Benson's Quilt : Trapunto, "Aussie Fur" Inner Border, Auditioning Trims

This evening I cut out the image of Benson in a circle (thank you fancy dessert plate) and then backed it with knit fusible, a layer of batting cut a little smaller than the smaller and affixed it with spray adhesive, then another circle of knit fusible.  

I pinned a square of batting to the back of the background square, set up my machine for free motion, and outlined the leaves in brown polyester machine embroidery thread.  Then I carefully cut the batting away, on the outside of the shape.

I ironed and starched my "Aussie fur fabric", sewed the three sheets together lengthwise and then cut them in long strips.  I pieced the strips together and turned under the long edges.  I applied this around the perimeter of the background square, thus hiding the border of blue flowers, which I found distracting.  I made false miters at the corners by turning down the corners at 45 degree angles and holding them in place with fabric glue.  I pinned all of this in place.

Using clear thread (my new best friend!!)  I appliquéd my Fur Border.  It lays very flat and was pretty easy to do.

I then placed Benson's image on the background square to audition trims.  I plan to appliqué Benson in place raw edge, with a zig zag in clear thread, but I want to audition some trims to hide the raw edges.  I tried four trims, and like two of them.


Here we are, pinned and glued.

Here is the back of the background square with the batting trimmed away.

Below is my fake mitered corner.

Close up of free motion stitching around motifs to make them puff out a bit.

Fur border appliquéd on.  Benson is just sitting there for show.

The trim below might work if I dyed it with coffee.  Strong coffee.  

Below is my first pick for trim.  My only concern is how to connect the ends.

This one seems too bulky and ordinary.

 Below is my second pick for trim.

Carol Doak's 2013-2014 BOM

BQ Quilt: Jungle Fever

I bought this fabric because my local fabric store had all the coordinated black and tan fabrics at a super sale price.  My friend Tisha Cabral had given me the pattern for my birthday several years ago.

I pieced the top and felt it needed some pizzazz.  So I fused on and machine appliquéd some turquoise Hawaiian Breadfruit motifs I had in a Hawaiian Quilt book.  I used a narrow zig zag for this, using polyester thread and it does not ravel or show.  I used the same turquoise fabric for the first border and for the binding, which also helped a lot.

We moved to Oregon between the piecing and the quilting, and since I don't like having UFO's laying around, I bargained with myself that I had to finish it before starting my Crazy Quilting adventure. 

It's a pretty large square quilt, 84" x 84" but I was able to free motion quilt it without too much difficulty on my Janome Horizon 7700.  I like to use a lot of different quilting designs, for added interest and for practice.  Most of the designs I know I learned from Leah Day and from Angela Walters. 

Because the fabric is somewhat reminiscent of the jungle, and because I like to name my quilts after songs when possible, this one is called "Jungle Fever."

It doesn't really match any of my décor, and I would be delighted to sell it.  Maybe I will list it on my Etsy page and see what happens.


BBBB: Boring Before Blue Breadfruit!

Breadfruit motifs applied with Wonder Under, then machine appliquéd.

Completed top

Quilting detail in turquoise border

Label.  

The back is pieced, using the leftover turquoise as needed. 

Deborah's Blue Quilt : "Blue Delft"

My dear friend Deborah wanted a blue and white quilt, right about the same time Leah Day was offering her Building Blocks Quilt Along.  Perfect!  I already had quite a few of the fabrics, and got some more from the thrift store, and a very few more from the fabric store.  I downloaded the pattern and started. 

I worked along with Leah's class to piece and free motion quilt each block with my Janome Horizon 7700.  Actually, near the end I had to work ahead of the class to get it done by my deadline. 

  I assembled it with the Quilt As You Go (QAYG) method, which I first learned from Marguerita McManus, and her wonderful book, Crazy Shortcut Quilts. After connecting all the blocks I then embellished the sashing seams with the decorative stitches on my machine.  

Leah also explains this method in her BBQA class.

I finished it just in time to present it to Deborah for her birthday on July 21.  Oh Joy!

Here is my design wall during the process.

This is what the sashing looks like on the back after the seam embellishment.  

 

Here is the finished quilt on our guest room double bed.  It is actually 90" x 90" for Deborah's queen size bed. 

 

I was able to use up tons of small print fabrics I had been collecting for the backing of each block!  Since this was QAYG I only needed an 18" square for each backing. 

This is how I make all my labels.  I create them on my computer with a template that I keep modifying and saving, and I print onto computer fabric sheets.  I then use some scraps from the front of the quilt to frame it, then I hand stitch it on. 

Carol Doak Royal Mini Quilt Challenge

This was a mini quilt challenge on Carol's Yahoo Group.  I cheated on this one ; it was supposed to finish at around 12" square, but I doubled the pattern size.  It makes a very nice table topper in my living room.  

It is paper pieced from batik scraps, and I quilted it in Free Motion on my Janome Horizon 7700.

Carol Doak Mystery BOM 2012 - "What's Black & White & Read All Over?"

This was Carol Doak's Mystery BOM in 2012-2013.   The patterns were shown in red and white, but I had been wanting to do a red, black and white quilt for a while, so that is what I did. The red tone on tone flowers and white (small polka dots) are mostly the same fabric throughout, but I used many different "black" fabrics.  For the back, I did some intuitive piecing to use up some of the scraps, which I learned from Angela Walters.  I quilted it in free motion with my Janome Horizon 7700 and bound it with a leopard black and white print.  I named the quilt "What's Black & White, and Read All Over?"  like the bubble gum riddle.