Another Baby Quilt

Here is the latest baby quilt  I have made.  I digitized the birds to match the wallpaper in the nursery and embroidered some woodland appliques to go with their theme.  It is pretty simple but will go well with the white furniture and theme of the nursery.  Below is a pic of the wallpaper and a closeup of the birds I digitized.  Notice with the birds that one of them I used a satin fill but the other I used a motif fill.  I liked the difference in the texture.  I free motioned a stipple design to further add texture to the quilt but maintain its simplicity.

Another Potholder Class

So Tuesday evening was the second class for the potholder/towel class.  I must say we had such a fun time sewing together.  It never ceases to amaze me how much we all learn from one another - and not just about the subject at hand! 

All the items turned out so very nice.  If you scroll down you can see those from the first class in the previous post.

Class Potholders and Towels

Yesterday was my first class for the potholder/towel class.  We had a great time sewing together and the attendees were happy to complete their sets.  Don't they look great! The next class is on Tuesday evening so we will be at it again.

The Latest Endeavor

I decided that I needed a cute gift idea to use as a class.  I came up with a pot holder/ tea towel ensemble. The uniqueness of it is that both items are done on the embroidery machine.  To be able to teach a class on it, I needed to actually digitize the designs myself.  So I set about it and actually it did not take me as long as I had thought it would.  I have already used the idea for an engagement party gift where I added the couple's names to the potholders. It made a cute set.

So for my class, I decided to present the theme of holiday hostess gifts.  Since it is early fall, I made appliques of leaves and a christmas tree. So here is what the class attendees will learn - how to make a potholder in-the-hoop and how to do embroidery machine applique. I think it will be a hit!

Sewing with Friends

There is nothing more memorable than a day of sewing with friends.  My friend Renee had been given a soiled and tattered quilt that had been made by her sister-in-law's grandmother and she wanted it repaired to give to her daughter. It definitely had been a utility quilt that looked like it had been made from possibly an old sheet and a blanket. After she spent months trying to get inspiration, I showed her a quilt I had made from the Bright Hope Design which had embroidery machine appliqued flowers on it. She decided that it was exactly what the fabrics needed. So she saved what she could of the threadbare original and bought some coordinating fabrics. In the photo below, the original fabrics are the light blocks that have green and blue large floral designs on them and the center green block. The colors were hard to match since they were so faded but the dark blue made the design pop. The binding will be done in this blue so it will pull it all together.

We used scraps form the blocks to make the appliqued flowers. We had 3 embroidery machines set up in my sewing room and were able to make the 16 appliqued blocks in under 2 hours.

 

At the same time, we had 3 sewing machines set up in my dining room to sew the blocks and rows together.

 

 

 

 

It is amazing that in about 5 hours, we were able to make an entire quilt top plus we did stop for a great lunch from Panera's also. I am thinking that I would like to make all my quilt tops this way since it goes so much faster.

The end result is a quilt top that weaves together remnants of a family's heritage into a new design that employs old and new techniques that will last for many generations to come.