesn't want to finish. That a HUGE reason why I have so many un-Finished projects!
This is the last block to be appliqued while I was gone last week. The riders have some goofy smiles on their faces...guess they are having fun! One more block to go...and I can start to assemble the quilt. Then the long tedious job of quilting it begins. I've decided to hand quilt it...instead of sending it off to the long-arm quilter for machine stitching.
I have also decided to do a second version...in pastels. I know, that sounds strange...BUT...one of the ladies in my group is using pastels and it is just gorgeous. I'll leave off the "JOY" and "NOEL" or change that to read SNoW or something...so it can be used all winter if I want.
Edited to Add: the BIG eyes drove me crazy...so I took them off and went back to the little style instead.
Block Seven is a simple enough little block. I'm really liking the skinny snowman. The extra snow-people heads that are poking "around the corner" throughout the quilt are as the pattern requires. But, I'm thinking of going back and adding ear muffs, scarfs, and/or hats to these as well. What do you think of that idea? Will it make them too busy?
Last week, I worked on my Merry Merry Snowmen quilt blocks a lot. Yesterday, the arms were embroidered and the buttons sewn on. So, now...I have 3 more blocks to share with you this week.
This Number Six block still needs a bow for the stack of packages. And, I'm not entirely happy with the ribbon being the same color...so that might change too I'm thinking. It is finished as far as the pattern calls for...but, I'm still thinking.
Also, these last few blocks all have the snow-people with coal mouths...which are done in perle cotton French Knots. However, the first few snow-people did not have these smiles...and I might go back and add them to those blocks..just to make the blocks a bit more consistent.
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. It was a nice day and even managed to be mostly without rain! That's not so for the rest of the week...as the weather channel predicts rain almost all week long! Perhaps I should buy a boat!
While Aidan was here last week, I managed to work on the fourth block of the Merry Merry Snowmen quilt...and finished it up last night. The letters are stitched with back-stitch, and the arms and star vines are in stem stitch...all with #8 perle cotton.
Last night, I finished up with block three of the Merry Merry Snowmen pattern. I changed it a little, adding a moon and a large wreath on the house...and dropping off a couple of stars.
Aidan and I are still having a great week! And, there isn't a load of stitching being done...but that's okay! Today, we are dying and painting eggs for the Easter bunny...so not much embroidery will be accomplished today either. I'll be sorry to see her go home on Sunday...but school starts back on Monday!
It took about three days...but, I'm finished with the second block of the Merry Merry Snowmen quilt. The pattern is from Bunny Hill, and a photo of the entire pattern was blogged here last week.
I had a little trouble with the reindeer...got him backwards...and had to start him over. All is well now that the block is finished. Well, I see that I did forget the star button that goes on Santa Snowman's hat...but, that's an easy fix.
A lot of the pieces in this quilt are small...requiring me to baste through the fabric and freezer paper when preparing my pieces for stitching down. My first attempt with hand-applique was back in the 80's, when freezer paper was the "new way". Now, it's out of favor by a lot of folks...but, I seem to be more comfortable with that method of "piece preparation" when the items are small than any other.
Plus, I really enjoy the peace of preparing all of my applique pieces before I begin to stitch anything down. It helps me to envision the end result, and let's me change my mind about fabrics before going final. It also helps to make the actual stitching-down process go faster because I'm not "fiddling" as much with the pieces.
Sometimes, I use other preparation methods like starch or glue basting, baste and needle-turn, or stabilization...but freezer paper is my most often choice.
What type of preparation do you like to do before appliquing by hand?
Thought I'd share my "design" trick for creating quilts with fabric stash...instead of purchasing what the pattern calls for. This is my thought process for scrappy style quilts like the Merry Merry Snowmen one. First task is to photocopy the color photo of the quilt provided in the pattern. Then, I use different colored markers to start "coding" the different areas while considering fabrics I pull from my stash. It is often necessary to use 2-3 fabrics where the pattern calls for just one...because there might not be enough yardage. The basic color family...brown, red, etc...must stay the same...and the value of the color (medium, dark, etc) should also stay the same. Balance the fabrics by placing them in a triangle (see blue markings) or equally balanced throughout the quilt (see yellow markings). Just as in crazy quilt embellishing...your goal is to get the eye of the viewer to travel around the quilt...and not stay in just one place.
Progress has been made...and the backgrounds for all of the remaining pattern blocks are complete.
Now, to prepare all of those applique pieces for sewing on to these blocks!
First, the snowmen! I have traced all of the snowmen shapes on to a fusible interfacing (not fusible web). The interfacing is thin enough so that I can trace on the reverse side...with a soft lead pencil (a colored pencil).
Here, you see that they have then been ironed down to the reverse side of my white fabric. Next, they will be trimmed around, leaving about 1/4 inch of fabric for turning under. Because these pieces are white, and will allow the darker background colors to "bleed through"...I'm going to use a piece of white fleece in the center of each one as I applique. That will also give each snowman a little "fluff", and you now that snowmen are fluffy!
Last month I signed up, along with 20+ other ladies, to stitch the pattern "Merry Merry Snowmen" as a group stitch-a-long over at the HGTV Message Board Group. Each person is doing their own quilt...but, we have deadlines to get each block completed.
This is block one...and was not too difficult to create. This quilt is not as easy breezy as Erin Russek's "Jingle" quilt is...that I blogged about last week. Mostly because this quilt has more pieces and pieces that are smaller than the ones commonly designed by Erin. Still, this is not a hard quilt...and the pattern includes pages and pages of instruction and full size templates...no re-sizing! Got to love that!
The pattern is available at Bunny Hill Designs. You can get the idea for the entire quilt. I'm using my own fabric stash...and did not order a kit. One lady in the group is pulling blues instead of reds...and so far, her quilt is very nice...very "winter" looking.
Some of the ladies are doing machine applique...but mine is all by hand. I don't enjoy stitching fusible, and hand applique just looks worlds better to me....so, it is worth my time. So, if you are looking to start a full-size project for Christmas...this is a good pattern to work up.
