Saturday workshop

A friend and I hosted a hand appliqué workshop for the HHQG members.  There were eight people in attendance and six if us doing appliqué.  The others were sewing other projects on their machines.

During the class, we all made an acetate plastic template of the full block, to help with placement.  We taught them how to do vines with a bias bar to get a very smooth stem. Then we moved on to showing them how to do regular appliqué and reverse applique on the heart.  We covered placing the stem and heart using the acetate template.  They learned how to overlap the stem to cover the end beneath the heart and also how to then trim back the background fabric prior to finishing off the outside of the heart.  

The heart used two different colours, but you only had to appliqué the one shape.  In my case above, the pink was my background fabric for the heart and I only appliquéd the red portion, both the perimeter (regular appliqué) and the inner heart (reverse appliqué).  This also took care of learning outside curves, inside curves, outside points and inside point...twice...lol!  

Appliqué is a slow process and requires patience.  The workshop was from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and in that time, most of us got to this stage.  Just these few steps though, shown in different techniques, will be sufficient to proceed to finish the block.

I did send everyone additional instructions in an email, just to go over the overlapping part a little more in depth, as the bird requires many pieces to fit underneath the bird body and letting them know that the body is not whole under the wing and that there is only the 1/4" seam that goes under the wing.  

There were also some additional tips and tricks showing different methods on how to address appliqué in different ways.  The outcome is the same, but the execution is sometime different.  We went through lots and lots of information.  Hopefully they were not overwhelmed.

After I got home and spent some time cleaning up the yard (it was such a beautiful day), I went down to my quilting studio to put away all the stuff I brought to the workshop, which was way more than I needed...lol.  I still had some energy so decided to cut out all the pieces for the appliqué, before putting the fabrics away.

This is the pattern we went with.  This is a version of the Distelfink bird.  According to Google it is a prominent bird in Pennsylvania Germen (Dutch) folk art, representing happiness and good fortune.  These stylized birds symbolize joy and harmony within German-American cultural traditions.

I am making mine all bright and colourful.  All the others have chosen many different colourways.  They will all be nice and reflect the maker's personality.  When I finish my block, I will be making it into a NICU quilt, with some additional pieced blocks and borders surrounding it.

Take care everyone.

A couple of updates/progress

Guess what finally made it's way onto the longarm?  It took a while!!  I had this quilt top done before Christmas.  It didn't get quilted right away as I got frustrated that the backing was not big enough and had to unload the whole thing to make the backing bigger.

But.....I can now call it quilted!!!  Yesterday it took me the best part of the day and I didn't finish it until after 9:30 pm.  It's looking great though and I am really glad to have this king size quilt done!

I also stated working on this wool penny wall hanging again, while I was standing there keeping an eye on the quilting.  I previous wrote about this back on Oct 13th & 14th/2025, if you want to read all the details about it.  

I am now sewing these penny circles to the background fabric.  So far I have nine sewn on.  I have enough circles complete to finish one quarter of this wall hanging, so I will work on it as I can.  This is a good hand work piece to do while I still pay attention to the quilting.

I am liking how the colours are popping when they are sewn to the black background.

Take care everyone.

Medallion quilt inspiration (QW)

To start off with, if anyone knows the name of this pattern or where I can get the instructions, name or maker, please let me know in the comments.  I really want to make this!!

Update:  Pattern is called Timeless by Lynn of Sew'n Wild Oaks Quilting Blog and fabrics are called Timeless Stitches by Marcus Fabrics.  More details regarding this quilt can be seen though this address:  https://sewnwildoaks.blogspot.com/  

I fell in love with this quilt the minutes I saw it.  There are not many medallion quilts that I can say I love all aspects of.  I wouldn't change a thing.  I like the soft background fabrics that showcase all the various blocks and the colours are so Spring!!  

I contacted the maker of this quilt to inquire if there is a pattern coming soon.  Hopefully there will be.  In the meantime, I am lurking on her blog and checking out all the other lovely things she has been making.  She also has many other beautiful patterns for quilts to inspire you.  Take a look.  You won't be disappointed!!

Take care everyone.

Pooh Bear blocks

Today I have the day off work.  I am working hard on learning to take it easy.  To relax and go slow.  That has always come hard for me, as I seem to always want to be doing something to get ahead.  To try this and that.  Basically, to do it all!  But I am learning that it is not good for my health. 

There are many other things that we as humans do, that are not good for our health.  Gradually I am trying to remedy all the aspects of my life. to contribute to a healthier lifestyle.  It's been a long journey so far and I've got a lot more to do, but one step at a time, making new habits and changing the composition of my mind and body.

I'm telling you all this, to explain why my posts have been more sporadic these days.  I still love my quilting and posting about all that I and others do, but all the things that I have to concentrate on to better my health takes time and focus.  So, I've had to cut back on some things to make everything work.

I'm hoping that once things become habit and I am where I want to be, that I can then again concentrate on my quilting passion.  Until then.....things will be a little bit less intense.  I think that if I commit to posting on the weekends and Wednesdays, I should be able to manage it.  If you get a little in between, then that will just be a bonus!!

Enough of all that.  Let me show you what I have taken the time to do recently.  I was given some Winnie the Pooh Bear blocks.  I showed you the one previously of Eeyore.  Now I am showing you what I've done so far with the next three blocks in the panel.

Here is Winnie the Pooh himself!  I didn't like the simplicity of the soft grey shades.  The background is a soft bluish grey, Pooh bear's shirt was a dark grey textured pattern and the honey pot was dark grey wood grain.  So one day, I borrowed my mom's wax crayons.  She keeps them on hand for the grandchildren that may pop by and want to colour.  I decided I wanted to colour these block to make them more appealing to me.  

Then we have Tigger.  The original block, only had Tigers main body shaded in a with a light grey tone.  I coloured him per his true self, all in orange, pink nose and yellow belly and face.  Much more cheerful!!!  More spunky, as is Tigger.  Or maybe that should read bouncy....

The last block I decided to colour in, was one of my favourite characters from this book/movie.  Piglet!!  Piglet was originally shaded in a medium grey for her body, ears and nose.  Again, I coloured her per her true self, dark pink and light pink.  Isn't she cute!!

  

Now I need to get the parchment paper out to iron the blocks and set the crayon.  When you set the crayon, it melts and really bonds with the fabric, making it permanent.  Then I am going to come up with some ideas for blocks and borders to enlarge these small panels.

I think I mentioned this before in a previous post, but just in case you didn't see it,,,,  To entertain kids of all ages, you can use colouring books and trace the designs on plain white fabric, held taught by a piece of parchment paper.  Then put out the crayons and let everyone go to town on colouring them all in.  It makes for a couple of fun hours and colouring is very relaxing for the adults. 

Take care everyone.

Scrap Attack quilt

I've been working on the scrap attack blocks.  These are a bunch of blocks that the HHQG members made for me, as I parting gift for being president.  The picture below shows four blocks and in this case they were all made by the same maker.  The only instructions they were given was to think of me and make it bright and scrappy......lol......I am known for making scrap quilts.....lol.

I got about 40-45 blocks from the members.  The blocks were all different.  Very different!!  It is my job now to make some bridging blocks to, one, make the quilt a bit bigger than the initial blocks would allow and two, to try and blend all the various blocks of various colours and styles.  That last one is the hardest.

Some people went all bright, some went medium.  Others did coordinated and the majority of the others did completely scrappy.  What a mélange of blocks!!  Was I up for the task?  At first I was frozen.  I just didn't know if I was going to be able to make all the blocks turn out cohesive in a quilt.  

I thought I would show you an example of a small corner section that I just recently pulled together.  Above is the main section that was done.  Below you will see another set of four blocks that someone else put together.  This maker made each corner a specific colour.  Beside this second block, is another set of blocks that was made primarily with beige and brown, which is why I put it beside the gold/orange, to help these blocks blend.  

The first block has some blues in the right hand side to blend it into it's neighboring block and the dark pink blends a bit with the red of the block beside it.  I know what you are all thinking.....it looks like a mess of scraps, but you'll have to wait for the overall appearance of the quilt when it's done.  Something magic happens when you move back and look at the whole.

So now it was my job to take some of the other blocks I was given and try to coordinate them with what I had started on the design board.  My intention to help blend everything, is to have the perimeter diamond shapes be all in blue.  In the picture below I zoomed out.  The two blocks from the above picture are in the top right hand side.

So I then found a single, all blue block which was great for the bottom left hand corner.  Then I found a single block that had all blue on the left so I was able to form that blue diamond, on the right of the corner block.  That is how I did it for all the blocks I had been given.  Kept moving, swapping, rearranging.....lol. 

Then I had to make the two left hand side blocks to finish this corner.  Can you see how I used purple for the dart facing down toward the other purple dart of someone else's block.  I used all blue in the left diamond and I started to find similar colours to match the other block's diamond to make it look like a continuous multi colour diamond.  Sorry if that doesn't quite make sense.....  There are lots of darts and diamonds....lol.

I am doing what I can to try and blend everything together.  This corner has a lot of reds, blue and purples, moving out to some greens and golds.  I have another section of the quilt closer to the top that I've already posted about.  Something a bit more coordinated.  If you want to see the progression of this quilt from the start, I posted about it:  Aug 27/2025 called Scrap Attack blocks gifted by Guild members, a little on Dec 29/2025 called An extra Saturday sewing day on a Monday, and Jan 28/2026 called Scrap Attack quilt progress.

We will see how it all comes together in the end.  Wish me luck in managing it!!

Take care everyone.

The next Gathering Flowers appliqué quilt block

On Sunday, I pulled out the next block that I am going to work on for the Gathering Flowers appliqué quilt.  This one has four modernish hearts in the corners with four leaves and four berries separating them.  

The block was started way back when, where I appliquéd the leaves and berries to the background.  I did make an attempt to appliqué the hearts, but at the time, I don't think I had enough skills to pull it off.  I felt my curves were not curvy enough and I had points or concaves in the curves that I just did not like.  So in my frustration, I put it away for a while.

Now this block is back out again.  I picked off the heart pieces that were done and I am debating cutting out the shapes again, so that I won't have to fuss with these misshaped hearts.  I am ok with the slightly imperfect leaves, so they will stay.

I am not sure if you can see the block at the bottom of the picture enough to see the heart shapes stitched to the background.  These stitches act as a guideline for where the hearts are to be placed.  This was a new technique for me, which I think was a little too advance for me at the time.  Plus, as it turned out, I don't like this technique at all.  I reverted back to a few other methods of appliqué that I choose from, depending on what shapes and sizes that I am working with.  

I am going to bring this example to the next HHQG workshop, that is coming up on April 11th, which will be teaching hand appliqué.  Two of us will be teaching the class, which will be great, as we sometimes use different techniques to achieve the same results.  The more examples we can show the students the better.  Then they can pick and choose what method or methods they prefer after they try them all.

Take care everyone.

Dragonfly panel

As it turned out, we had a lot going on this past Saturday, at our sew day.  Here is yet another post of things that went on.....lol.  This is good, as I have not been able to do so much in quilting in the last little while.  

We had one of the ladies bring some show and share.  This will be a gift for her daughter.  She started with a dragonfly panel.  Apparently these panels came in purple as well. 

This time she did the low volume grey and beige version.  This is really pretty and the colours are so calming.  I like dragonflies.  They are unique.  This person added a couple of additional borders with two sides one colour and the opposite corners a different colour.  In this case a lighter grey and a tan/beige.  When she added the two borders, she did a mitered corner, where the two different colours meet.  That's a nice touch.  Then she did the second border the same, just in reverse.  Really pretty.

I was so caught up in the moment and admiring the quilt and quilting, that I forgot to take close up pictures.  So the maker was nice enough to take some photos and send them to me.  To be honest, that day I forgot a lot of opportunities to take a bunch more pictures of quilting candy/inspiration.  This person had several mini quilts that I thought were cute and I forgot to take pics of those too.  I don't know where my head was....lol.

Anyways, this here is a close up picture so you can see the centre, the panel, a bit better.  If you enlarge the picture some, you can check out how she quilted the borders.  She did two vines all the way around and added leaves to them.  It was well done!

She sent me this picture too, which is of the back.  Here you can see better all the quilting she did on the dragonfly.  So detailed that this side makes me think of a whole cloth.  It's like she did an outline of all the sections of the dragonfly wings!  It looks real life.  I love it!

I am sure that her daughter is going to love it!!  It is just the perfect size for a larger wall hanging or a small lap size quilt.

Take care everyone.  Wishing everyone a good Easter for those who celebrate it.