Tag: applique flowers

It Gives New Meaning to Frogging…

Cowtown QuiltsLeave a comment

Okay, I admit it. I cannot stop myself from drawing stuff on customer quilts that they don’t ask for.  One of my customers has nicknamed me “Sneaky.”  The problem is… I’ll be quilting along and my brain will say that something such as a frog would look cool on this quilt.

Bob's little pony 008

Now, I know better than that!  It’s not my quilt, and I tell my brain that, but before I know it, I am stitching a frog into the quilt.  I honestly don’t know what happened to me with this quilt.  I am quite embarrassed at how bold my “evil twin sister” was in putting these items on this customer quilt.  All I wanted was for my quilting to complement the customers quilt top.

Wilmas quilt 2 final 005  Wilmas quilt 2 final 006  Wilmas quilt 2 final 007

Did you notice they are all drawn into the black spaces where they can easily be seen?  WTH???  I get embarrassed by my quilting anyhow and don’t want it screaming at the world, so what came over me (oops! I mean my evil twin sister) with this one?

For those of you who don’t know what frogging is to a quilter, it’s where you rip out the stitches… rip it… rip it… rip it…  Get it?  I can only hope the customer will be okay with the results of this quilt, or I will certainly be frogging this one next week.  😦

What she really wanted was viney leaves and flowers to match her applique.  This is what I did before adding my trademark signature “surprise” of thread art…

Wilmas quilt 2 final 013

She also wanted piano keys, but she was worried how the green thread would show up against the orange striped border.  I was a bit worried how it would look, too, so I stitched right inside the parts with the green in it to help the green thread blend into the background (so how come my evil twin sister was so brazen with the creatures stitched into the black fabric?).

wilma 2 006

That meant I would need to measure out the stitching along the sides to match the different piano key widths of the bottom and top.  My straight line stitching needs a lot of practice… sigh…

wilma 2 005

But, here is the finished product.  From here, you can’t see any of the stitching, for which I am truly grateful.

Wilmas quilt 2 final 016

I love her applique work and the way she brought it all together!

 

Applique Basket

Cowtown Quilts1 Comment

Here is my latest customer quilt, finished.   She did all this by hand; needle-turn applique.  Isn’t it beautiful?

Wilma's quilt 1 013 copy

And, here is a picture of just the basket of flowers.

Wilma's quilt 1 014

I love her selection of batik fabrics and how she coordinated it all.    She chose this color thread.  What is strange is how it showed up on the background fabric.  I swear it gives off a pinkish color in some places.  It’s funny how you can see a thread in one light and it looks different in another or next to other colors, such as the colors in the batiks.

Wilma's quilt 1 010

So, this is what I did with it.  I was a bit stumped on what to quilt into the basket.  There are lots of things you could quilt into it… berries and vines, flowers, etc.  But, I opted for curved cross hatching, because I thought it would be better understated than too much.  I didn’t want to over power the applique.

Wilma's quilt 1 002

You know how I love to sneak stuff into my quilting.  Well, I couldn’t resist adding a few surprises to add to the garden feeling of this quilt… one more reason why I didn’t want to add too much frilly stuff to the basket and opted for simple curved cross-hatching.  See the overweight hummingbird drinking nectar from the wrong color bloom?  That’s what happens when I freehand quilt a bird that is color-blind.  😉

Wilma's quilt 1 006–

And, then there’s the confused bumblebee that looks like it has stingers on both ends…

Wilma's quilt 1 008

Or the butterfly that barely looks like a butterfly…

Wilma's quilt 1 009

But, I am fairly happy with the quilted vine that looks kind of like the vines the customer appliqued onto her quilt… if I could just get those outlines more even and not fat in one place and skinny in another.   I don’t know what happened there.

Wilma's quilt 1 001

Okay, the one at the top of her quilt looks better.  The good thing about being a quilter is that quilting isn’t usually the thing that pops out on a quilt; it’s the colors, the piecing and/or the applique.  So, even though I am not as good as I would like to be (and I never will be – there’s ALWAYS room for improvement), it will still look good if the piecer/appliquer is good.  And, she is!

Wilma's quilt 1 004

When I first saw this lovely quilt, I was concerned about the prairie points sticking up after quilt.  You know how quilting will draw up your fabric?  Well, the prairie points were not quilted, so I was worried I would ruin her quilt.  But, they actually lay fairly flat and look really nice as an frame for her bouquet.  This quilt gets returned to her tomorrow.  I hope she is happy with it and that she likes it!  I was honored to get to be the quilter for this quilt and for her.  She is a special lady who does so much for so many others.  I hope when she looks at this quilt on her wall that is makes her smile.