MONTH 1 -- Show Progress Here

[Suzanne C.]

Not all stitched down yet.

[soniasimone]

Very pretty, I love that vase fabric.

[Margo C.]

[QUOTE=eileenkny;n890716]How did you soften them after using the terial magic? My fabric comes out like paper when I use it.[/QUOTE]

Hey Eileen (and Mike!) I use LOTS of starch when I do machine appliqué, knowing that I intend to wash the quilt when it’s finished, and the result is a soft quilt. It does not look like a crisp work of art to be inspected on a the wall, but a usable work of art destined to wrap someone with love! It’s just how I roll!

[Helen W.]

Just a few more flowers and maybe a bumble bee or dragon fly and I will be ready to fuse and start stitching.
I am doing raw edge fusible using a 1.0 - 1.0 zig zag stitch. HelenW

[betty k.]

absolutely gorgeous!!

[PatLustig]

You are a painter with fabric and a lover of gardens. Thank you for sharing your joy and talent. It encourages me to be to be more adventurous. Eagerly awaiting your progress.

[Barbara B.]

[QUOTE=HelenW;n890728]Just a few more flowers and maybe a bumble bee or dragon fly and I will be ready to fuse and start stitching.
I am doing raw edge fusible using a 1.0 - 1.0 zig zag stitch. HelenW[/QUOTE]

Beautiful! As a dragonfly fan, that's my vote. Amazing how it is "inspired by" GPDU but not the same at all.

[Helen W.]

[QUOTE=Barbara Black;n890735]

Beautiful! As a dragonfly fan, that's my vote. Amazing how it is "inspired by" GPDU but not the same at all. [/QUOTE]

Barbara, I do Not have a green thumb, or art lessons for that matter, so I do what I mentioned at the beginning of this quilt,
I find pattern designers that I love the looks of their work, buy the patterns, and then rework to make my ideal vision of what ever I am working on. So I invited Pearl P. Pereira to my Garden Party. This is an smaller, and slightly tweaked version of her center
block in Baltimore Spring. McKeena Ryan will also probably show up at my party. And after seeing Ricky's quirky birdhouses in
his music video last week, I think I will need a bunch of bird houses too. Thanks for compliment. It is all so much fun. HelenW

[Helen W.]

Ready to fuse the block and make the borders. I am trying the applique dog tooth. The bottom border is the only one I have on the background fabric so far. I think I am going to like not having all the bulk of sewing seams. I would normally do foundation paper pieced for this type of border.
HelenW

[Barbara B.]

Beautiful, Helen. Love the extra added critters.

[Lynnanne]

It’s beautiful Helen. You are so inspiring and generous with your help to all of us.

[Marg D.]

Beautiful. Such talent.

[AmyE]

I've gotten to this point, using turned edge applique. I have never done this before, so I took some time to try a few different preparation methods until I found one I like. Now it's moving along! I also plan to take off those lighter stems and replace them with darker ones. The light ones just disappear against this background.

[Barbara B.]

Beautiful, Amy! Love your vase.

[soniasimone]

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Week 1 progress -- prepped the stems (except the 1/8" ones, which I'll add later) and leaves, and starting to sew. All needle-turn. My curves are ROCKY but I know with some more practice they'll get better.

[soniasimone]

Here's my week 1 progress. This is needle-turn, and my curves are still pretty rocky, but I know they'll get better. I can embroider around some of the worst offenders later if they still bug me. :)

I've been tempted to do these finished-edge, but I want to use this project to get good at needle-turn. The vases will be done with Appliquick, though.

I'm working mostly from my stash, but I did pick up a few background fabrics.

I have something different planned for the quilt's outer border, which I'm working on as I go as well.

[Lynnanne]

It’s going to be so pretty. Good job!

[soniasimone]

Thank you, Lynnanne! :)

[Helen W.]

[QUOTE=soniasimone;n890810]Here's my week 1 progress. This is needle-turn, and my curves are still pretty rocky, but I know they'll get better. I can embroider around some of the worst offenders later if they still bug me. :)

I've been tempted to do these finished-edge, but I want to use this project to get good at needle-turn. The vases will be done with Appliquick, though.

I'm working mostly from my stash, but I did pick up a few background fabrics.

I have something different planned for the quilt's outer border, which I'm working on as I go as well.[/QUOTE]

Soniasimone, Good selections of greens for your stems and leaves. I love using up little pieces of stash fabrics because,
I always hate to throw any pieces away. Like you I have bought the background fabric, and the rest I am hoping to pull
from my scraps. How are you going to do your borders. Are you doing applique for the dog tooth borders? I am trying it with
a fusible with turned edge. I really like how nice and flat it is. Don't have all the seams coming together to making it lumpy along
the top and bottom seams like when you piece the triangles. HelenW

[Helen W.]

Working on a spring project while snow is coming down!!! HelenW

[Lynnanne]

What a contrast!

[Wazoo4u]

All turned and glued down. Now, for the hand stitching!

[AmyE]

Beautiful!

[betty k.]

beautiful!!!

[Donna B.]

I love the berries!

[soniasimone]

[QUOTE=HelenW;n890819]

Soniasimone, Good selections of greens for your stems and leaves. I love using up little pieces of stash fabrics because,
I always hate to throw any pieces away. Like you I have bought the background fabric, and the rest I am hoping to pull
from my scraps. How are you going to do your borders. Are you doing applique for the dog tooth borders? I am trying it with
a fusible with turned edge. I really like how nice and flat it is. Don't have all the seams coming together to making it lumpy along
the top and bottom seams like when you piece the triangles. HelenW[/QUOTE]

I'm going to appliqué the dogtooth borders, and then I'm doing a pieced outer border that's not diamonds. I'm doing Jen Kingwell's Bowie Stars BOM as well right now, and it's all diamonds, so I'm going to change it up a little. :)

[Helen W.]

[QUOTE=soniasimone;n890838]

I'm going to appliqué the dogtooth borders, and then I'm doing a pieced outer border that's not diamonds. I'm doing Jen Kingwell's Bowie Stars BOM as well right now, and it's all diamonds, so I'm going to change it up a little. :) [/QUOTE]

Sonia, I looked up Jen Kingwell's Bowie Star, what a fabulous quilt. Love the huge hexagon. It is interesting how so many Australian designers do piecing by applique. Is that whole quilt made by hand. Love the idea of applique, English Paper piecing,
and hand embroidery all in one quilt. That quilt has a ton of pieced diamonds. Are they made by hand? Can't wait to see
what you come up with for your outside border. HelenW

[soniasimone]

Jen is a hand piecer, but a good number are doing it by machine. I do everything by hand, so her patterns tend to work well for me. :) Those numerous little corner diamonds can be done either way.

There's some appliqué on the Bowie Stars quilt, but most of it is pieced.

[Paula S.]

I'm moving very slowly, my quilting, applique and stash building experience is less than 6 months old.

I wanted to share that I found that the template C pieces can be treated like a half perfect circle. Baste the curved area and shape it out of a cardboard cutout.. then to the ironing board. No fusibles,

[AmyE]

I thought about trying that, but I was almost though them. Great to know it works. i will use it on future flowers! I discovered that four layers of freezer paper pressed together, make a template that is as sturdy as light cardboard. It's handy because you can trace the shapes onto one layer, then iron four layers together with the traced images on top to cut out, I think they would be sturdy enough for this method.

[Paula S.]

Freezer paper works really well, but I have pledged to use no plastics in my crafting for 2022 (unless they are recycled from something i already have)... A very serious handicap...argh

[Peg]

Completely forgot about doing the string draw up technique on petals! I used it on the circles. Thanks for the reminder. I use 3 layers of freezer paper so that might work for Paula S - or add more layers to make really stiff?? I tried making flowers all as one piece but didn't like the look so went back to individual petals. I like the results. Photos soon - sewing down the 30!! grapes first so I don't lose them.