Thursday, March 26, 2015

Irish Chain Quilt-Along


 
      This is what I've been working on for this quilt-along.  I've decided that the white background behind the navy X blocks stands out too much and doesn't blend with the rest of the blocks, so I'm going to have to make more X blocks in the cream fabrics.  Ugh!!  So I guess I've made a start on another quilt with navy X blocks with a WHITE background!!  :-(   I did check with Steph and Paul and they both think the white blocks should be removed, so I know my instincts were right about this.  Oh well, live and learn.

        So here is this weeks assignment for the quilt-along:  make the petal blocks.  I'm making a picnic sized quilt, so I had 8 blocks to make, or 32 individual petals.  I was so glad when they were all done:  it seemed to take forever to make them!!  


 `I decided to do a turned under petal applique, because I knew that if I made them the raw edge way it would always bother me.  I did the freezer paper method and glued them on with the Jillily Studio Appli-Glue.  It sure is great stuff for getting appliques in place and not having your thread catch on pins while you stitch it down!  I tried to machine applique the petals down, but the only matching thread I had was a DMC two ply for hand stitching, and it kept breaking in the machine, so I'm going to have to hand stitch all those petals down:  eek!!!  That'll take me awhile! 
                          ~A close up of the petal block.~

Most of the fabrics are from various Fig Tree Quilts fabric lines, with a few other fabrics added in navy and the greenish blue (the petals above really are more greenish, but this was taken at night.)
And speaking of night, it is ridiculously late, so I'm off to bed!!  :-)

Hugs,
Helen

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Bokeh Card

 So someday I'll figure out how to make separate tabs on the top of my blog, one for quilts and one for cards, but for now they are going to go all together!  ;-) 
  This card is for the Ellen Hutson "Mix It Up" challenge  here.


The challenge was to use Ellen Hutson products with Hero Arts products.  I used the Hero Arts Flag Pattern stencil and H.A. inks:  Tide Pool and Fresh Peach, along with Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze ink.  The stamp set I used was Ellen Hutson Bokeh Dots, and the word stamp was from Waltzingmouse Stamps, and I added a few sequins to finish it off.  It was much  easier to use the stencil and add the stamping on top than I had imagined!!   It's not publication quality, but I'm pretty happy with it since it's my first attempt at this technique!