Close Up of Bally Birds


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Lush and Verdant

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Not much progress to report this week.  I was inspired by the ferns in my front garden to draw some ferns unfurling and then to attempt to FMQ them.  I used a fat quarter yard of Kaffe Fassett shot cotton and Isacord thread.  I used a dark green thread for the ferns and regretted it.  The thread looks black, rather than green against the shot cotton.  I used Patsy Thompson's method for doing trapunto for the first time.  It does make the ferns pop.  I intended to leave the piece with just the thread  - like a wholecloth, but to my eyes, it looked pretty dull, so I used my Inktense pencils lightly to add a little dimension.  I think the piece would have looked better with some hand dyed backing...maybe next time.  I get frustrated with myself at times, but I learn from each and every mistake. :) A fern in my front garden
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After Two and a Half Years...

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I have finally finished my 'Daisy' quilt - otherwise known as the Hertfordshire Quilt, pattern by Carolyn Konig.  The pattern is inspired by the Billings Coverlet in the UK Quilter's Guild collection. About three quarters of the quilt was hand pieced.  Parts of it are well-travelled, as little baggies of cut shapes, needle, thread and scissors travelled with me on every holiday. I made some changes to the outer border.  The original had 2200 small honeycombs to be English paper pieced.  I used my Sizzix to cut the honeycombs.  They are larger than the original pattern.  I English paper pieced each motif and then appliqued it to the border background.  This reduced the number of honeycombs to about 600. I machine quilted in the ditch over nearly every seam in the quilt.  None of those hand stitched seams are going to fall apart.  I did some stipple in the outer and one other border.  With a quilt this busy, fancy FMQ is a waste of t...
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Quilting Second Old Tablecloth

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I am quilting my second old tablecloth.  I learned an awful lot from quilting the first one.  There are challenges not always faced with something I have pieced myself.  It is usually square for a start!  This tablecloth is posing some new head scratching.  There are lace inserts and lace at the corners of the tablecloth.  Solution: I've backed the tablecloth with pink cotton so the wadding doesn't poke through.  The tablecloth has a slightly scalloped edge.  I am hoping that the pink cotton will give me a straight edge.  I don't want to quilt the lace, so plan to use small pearls to anchor the lace.  All of the above solutions have been gleaned from Cindy Needham.  Thank you, Cindy!  I had a set of her background filler stencils arrive last week, and so far I've used the Ultimate Circle centre template for the medallion motif, the medium clamshells stencil for the medallion surround, the half inch grid template for the gridwor...
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