Quilt of the Season

The Fall Leaves table runner did not sell and neither did this which is pleasantly hanging at the foot of the stairs as mon édredon de la saison (my quilt of the season).
It is 20 inches square and has a combination of big stitch in various thread types as well as more traditional hand quilting. The stitching around the individual squares I did in a wool yarn which required a little needle grip puller for each and every stitch!

The top left square has a hand appliqued capped acorn with a quilted oak leaf in the background. I wanted the acorn to be central but I did not want the viewer to forget that falling leaves are part of the acorn to tree cycle. I used green thread for the leaf image to further make spring kind of a ghostly past.


The bottom left is a hand appliqued pumpkin with big stitch within the pumpkin and more traditional stitching around it. I used some of my favorite orange plaid and some twig printed fabric for the pieced stem.


The bottom right shows outline hand quilting around two hand appliqued oak leaves. I am sure the outline quilting is too faint in this picture for you to see it. I saw the shapes for the leaves and the acorns in a magazine and knew I had to buy the magazine. I will search out the issue and let you know which one it was.
The top right block has a sort of three dimensional angle from a Debbie Mumm quilt pattern (circa 1985?) I had that showed angels on a Christmas quilt. I used one of them and made a more dimensional angel with changes to the gown to give it an overalls-jumper effect. I made a blouse and arms, neck and head to put the blouse on. The straps on the overall were very fiddly but I got them to work. Here is a secret, her little legs are only attached to the quilt and her dress! She has no body but her feet hang free.

Her wings are not attached to the background and also hang free. They have decorative stitching so tiny you probably can not see it from the photo. I used dark brown thread and picked up two threads from the fabric and then went under two threads and so on. There is outline hand quilting around her wings and the rest of her but I am sure you can not see it.

I have tons of "hair" for dolls and found this lovely reddish mohair for her. She carries a wire twist of beautiful fall oak leaves.

10.14.11

Some vacation, huh?

I have been almost completely absorbed by quilting. I have taken classes in Sashiko embroidery, which I enjoy very much, hand applique, which is probably my favorite, and I will be starting Crazy Quilt and Fiber Active (art quilt) groups pretty soon.

I made some things for the Silent Auction part of my Guild's Quilt Fest which will benefit Habitat for Humanity. I made some things for the Boutique, also. I will get back into blogging by showing you some of the things I have done since May.


This is a table runner I put in for the silent auction. The picture was hastily taken and hastily edited so it is canted a little away from the camera and doesn't look squared up but it really is. The leaf and acorn shape came from a holiday quilting magazine I picked up the day before at the grocery store. If I locate the magazine, I will let you know.

I found some light weight brown ticking fabric in a giant discount store and bought a half yard. I ironed freezer paper traced shapes from that magazine onto the wrong sides of fabric and sewed them to facing fabric, removed the paper, slit the backs, turned and pressed them, and then very carefully machine stitched them to the ticking through the batting and backing. When I was finished with that, I trued up the sides, applied the edge binding and then made big stitch "wind trails". It took about 6 hours with an extra hour at the turn-in site finishing up the big stitch. I think I put $25 as the opening bid. Maybe it was $35.