Appliqueing, Writing, and Quilting…Fun in My Studio

One of the blocks of my bed quilt I am making with my wonderful Bernina 880 plus I bought about six months ago.

I have been totally enjoying my time in my studio this week. I have been working on two quilts…a quilt in my Mom’s memory, and an appliqued bed quilt for my bed.  Oddly, they both pull in some of the same colors.  LOL

I have been working on my bed quilt for a couple of years now, just doing a few blocks at a time, but I now have all of them fused, and more than half of them sitched.  It’s a pattern by Sue Nickels I bought from her when I took her class at Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival in 2018.  Then I will have to put it together with a sashing and borders to make it large enough for my bed.  Here’s a picture with the large center  and a couple of the small blocks I finished.  I love the colors (I chose them, so I should love them..hahah), and it will go very nicely with my bedroom.  This is for fun and relaxation only.  It will not be a show quilt. I find machine applique particularly fun to do especially after it is fused and ready to stitch.

I finished quilting the large off white satin section of Mom’s memory quilt.  It was intensive quilting and took a very long time, but I still have more quilting for the center pentagon which has Mom’s crocheted lace squares on it that  I found in her work basket after she passed. I have to quilt the border, and  I have some quilting on the pentagon center, but more is needed.  I decided I would do the border first.

The central pentagon before the quilt top was constructed.

I have figured out how I want to quilt the border  after much thought and practice…feathers!  Yikes!!! Yes, for me that is something I have never done for a show quilt, and that is what I hope this will end up being.  So I have had to learn to make decent feathers, and I do like the styles I have come up with by using ruler work for the center spines and then free-motion quilting the feathers.  So I made a practice piece to figure out how I want the feathers to go.  From this, I decided I will be doing the bump and hump feathers on a ruler work central spine.  It looks pretty good on the top, but there are some trackback issues those keen-eyed judges will see right away. I also haven’t gotten the back to look like I want yet, though I’m close enough to start on the quilt itself, I think, I just have to be very careful.  I decided I need another new quilting ruler to make the end curls and puffs look right, and that is Lily Lines 3 by Bethanne Nemesh.  It should arrive today or tomorrow I think.  It has already shipped.  i have a couple of her other rulers and they are terrific. I am thinking the one closest to what I will do is the border that is directly under the foot of my machine in the picture below, although I want a tighter curl at the end.  I also will be doing a tight simple stipple for the background.  Simple and effective, although I am not sure if this will bore the judges or not.  But it is what the quilt calls for.

My feather border sampler using the actual fabrics and threads I plan to use on Mom’s memory quilt.

And then I am continuing to work on my current ongoing book on embellishment.  I haven’t yet decided if it will be one book or several.  It kind of depends on how the chapters come out.  I am currently working on the wool machine applique embellishment chapter/book.

Sew happy everyone!  I hope you are finding peace and some fun in your own studios and offices in spite of the terrible situation in the world and the country today.  Stay well and safe!