Daisy

Challenge 2 of Project QUILTING Season 12 is fussy cutting. I am going to try and make a placemat for each challenge, whether or not I'll be successful depends on what the challenge is. Time will tell if I succeed or not. The second goal I set for myself is to use fabrics from my stash/older fabrics.

Let's see how I do with this challenge and my goals. My favourite block is a star block, so that was the starting point. The fabric I choose to fussy cut was an Anna Griffin from 2013, yup time this one got used. 

decision time, what to fussy cut from this piece

I forgot to take pictures as I was working on this, everything just seemed to fall into place and I never thought to grab the camera.  I turned under the edges of the cutout and used the buttonhole stitch to stitch it to the square for the centre of the star. 

please excuse the colours, I think the sun went on holidays 

I tried to keep the quilting simple

For the quilting I echoed the daisy and stitched in the ditch around the cutout. The yellow squares got straight lines. As you can see I did do feathers on both sides, I love feathers and just couldn't help myself. I used Thermore batting once again for this one.

for the backing I used a piece of the Anna Griffen fabric

So how did I do on my goals? Made a placemat ✓ Used stash/older fabric ✓ A win on both counts.

The next challenge is January 31st. Wonder what it is and how I'll do on my goals? 

Birds in the Air x 4

Project Quilting 11.4 challenge is to use the 'Birds in the Air' block.  It’s two sizes of triangles, combined for a square block you must either use or reinterpret this traditional block. I did indeed reinterpret the block and it meets the requirements of two sizes of triangles. I used four blocks in my table topper.

I was short on time and only started making the topper yesterday at 9:30 AM. I just finished binding it this morning. I don't think I have ever made anything this fast before. Not bad considering I wasn't sure what to make.

An inkling of an idea started when I took a look through my collection of HSTs they do come in handy, and this was one of those times.

An Hst with side triangles, love those batiks

I started with a 3 1/2'' HST added triangles from a 3 7/8'' cut in half diagonally on each side.

all lined up to cut off those dog ears

I do like to trim off the dog ears and just line up the 45 degree line along the seam line and trim those dog ears off. This works for any size hst and triangle, at the moment I'm at a loss as to what you call this piece. Any suggestions?

Add a triangle a 6 7/8'' square cut in half diagonally to above unit. I went a step further to add interest I added a square to the bottom of the larger triangle sewing diagonally across the square. Trim and press.

I used my creative license to adapt the Birds in the Air block

A couple layouts with and without my adaption.

option #1. Not feeling it. This was before I added the bottom triangle

option #2 has promise but still not quite there yet

auditioning thread on option #3

Now this was more to my liking. 

table topper finished size 19'' square

For the quilting I needed something fast and easy. I quilted feathers in the batik coral pieces and some curves in the print batik triangles. In the sashing and borders some vines with leaves and swirls.

a closeup of the quilting

I'm ready for spring with a new springy table topper. It was a quick project but I enjoyed it once I figured out what I was going to make.

Put a Heart on it Project Quilting 11.3

Put a heart on it, challenge three. I can't believe how fast this one came together. I started at 9:30 AM and by noon I had a finished project. I do have to confess that some of the hearts were already cut out, they were left overs from when I made 'Pinky' for my granddaughter. One of the applique methods in my tool box is Crafted Applique'. I keep extra pieces between sheets of wax paper and just pull them out when I need them.

extra pieces of treated fabric using the Crafted Applique method are stored between sheets of wax paper

The inspiration for this piece hit me after visiting a friend who is in hospice. The smaller hearts that float around the centre heart represent those that have passed through my life, with the centre heart representing me. Parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. I tried to think of pleasant times and not just the sad.
Working on this had me thinking of my paternal grandmother who I was close with and enjoyed spending time with. She was from Finland and I miss her accent, she did speak excellent English but some words just had her special way of saying them. She also made the best cinnamon buns which I continue to make her recipe to this day as does my daughter.

auditioning threads, I simply stitched around the inside of each heart shape using straight free motion stitching

I am sorry for the lack of photos but I was so into the project a camera never crossed my mind.

one of my favourite scissors to use when cutting applique are Karen Kay Buckley's

I wasn't sure at first how I was going to quilt this except for the feathers on the bottom of the heart. I wanted the feathers to show and decided a stipple would help them pop a little bit.

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Linking up to Favourite Finish (February 2020) with Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs.