Paperdoll Block Embroidery, part 1

The paperdoll quilt has two paperdolls in the middle of it.  

I named mine Rebecca Louise and Lindsay Leigh after my two oldest daughters who are 16 months apart in age. Lindsay's name is red throughout the quilt with matching red initials on the tabs, and Rebecca's name is purple.

It's cute that the little bunny slippers have tabs too!

This paperdoll block has the least amount of embroidery than any of the other blocks.  The lace on the baby doll pyjamas is going to be challenging.

I embroidered the words at the bottom.

The fabric is wrinkly, I won't press it until I'm finished with the embroidery.

This is the popcorn before.....

.....and this is the popcorn embroidered.

Next week I will show you the completed block.  

Wish me luck with all that lace!

Pennant Banner

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

My husband and I are going trick or treating with our cute grandchildren tonight!!!

I will take pictures and show you next week:)

I have wanted to make a pennant banner for myself for a long time and finally got around to it!  My daughter motivated me by giving me four of the triangles that she had sewn.  They are the red polka dot, the pinwheels on white and the green horizontal stripe.  There is a fourth one (green polka dot) but it was hiding under the orange elephants and I didn't see it until I sewed them to the binding.

I had fun choosing the other fabrics to match the ones my daughter gave me.  Each fabric has a story.....the Amy Butler on the left is leftover from a quilt I made for my daughter Rebecca.  The orange elephants is leftover from a minky burp pad that I made for my new grandson Benjamin.  The yellow is leftover from some pants I made for my grand daughter Kennedy when she was two.  The red rick rack is leftover from the "Slide Show" quilt that I made for my daughter, Lindsay.  I bought the British fabric to use for posts in my Baby Brit quilt, but changed my mind.  The yellow Japanese fabric was used in our girl's sewing night, and I made a "smarty girl book bag" for my daughter from the Heather Bailey red and green fabric.

It seems as though fabric has lots of memories!

I bought double fold bias tape in a package at Joann's and pinned and sewed the pennants.

There is one side of the double fold bias binding that is shorter than the other.  You sew on that side so that the side that you can't see will be stitched because it is a little longer.  Was that as plain as mud?  LOL

Well look who's taking a photograph!

My husband says it looks like a birthday party. 

Why not, it feels like happiness to me:)

The colors compliment my scrappy great granny quilt that is on the back of my red couch.

Now I want to make a fall pennant banner to hang in front of the fireplace.

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #12

I've been dying to show you my binding!

 .

Another favorite part about quilting, is making the binding.

Beautiful :)

I really like the two different sizes of polka dots next to each other.

This is what the binding looks like next to the border and am so happy that I added the red rick rack.

My finished "Baby Brit" quilt on a sunny day :)

Can you give me some suggestions on photographing a quilt? 

I can never fit the entire quilt into the photograph.

I am thrilled with the red chevron on the back, and like the red polka dot binding against it too.

Needless to say, I really love this quilt.

Thanks for all of your sweet comments on my first quilt along.

It's nice to have someone to share with :)

Paperdoll Block Applique, part 3

This is the last applique tutorial for the paperdoll block.

The red gingham piece is the cuff of a pillowcase that I appliqued.

Isn't the vintage fabric for the pillowcase cute?  There is a little, teeny white pom pom trim that is sewn between the cuff and the pillowcase.  Notice the white piece that is appliqued in the bottom left corner?  What do you think that will be?

I don't know if you can tell yet, but it is a bucket of popcorn.  It will come alive when it is embroidered.

The records, are you old enough to know what they are, or are you too young?  I traced the circles onto quilting heat resistant template plastic.  Just like making a yo yo, I ran a gathering stitch around the plastic, pulled it tight so that the seam allowance folded over the template plastic.  Then I sewed a few stitches to keep the gathering stitch from coming undone.  I took the circles to the ironing board, sprayed it with some starch and pressed them.  Then I removed the template circles and was left with perfect circles.

The circle comes out easily and the fabric pops right back into shape.

See how many times I had to make the circles and sew the gathers?

They do look like records.

I position the record under the tracing paper to make sure it is in the right spot.

All of the records are appliqued.

The next layers of the records are appliqued.

Now the third layer is added.  I wanted to show you all the steps it takes to complete on of these paperdoll blocks.  I bet you had no idea!

I added the lettering at the bottom by taping the paper pattern to my light box and tracing the writing onto the fabric.  I free handed the ribbon trim onto the baby doll pyjamas. There is some other tracing on the fabric too.  The telephone has some tracing and so does the popcorn.

Next week I will show you how the applique comes alive with embroidery.  It makes a huge difference!

The Farmer's Wife quilt

After almost two years, I finished "The Farmer's Wife" quilt!

I wrote about it here and highlighted each of the blocks.

To see the quilt before it was machine quilted, go here and scroll down a little.

My friend did a beautiful job with the quilting!

I am going to add jumbo rick rack.

I wanted the rick rack to be next to the binding.

I had to cut the ricks off the racks so that I could attach the binding.

Here is my little pile of jumbo ricks.

Originally, I wanted to use a little black print for the binding.

I looked at a few quilting shops and couldn't find one that I liked.

I needed a color that matched the red border, the yellow jumbo rick rack, and the lavender back.  Finally, I settled on mint green.

I think the jumbo yellow rick rack looks really good with the 1930's Aunt Gracie prints that I used in the quilt.

It's easier to show you corners of the quilt...

.....because it's difficult to capture the entire quilt with my camera!

See what I mean?  I laid the quilt on the floor and stood on a chair.

This shot is a little better but not great.

I found this fabric on clearance, it is Sarah Jane's Children at Play, which is a favorite of mine.  

There is a lot of lavender in the blocks, so this fabric was perfect for the back.

"The Farmer's Wife" quilt was a labor of love.  I was going to give it away but I don't think anyone would appreciate it as much as me!

Thanks for sharing my journey with me :)