Sally Collins

Today I had the pleasure of hearing renowned small-scale quilt maker Sally Collins speak at my local quilt guild. Her quilts were exquisite and truly beyond words. I hope you enjoy this mini quilt show!

FINALLY Finished (almost)

Whoo hoo! Here is my completed top - that just needs some embroidery in the windows of the house. I've already stitched the panes on one of the windows, and the rest will get done either at the kids' soccer games this weekend or during TV time with DH at night. (Probably NOT the latter, 'cause he likes being my center of attention when he gets home from work! LOL)

And here's a prize that I totally did NOT deserve. Peggy sent me this Homer's Donut for pushing her to get her Pumpkin House done - isn't it scrumptious?! DH gets hungry every time he see's it. My special gifty for Peg should be going in the mail this week :)

Pumpkin House Progress...

Slowly but surely my Pumpkin House project is coming along. I was FINALLY able applique down the vines and fuse on the leaves and berries. Blanket stitching will wait until soccer season starts - so I'll have something to do while waiting for my darlings to finish their practices. Here's how it looks so far:

Now I need to work on the pumpkin stems for the middle border. Then it'll be time to add all of the borders. I think I can... I think I can... I think I can...

Tutorial - Applique with Fusible Interfacing

Still busy working on my Thimbleberries Pumpkin House (have the fences all assembled) so now it's time for the applique. I've been preparing the berries and leaves and I thought I'd give a little tutorial on how to applique using fusible interfacing. I saw Eleanor Burns demonstrate this method on a Simply Quilts episode and I've been using it ever since.

You'll need fusible interfacing, of course. I prefer a medium weight because it will need to withstand some poking. (A lightweight one I bought would shred at the slightest tug - so test out a small corner before you buy.) I am using a charcoal color interfacing because my background piece is black. Here's a photo of the fusible side:

And a photo of the non-fusible side (with the applique shape traced onto it). The interfacing is very thin and I was able to trace the leaf without a lightbox or holding it up to a window.

Next, put the applique fabric together with the interfacing, so that the fusible dots touch the right side of the fabric. Sew on the traced line using a tight stitch (like 1.5) and a thread that matches either the applique fabric or the interfacing. In this case, I used black.

Once it's sewn, trim the seam allowances using pinking shears. This works out really well - and saves you from clipping the curves of the piece. After it's been trimmed, make a few cuts in the center of the interfacing as shown. Be careful NOT to cut the applique fabric!

Finally it's time to turn the right side of the fabric through that cut in the interfacing. You may need to pull at it a bit. I use my Purple Thang to round out my curves and to make my points sharp, but Eleanor uses a bodkin. Either way, fuss with it a bit until you get it nice and smooth - like my leaf below:

Then, position the shape on the background fabric and, following the manufacturer's instructions for the interfacing, press in place. Here's a photo of another piece where I used this same method. The stitches are all done by hand using perle cotton. See how the applique puffs up a bit? That seems to help the stitches lay nicely around the outer edge.

Try it out sometime - you may like it!

*** A special thank you goes out to Peggy for sending me her leftover green fabric for my vines. You're a lifesaver! I'm wondering if my bias strips ever made it out of that garbage bag in Minnesota! LOL

Sidetracked...

Okay, so I didn't do anything with those Fat Quarter 5 Stripe blocks... I was too busy cooking up a challenge for Peggy. As she mentioned last night, each of us will be working on our Pumpkin House tops that are in various stages. Here's a photo of my UFO, just after taking it out of the bag.

Now, Peggy thinks SHE's bad, having started the project back in Aug/Sept 2007... Shhhh, don't tell her, but I began mine back in September also - 2004! LOL! And I have not one..... not two... but THREE of these patterns! You see, I bought it when I first saw it at my LQS, and then I signed up for the class at the MSCS retreat - so the pattern was included with the class. Now, how did I get the third one, you ask? Well, I forgot to pack either of my two patterns in my luggage before flying off to Minnesota, so I needed to buy another one to use during my class! Stupid, right? You bet...

But that wasn't even the worst of it... During class I got a little sidetracked and started chatting and roaming around the room, leaving my project near my sewing machine. Class ended at 4:30pm, and the hotel staff quickly began transforming the room for the party to be held later that night. I guess my pile of pieces looked like garbage to them, because that's where I found my project! Fortunately, it was in a bag with 'clean' trash - but still... I learned my lesson after that - roam around during class all you want, but make sure you're back in your spot by the end of class! LOL